Palestra associada ao projeto O Triunfo da Baquelite, sobre a história dos plásticos em Portugal.
During the second half of the 20th century tourism became a typical leisure activity of members of consumer societies. Meanwhile tourism is one of the most important sectors of the economy and is of global occurrence. Millions of people take part in a temporarily migration of some weeks – sometimes observed as barbarian invasion by inhabitants of tourist regions. Indeed cities are growing especially for tourism. For example, the Spanish Costa del Sol developed from an economically poor region of agriculture and fishing in the 1950s to a mega city of 150 km length today. The city’s environment and the city’s infrastructure is designed especially for tourism. What about the technical requirements and the environmental impacts of such developments? How does it change societies? In which way were experiences of travelling shaped by technology and by the built environment? If technical artefacts become attractive sites for tourists – what does this say about the societal impact of technology?
The lecture will focus on the impact of technology on tourism as well as tourists and discuss the question if the history of tourism is an interesting issue for historians of technology.
Sobre o orador: Stefan Poser is a historian of technology at the Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg, Germany, vice chair of the history group of the Association of German Enginees, VDI, in Berlin and Secretary General of the UNESCO-based International Committee for the History of Technology, ICOHTEC. His main fields of research are the societal handling of technology-based risks and the playful approach to technology. His new project is dealing with the history of technology of tourism. Recently published: ICON’s special issue on playing with technology, dedicated to sports and leisure (guest editor together with Hans-Joachim Braun) published in 2014 (ICON, vol. 19), and a monograph on playing with technology in the 19th and 20th centuries “Glücksmaschinen und Maschinenglück” 2016. Dr. Poser can be reached at poser@hsu-hh.de.
