How large-scale technology projects affect knowledge
What do an accelerator complex at Cern, a manufacturing center in 19th century Philadelphia and lotus cultivation during the Qing dynasty all have in common? All such activities generate knowledge and know-how. And all of them require planning. Goals need to be set, skills and materials promoted or identified. Guidelines, models, recipes and blueprints are generated to coordinate and organize. Historians from the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin (MPIWG) have begun to question the role of management and organization, arguing that this viewpoint not only transforms our understanding of the historical developments of technology and science, but also offers new insight into recent debates on large-scale research and technology projects.