At a time when old and new theories in the sciences – quantum mechanics, cybernetics, symbiosis – dominate certain areas of the arts and humanities to an almost improper degree, historical understanding holds a double promise. As Donna Haraway and N. Katherine Hayles have argued, we must always understand the present both in terms of and against the dominant (often scientific) metaphors. For Haraway ecological theories force us to repudiate individualism – but we must also historicize that move; for Hayles cybernetics pushed us toward becoming ‘posthuman’, but through historical understanding we can avoid knowing that as a condition of powerlessness and disembodiment. And if we fail to understand the mechanisms involved in these processes, we end up either blindly groping towards the outer reaches of scientific thought, or historicizing without purpose.

— ‘The Shock of the Odd’, British Journal for the History of Science 48 (2015), pp. 353–6, p. 356

Cover of Mass-Observation’s book First Year’s Work (1938)

Cover of Mass-Observation’s book First Year’s Work (1938)