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given to the wind turbine technology itself as a mediator of its
own history. It becomes an “actor” within the various interwoven
networks that embodies a sense of agency—the capacity to
exert power or influence. ANT, then, seeks to be fair to all
the diferent actors and networks in a history of technology
development by providing to the extent possible a voice for each—
for those who have traditionally been considered “successful”,
for those who have traditionally been considered “failures”, and
most importantly to the very technology itself.
Given the number of actor-networks relevant to the history
of wind energy technology, this work will focus in particular on
Danish actor-networks that formed during the mid-1970s and
how the interactions within and between these networks with a
particular focus on emergence of the “Danish Concept” for wind
energy technology.
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5.2 Historical Wind Technology Development
In terms of the technological context, the form of current wind
energy technology builds upon a history that began nearly as
On the one extreme are the “technological determinists” who see technology
as an independent and autonomous entity inducing pressure to bring about
changes in society. On the other, social constructionists view technology as a
product constructed entirely by social processes. Between these
two extremes
fall theories such as “soft” technological determinism and systems theory, co-
construction of technological systems, and ANT. The latter framework provides
both human actors and technological actors with a voice and defines their
relationships to one another through a network or even a network of networks.
More importantly, in ANT, the “social” is not pre-supposed and the technology
neither wholly determines nor is wholly determined by human or social forces.
The main diference of this approach to other intermediate approaches is the
denial of any stable social or technological structure that can serve to define
a simplistic set of cause-and-efect relationships. Using such a lens, it can be
argued that a richer history of the technology may be developed than one
which is constantly trying to build and test hypothesis. An approach using ANT
methodology would seek the social aspect from the human and non-human
actor-networks that leave their historical traces as they progress through time.
In essence, it is an inductive rather than a deductive approach, and as such, the
identification of important relationships and directions of influence emerge out
of the work and allow for a myriad of such relationships to be identified one
might argue is more closely aligned with the actual complexity of the history.
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See the 2013 doctoral thesis by the author for the full treatment. This chapter
cannot do justice to the entire landscape of Danish wind actor-networks. Other
chapters in this topic highlight additional networks not captured here.
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