The 44th History of Technology Conference was held in November 2025 at the Klostergut Paradies in Schlatt, convening researchers, practitioners and enthusiasts under the overarching theme of “Low-Tech: Procedures, Actors, Concepts”. Hosted by the Iron Library Foundation, the event explored a topic of growing global significance at a moment of rapid technological change.
In his report, Martin Ullmann (Karlsruhe) provides a synopsis of the conference, stating that “the presentations demonstrated that high-tech and low-tech are often not contemporary source terms but rather ideologically charged labels whose use should be approached with caution to avoid anachronisms or Eurocentric perspectives. At the same time, the paired terms offer a productive tool for critically examining developments in the history of technology: It encourages us to consider what was perceived as modern, simple, or resource-efficient, when, and by whom, and it challenges supposedly teleological lines of technological development.“ He concludes that “the conference achieved its goal of not arriving at a single, unified definition but rather broadening the perspective of how the concept of low-tech could be used for historical inquiry.”
Ullmann, Martin: Low-Tech: Procedures, Actors, Concepts. 44th History of Technology Conference of the Iron Library, infoclio.ch-Tagungsberichte, 16.3.2016. Online: <https://www.infoclio.ch/de/node/191773/>.
