Publications

Contents:Based on two conferences organized as part of the Erasmus Mundus international master’s program “Techniques, Heritage, and Industrial Territories” by the universities of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Padua, and Évora, this volume addresses two rapidly evolving themes in the fields of the history of technology and cultural heritage.
The first theme concerns practices of maintenance, repair, and reuse. Michel de Certeau’s pioneering research on *The Arts of Doing*, which posits the existence of creative appropriations by consumers, as well as David Edgerton’s seminal article calling for a study of the uses and users of technology, have so far received little attention in the field of history. Four contributions examine the trajectories of various objects: a sewing machine in Portugal; Czechoslovakian electrical transformers; Senegalese auto parts and aluminum cans transformed into kitchen utensils; and Gaudron airplanes transferred from France to Colombia.
The second theme addresses the relationships between materials, forms, and uses. Four case studies are presented in the collection: tarred fabrics used to caulk boats in France during the Gallo-Roman period; animal horns transformed into various substances or objects in northern Cameroon; cork used in the manufacture of bottle stoppers; and the transition from wood to polyester in the construction of fishing boats in Brittany.
The variety of research methods (examination of objects, oral interviews, scientific analyses, and textual sources drawn from practice) and the combination of historical, archaeological, and anthropological approaches attest to both the difficulty and the richness of such investigations.