Overview

This book deconstructs the public performance of technological innovation and imagined modernity in relation to the home technologies market in late state socialist Poland. While doing so, the author sheds light on the politics that accompanied the modes of representations of the new innovative consumer technologies in the public sphere and the agenda of actors who performed such representations. This book argues that the central form of the mediation of home technologies was the projection of specific “sociotechnical imaginaries” that included visions of how these technologies would have an impact on the creation of a desirable future social order and economy. Later, such imaginaries were re-negotiated and challenged as infeasible or undesirable. The author demonstrates how expert groups, the industry lobby, research institutes, and non-governmental organizations attempted to secure their role as intermediary actors in order to have a tangible impact on not only the production of commodities, but more importantly, on the definition of which commodity, or a product feature, is modern and innovative and which is obsolete.

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9781666924084

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Firmly rooted in scholarship and unearthing previously untapped sources, Patryk Wasiak sheds light on the 'performance of modernity' enacted by the conception, production, and promotion of electric appliances in late socialist Poland. It is a solid analysis of the discursive strategies undertaken by various actors in order to highlight the domestic industry's achievements and gloss over (or actually uncover) its flaws. This book is a crucial contribution to the history of consumer technology in Eastern Europe.--Gleb J. Albert, University of Lucerne In his investigation of the social life of electronic goods in late socialist Poland, Patryk Wasiak has uncovered important connections between consumer desire, the failures and successes of the command economy, and human ingenuity. Carefully researched and surprising in its conclusions, this is an important book.--Cristofer Scarboro, King's College

Firmly rooted in scholarship and unearthing previously untapped sources, Patryk Wasiak sheds light on the 'performance of modernity' enacted by the conception, production, and promotion of electric appliances in late socialist Poland. It is a solid analysis of the discursive strategies undertaken by various actors in order to highlight the domestic industry's achievements and gloss over (or actually uncover) its flaws. This book is a crucial contribution to the history of consumer technology in Eastern Europe. --Gleb J. Albert, University of Lucerne In his investigation of the social life of electronic goods in late socialist Poland, Patryk Wasiak has uncovered important connections between consumer desire, the failures and successes of the command economy, and human ingenuity. Carefully researched and surprising in its conclusions, this is an important book. --Cristofer Scarboro, King's College

Author Information

Patryk Wasiak is associate professor at Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw.

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