Erik van der Vleuten
Chair of the Eindhoven History Lab
Professor and Chair of History of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology TU/e
Scientific director, Foundation for the History of Technology SHT
Short bio
Since 2015, Erik has been serving as Professor and Chair of the History of Technology section at TU/e, and as scientific director of the Foundation for the History of Technology SHT. As of January 2024 he also serves as scientific director of the newly founded 4TU interuniversity Centre for the History of Technology.
Erik received his Ph.D. from the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (currently: Science Studies) program at Aarhus University, and his masters degree from the Technology & Society (currently: Innovation Sciences) program at TU/e, specializing in historical technology studies. He was socialized in collaborative transnational research in the pan-European historical research community Tensions of Europe (as a co-founding member, project initiator/coordinator, Chair, and long-time management committee member). He also co-chaired the NW Posthumus interuniversity research school‘s global history network and the European Social Science History Conference’s history of technology program.
Erik’s teaching and research revolve around pluralizing linear and universalistic discourses on technology and socio-ecological change. His dissertation (1998) challenged teleologic histories of electricity supply system scale increase, and instead explored a ‘symmetrical history’ of co-existing, conflicting, and entwined systems for electricity supply and use. Next he studied diverse, contested and ‘connected histories’ of (trans)national infrastructure and socio-ecological change in modern & contemporary European history. His current focus is on the plural-yet-connected sociomaterial histories and futures of distant regions across the globe, and on combining notions of transnational, transformative and transdisciplinary historiography. In 2023-28 he leads the NWO Open Competition program Soy Stories. Connected Histories and Futures of the global Soyacene.
Erik feels much honored by his top 3 nomination as Eindhoven university’s best master program teacher in 2022-23.
PUBLICATIONS (and selected other stuff)
Transforming global (un)sustainability pasts, presents, futures
Podcast Erik van der Vleuten, Waarom ons stikstof-probleem ooit juist een oplossing was. Universiteit van Nederland, no. 606. Published on Spotify Open April 3, 2024.
Blogpost Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Alternatives to Scientific Extractivism’, A2E network blog (3 May 2023)
Erik van der Vleuten & Evelien de Hoop, “Crisis narratives from the Dutch Soyacene: Regional sustainability histories at sites of soy consumption”, in: Claiton da Silva et al. (eds.), The age of the soybean: An environmental history of Soy during the Great Acceleration (White Horse Press, 2022): 265-288.
Erik van der Vleuten & Evelien de Hoop,”2019: Stikstofcrisis en Ontbossing”, in: Wereldgeschiedenis van Nederland VOL. II (Amsterdam: Ambo Anthos, 2022).
Erik van der Vleuten, Evelien de Hoop, Jacqueline Broerse, Claiton M. da Silva. ‘SOY STORIES: Connected (sustainability) histories and futures of the global Soyacene‘. NWO Research proposal 406.21.FHR.023’ (Eindhoven/ Amsterdam/ Chapecó, 2022).
Evelien de Hoop and Erik van der Vleuten, “Sustainability Knowledge Politics: Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Transregional History of Palm Oil Sustainability Research”, Global Environment. A Journal of Transdisciplinary History 15.2 (2022), 209-245.
Evelien de Hoop, Aarti Sidhar, Claiton da Silva, Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Historicizing entanglements: science, technology and socio-ecological change in the postcolonial Anthropocene’, Global Environment. A Journal of Transdisciplinary History 15.2 (2022), 195-208.
Frank Veraart, Jan Pieter Smits, Erik van der Vleuten, “Connected by Oil: The entangled sustainability histories of the Niger and Rhine river deltas , 1950-2015”, Extractive Industries & Society 7 (2020):50-67.
Erik van der Vleuten, “Technology, Societal Challenges, and Global Sustainability History”, ICON 24 (2018): 34-52.
Histories of engineers & societal challenges
Erik van der Vleuten, “Pluralizing ‘Eurocentric’ technology discourses ‘back home’: Technology and societal challenges in Western Europe.” In: Guillaume Carnino et al (eds.), Global history of Technique, 19th-21st centuries (Brepols, 2024): 179-194.
Erik van der Vleuten, “History and Technology in an Age of “Grand Challenges”: Raising Questions.” Technology and Culture, vol. 61 no. 1, 2020, p. 260-271.
Erik van der Vleuten, “Techniekgeschiedenis en maatschappelijke transities,” Ex Tempore 2018:3: 194-212.
Erik van der Vleuten, Ruth Oldenziel, Mila David. Engineering the future, understanding the past: A social history of technology (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017).
Erik van der Vleuten, Challenging Prometheus: A History of Technology for an Age of Grand Challenges. Inaugural lecture (Eindhoven: TU/e, 2017), 30 pp.
Connected histories of infrastructure, social and environmental change
Erik van der Vleuten, “Radical Change and Deep Transitions: Lessons from Europe’s Infrastructure Transition, 1815-2015”, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 32 (2019):20-32.
Per Högselius, Arne Kaijser, Erik van der Vleuten. Europe’s Infrastructure Transition: Economy, War, Nature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).
Jiří Janáč, Erik van der Vleuten. “Transnational system building across geopolitical shifts: The Danube-Oder-Elbe Canal, 1901-2015”, Water Alternatives. An Interdisciplinary Journal on Water, Politics, and Development 9 (2016): 272-291.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Feeding the peoples of Europe: Transport infrastructures and the building of transnational cold chains in the early Cold War, 1947-1960’, in Alec Badenoch & Andreas Fickers (eds), Materializing Europe. Transnational Infrastructure and the Project of Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 148-177.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Networking technology, networking society, networking nature.’ History and Technology 20 (3) (2004), 195-203.
Erik van der Vleuten and Cornelis Disco, ‘Water Wizards: Reshaping wet nature and society.’ History and Technology 20 (3) (2004), 291-309.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Infrastructures and societal change’, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management 16 (3) (2004), 395-414.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘In search of the Networked Nation. Transforming technology, society and nature in the Netherlands in the 20th Century“, European Review of History 10 (2003), 59-78.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Étude des conséquences sociétales des macro-systèmes techniques: une approache pluraliste.’ Flux. Cahiers scientifiques internationaux réseaux et territoires 43 (2001): 42-57.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Op het spoor van de Nederlandse netwerkmaatschappij: Transformaties in techniek, maatschappij en natuur in de twintigste eeuw.’ Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis 27 (3) (2001), 336-362.
Transnational connections & shared vulnerabilities
Erik van der Vleuten, “2006: De grote black-out en Europa’s verborgen integratie.” In: Lex Heerma-van Vos et al. (eds), Wereldgeschiedenis van Nederland (Amsterdam: Ambo Anthos, 2018): 720-725.
Per Högselius, Anique Hommels, Arne Kaijser, Erik van der Vleuten (eds.). The Making of Europe’s Critical Infrastructure: Common Connections and Shared Vulnerabilities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
Erik van der Vleuten, Per Högselius, Anique Hommels, Arne Kaijser, “Europe’s Critical Infrastructure and its Vulnerabilities: Promises, Problems, Paradoxes“. General Introduction to Högselius, Hommels, Kaijser, vd Vleuten (eds), The Making of Europe’s Critical Infrastructure (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013): 3-19.
Vincent Lagendijk, Erik van der Vleuten, “Inventing electrical Europe. Interdependencies, borders, vulnerabilities”, In: Högselius et al. (eds), The Making of Europe’s Critical Infrastructure (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013): 62-101.
Anique Hommels, Per Högselius, Arne Kaijser, Erik van der Vleuten, “Europe’s Infrastructure Vulnerabilities: Comparisons and Connections”. In Högselius et al. (eds), The Making of Europe’s Critical Infrastructure (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013): 263-277.
Erik van der Vleuten and Vincent Lagendijk, ‘Interpreting transnational infrastructure vulnerability: European blackout and the historical dynamics of transnational electricity governance’, Energy Policy 38 (2010): 2053–2062.
Erik van der Vleuten and Vincent Lagendijk, ‘Transnational infrastructure vulnerability: The historical shaping of the 2006 European ‘‘Blackout’’, Energy Policy 38 (2010): 2042–2052.
Transnational history of (infrastructure) technology
Erik van der Vleuten, Torsten Feys, “Borders and frontiers in global and transnational history”, Journal of Modern European History Vol 14.1 (2016): 29-34.
Vincent Lagendijk and Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Electricity infrastructures’, in: Akira Iriye and Pierre-Yves Saunier (eds), Palgrave dictionary of transnational history (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009): 315-319.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Toward a transnational history of technology. Meanings, promises, pitfalls’, Technology and Culture 49 (2008): 974–94.
Frank Schipper & Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Transnational infrastructure development and governance in historical perspective’, Network Industries Quarterly Vol. 10, nr. 3 (2008): 5-7
Erik van der Vleuten, Irene Anastasiadou, Frank Schipper and Vincent Lagendijk, ‘Europe’s system builders. The contested shaping of transnational road, rail, and electricity networks’. Contemporary European History 16, 3 (2007), 321-347.
Erik van der Vleuten and Arne Kaijser (eds.). Networking Europe. Transnational infrastructures and the shaping of Europe, 1850-2000 (Sagamore Beach, MA: Science History Publications USA, 2006).
Erik van der Vleuten and Arne Kaijser, ‘Prologue & Introduction: Transnational infrastructures and the shaping of contemporary Europe’, in: Van der Vleuten and Kaijser (eds), Networking Europe. Transnational infrastructures and the shaping of Europe, 1850-2000 (SHP, 2006), 1-22.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Understanding Network Societies: Two decades of large technical systems studies’, in Van der Vleuten and Kaijser (eds), Networking Europe. Transnational infrastructures and the shaping of Europe, 1850-2000 (SHP, 2006), 279-314.
Erik van der Vleuten and Arne Kaijser, ‘Networking Europe’, History and Technology 21 (1) (2005), 21-48
NETWORKED NATION: Infrastructure and the Making of the Netherlands
Erik van der Vleuten. ‘Networked Nation. Infrastructure integration of the Netherlands,’ in: Johan Schot, Arie Rip, and Harry Lintsen (eds), Technology and the making of the Netherlands. The age of contested modernization 1890-1970 (MIT Press, 2010), 47-123.
Erik van der Vleuten, H. Lintsen en G. van Hooff, ‘De materiële infrastructuur’. In Harry Lintsen et. al., Made in Holland. Een techniekgeschiedenis van Nederland 1800-2000. Zutphen: Walburg Pers 2005: 193-212.
Geert Verbong and Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Under Construction: Material integration of the Netherlands.’ History and Technology 20 (3) (2004), 205-226.
Erik van der Vleuten and Cornelis Disco, ‘Water Wizards: Reshaping wet nature and society.’ History and Technology 20 (3) (2004), 291-309.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Infrastructuur en de Nederlandse ruimte 1800-2000. Ontwikkeling, beleid, gevolgen.’ In M. van Heeringen, E.H.P.Cordfunke, K.M. Ilsink & H. Sarfatij (ed.),Geordend Landschap. 3000 jaar ruimtelijke ordening in Nederland. Hilversum: Verloren, 2004: 141-158.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘In search of the Networked Nation. Transforming technology, society and nature in the Netherlands in the 20th Century“, European Review of History 10 (2003), 59-78.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘De materiële eenwording van Nederland.’ In Johan Schot et. al. (eds), Techniek in Nederland in de 20e eeuw. Deel 7 (Zutphen: Walburg, 2003), 43-73 and 313-318.
Cornelis Disco and Erik van der Vleuten, ‘The politics of wet system building: Balancing interests in Dutch water management from the middle ages to the present.’ Knowledge, Technology & Policy 14 (4) (2002), 21-40.
SYMMETRICAL HISTORIES of local, regional, and centralized power systems
Erik van der Vleuten and Rob Raven, ‘Lock-in and change. Distributed Generation in Denmark in a long term perspective’, Energy Policy 34 (2006), 3739-3748.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Constructing centralised electricity supply in Denmark and the Netherlands: an actor group perspective.’ Centaurus 41 (1-2) (1999), 3-36.
Erik van der Vleuten, Electrifying Denmark. A symmetrical history of central and decentral electricity supply until 1960 (Aarhus University, 1998).
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Autoproduction of electricity: Cases from Danish industry’, Polhem 14 (2) (1996), 118-154.
CONCEPTUALIZING (trans/national) socio-technical systems & transitions
Laur Kanger, Johan Schot, Benjamin K. Sovacool, Erik van der Vleuten, Bipashyee Ghosh, Margit Keller, Paula Kivimaa, Anna-Kati Pahker, W. Edward Steinmueller,, “Research frontiers for multi-system dynamics and deep transitions”, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 41 (2021): 52-56.
Benjamin K. Sovacool, David J. Hess, Sulfikar Amir, Frank W. Geels, Richard Hirsh, Leandro Rodriguez Medina, Clark Miller, Carla Alvial Palavicino, Roopali Phadke, Marianne Ryghaug, Johan Schot, Antti Silvast, Jennie Stephens, Andy Stirling, Bruno Turnheim, Erik van der Vleuten, Harro van Lente, and Steven Yearley. “Sociotechnical Agendas: Reviewing Future Directions for Energy and Climate Research”, Energy Research & Social Science, (December, 2020), pp. 1-35.
Erik van der Vleuten, “Radical Change and Deep Transitions: Lessons from Europe’s Infrastructure Transition, 1815-2015”, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions32 (2019):20-32.
Tanja Manders, Johanna Höffken, Erik van der Vleuten. “Small-scale Hydropower in the Netherlands: Problems and Strategies of System Builders”, Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 59, 2016, pp 1493-1503.
Boukje Huijben, Erik van der Vleuten, Rob Raven, Geert Verbong. “Implementation strategies for solar power plants in desert regions: Strategic Niche Management, social acceptance, and business models”, in: Keiichi Komoto et al. (eds.),Energy from the Desert Volume 4 (London: Routledge, 2013): 209-218.
Erik van der Vleuten & Per Högselius, ‘Resisting change? The transnational dynamics of European energy regimes’, in: Geert Verbong & Derk Loorback (eds), Governing the energy transition: Reality, Illusion, or Necessity? (London: Routledge, 2012): 75-100.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Large Technical Systems’, in Olsen, Pedersen and Hendricks (eds), Blackwell companion to the philosophy of technology (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009): 218-223.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Understanding Network Societies: Two decades of large technical systems studies’, in Van der Vleuten and Kaijser (eds), Networking Europe. Transnational infrastructures and the shaping of Europe, 1850-2000 (Sagamore Beach, MA: Science History Publications, 2006), 279-314.
Erik van der Vleuten and Rob Raven, ‘Lock-in and change. Distributed Generation in Denmark in a long term perspective’, Energy Policy 34 (2006), 3739-3748.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Infrastructures and societal change. A view from the Large Technical Systems field.’ Technology Analysis & Strategic Management 16 (3) (2004), 395-414.
Wim Ravenstein, Leon Hermans and Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Participation and globalization in Water system building.’ Knowledge, Technology & Policy 14 (4) (2002), 4-12.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Étude des conséquences sociétales des macro-systèmes techniques: une approache pluraliste.’ Flux. Cahiers scientifiques internationaux réseaux et territoires 43 (2001): 42-57.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Twee decennia van onderzoek naar grote technische systemen: thema’s, afbakening en kritiek.’ NEHA-Jaarboek voor economische, bedrijfs- en techniekgeschiedenis 63 (2000), 328-364
Dansk Teknologihistorie
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Omkring dampmaskiner, kameler og cykler: Tre temaer fra teknologihistorien.’ Tidsskrift for Idehistorie 28-29 (1999), 123-140.
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Mel og damp. Om mølleriets modernisering i 1800-tallet.’ Erhvervshistorisk årbog 1994: 146-194
Erik van der Vleuten, ‘Smør og damp’. Hans Buhl & Henry Nielsen (eds.), Made in Denmark? Nye studier i dansk teknologihistorie (Aarhus: KLIM, 1994), 67-90.
BOOKS & SPECIAL ISSUES
Evelien de Hoop, Aarti Sidhar, Claiton da Silva, Erik van der Vleuten (eds), Historicizing entanglements: Science, technology and socio-ecological change in the postcolonial Anthropocene. Global Environment. A Journal of Transdisciplinary History 15.2 (2022).
Published in the context of the NWO internationalizing humanities program GREASE, exploring a global sustainability history research program and network.
Erik van der Vleuten (ed.), ‘FORUM:History and Technology in an Age of Grand Challenges’. Technology and Culture 61.1 (2020): 260-332.
Key publication of the exploratory transnational research program Technology & Societal Challenges 1815-2015. It presents research agendas on the energy challenge; the resource challenge; the sustainable mobility challenge; international governance; the triple temporalities of crises); and overall challenges to the field of history of technology.
Erik van der Vleuten, Ruth Oldenziel, Mila David. Engineering the future, understanding the past: A social history of technology (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017).
This book pioneers the historiography of engineering & societal challenges ca. 1815-2015. It unpacks such 'grand challenges' and (often backfiring) attempts at solutions from the perspectives of diverse user-, societal-, enterprise-, and professional groups.
Erik van der Vleuten, Torsten Feys (eds.). ‘Borders and frontiers in global and transnational history.’ Journal of Modern European History 2016/1.
Publication of the NW Posthumus global history network. It focuses on borders and frontiers so as to combine the study of transnational connections with that of long standing units of historical analysis (the nation-state, Europe, world systems) that persist, despite a cavalcade of connections piercing their boundaries.
Per Högselius, Arne Kaijser, Erik van der Vleuten. Europe’s Infrastructure Transition: Economy, War, Nature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).
This book narrates how Europe became connected and divided through transnational infrastructure and the associated infrastructuring of economic systems, warfare, and the natural environment. Volume 3 of the book series Making Europe (winner of the EASST Freeman Award).
Per Högselius, Anique Hommels, Arne Kaijser, Erik van der Vleuten (eds.). The Making of Europe’s Critical Infrastructure: Common Connections and Shared Vulnerabilities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
A 2006 power line failure in Germany closed lights in Portugal in seconds. Russian-Ukrainian gas crises shocked politicians and citizens in Germany, France, and Italy. Current vulnerabilities resulted from infrastructure choices in the past. This book inquires which, and whose, vulnerabilities were perceived, prioritized, and inscribed in Europe's critical infrastructure. Capstone publication of the ESF collaborative research program EUROCRIT.
Erik van der Vleuten and Arne Kaijser (eds.). Networking Europe. Transnational infrastructures and the shaping of Europe, 1850-2000 (Science History Publications USA, 2006).
This edited volume pioneered a transnational turn in the historiography of infrastructure and social change, and an infrastructure turn in modern European history. Key publication of the Tensions of Europe research network on Infrastructure History.
Erik van der Vleuten and Geert Verbong (eds.), ‘Networked Nation. Technology, society and nature in the Netherlands in the 20th century’ History and Technology 20.3 (2004)
This special issue studies the history of the Dutch network society in terms of the connected histories of technological (energy, transport, communications), economic (industry, food supply), and ecological (wet infrastructure, ecological networks) infrastructure.
Wim Ravenstein, Leon Hermans and Erik van der Vleuten (eds.), ‘Participation and globalization in Water system building.’ Special issue of Knowledge, Technology & Policy 14.4 (2002)
This special issue studies water history & policy issues from a systems perspective.
Erik van der Vleuten, Electrifying Denmark. A symmetrical history (Aarhus University, 1998).
Electrifying Denmark rejects teleological histories towards ever larger systems in the historiography of the electrification. Instead it symmetrically studies the co-existing and connected histories of user-owned, local, regional, and centralized power systems.