MASTERARBEIT - Institut für Wissenschaftsforschung - Universität ...

ABSTRACT
The thesis at hand analyzes an aspect of the emergence of zeppelin airships
in Germany during the first decade of the 20th century. Particularly
the engagement of a broad public to support the development
of the zeppelin technology by financial aid is a point that is taken under
scrutiny. The interest for this question emerges from the fact that
hardly any return was to be expected for supporters. It thus comes to
mind to ask why people would engage if no return is to be expected.
Furthermore the question is interesting to study because the support
for Count Zeppelin, the inventor behind the airship, emerged rather
quickly after years of relative disinterest.
Using the methodology of Social Construction of Technology (SCOT),
the author explores how this technology eventually became very popular
after having been widely ignored for years. The research focuses
on the timespan around the general public’s turning from a skeptical
to a very supportive attitude after the crash of a prototype in the
summer of 1908.
Additionally to the SCOT approach, the concept of Sociotechnical
Imaginaries is introduced and combined with SCOT methodology in
order to enhance the capabilities of the analysis. Sociotechnical imaginaries
provide a particular understanding for the role time and futurebound
expectations played in the support of the technology.
The analysis concludes that a combination of technological progress
in terms of the reliability and capability of the airships themselves as
well as a fit with the social and political events of the time formed
the basis for a very fast change in peoples’ perception of it in the
summer of 1908. Furthermore, it is observed that the zeppelin development
did also profit from an inner political conflict in Germany at
the time. While not being an actual part of it, it was used as a means
to demonstrate the people’s resistance against Wilhelminian monarchy,
which led to a stronger support than there might have been for
solely technological reasons.
Moreover, the study contributes to the use of SCOT for the description
of technological development by successfully integrating some
sociotechnical imaginaries, the attempt to reach a more detailed analysis
in terms of both the timely character of elements at work in the
process and the emergence of those elements in the first place.
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