Diffusion of techniques, globalization and subjectivities

Diffusion of techniques, globalization and subjectivities

In this essay, Didier Gazagnadou examines the question of the diffusion of techniques and the impact of this diffusion on cultures and individual subjectivity. Techniques of transport and communication occupy a decisive role in the techno-historical process that led to globalization. The author undertakes « a certain rehabilitation » of the diffusionist wave and examines the reasons why anthropology rejected this movement and neglected the diffusion question. He shows that in particular the use of the binary East and West categories blocked the development of reflections on diffusions in Eurasia. The author draws on examples from the whole of Eurasia but in particular from the Iranian and Arab worlds at the interface of Asia and Europe. Indeed, Eurasia plays a central role as decisive techniques for the history of humanity emerged there and then gradually spread throughout the world. Finally, the author assesses the question of technical diffusions in the contemporary world where he observes the advent of a subjectivation mode, shared by a growing number of individuals issued from different cultures, on account of the implementation of the same industrial system on a global scale.