Henk-Jan Dekker
@henk-jandekker.bsky.social
Historian of mobility, energy, and technology; working on global histories of cycling and automobility. Postdoctoral researcher at Bielefeld University. Book review editor at Technology and Culture.
1/5 📢 Appel à participation : Histoire coloniale et énergie Le terme 'colonialisme énergétique' est aujourd’hui utilisé pour désigner certains mégaprojets en cours de réalisation. L’histoire de l’énergie en contexte colonial reste cependant moins explorée que celle des puissances colonisatrices.
🌲 New paper out: Modernizing the German forest—How a changing economy divided forestry economists, 1850-1900 We used to think of the 19th century as the age of coal, but what happened to wood and the people who managed forests when industry took off? /1 doi.org/10.1016/j.sh...
Redirecting
doi.org
Check out @henk-jandekker.bsky.social's review of Gonzalo Romero Sommer's "High Voltage: Hydroelectric Development and Political Power in Peru," published in 2025 by @univnebpress.bsky.social; review now available @hnetreviews.bsky.social #envhist #envtech #energy www.h-net.org/reviews/show...
h-net.org
Publication alert! With @robrechtdeclercq.bsky.social, Lucas Marquet-Ellis, and Antoine Missemer, we wrote about economic views on the Belgian coal industry from the 1840s to the 1930s. 🧵 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Black bread, white bread, and carbon lock-in: shifting economic views of the Belgian coal industry (1840s–1930s)
Belgium experienced early industrialisation based on coal. Economists soon realised that these resources were essential for development, with coal being referred to as the “black bread” of the indu...
tandfonline.com
Publication alert! With @robrechtdeclercq.bsky.social, Lucas Marquet-Ellis, and Antoine Missemer, we wrote about economic views on the Belgian coal industry from the 1840s to the 1930s. 🧵 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Black bread, white bread, and carbon lock-in: shifting economic views of the Belgian coal industry (1840s–1930s)
Belgium experienced early industrialisation based on coal. Economists soon realised that these resources were essential for development, with coal being referred to as the “black bread” of the indu...
tandfonline.com
Our book is out today! 🎉 "Cultural Landscapes of Energy" adds a historical perspective to current debates on energy transition by bringing together conflicting histories around work, habitation and leisure in landscapes impacted by energy production across Europe.
Cultural Landscapes of Energy: Constructing Histories of Power, Prosperity, and Decline in Europe
This volume explores the contested heritage of landscapes impacted by energy production. It offers a comparative perspective across Europe on different energy resources and reveals the hidden historie...
routledge.com
Excellent new book arguing that we need to take the early modern household more seriously in order to understand the emergence of fossil-fuel based societies. An important addition to energy history scholarship #skystorians lup.be/book/fossil-...
new publication by @odinnmelsted.bsky.social Candida Sánchez Burmester, George Roberts & me putting the Club of Rome in a more global perspective than it's usually framed: 1/x www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
The limits to growth and development? Computer modeling, planetary limits, and the question of industrial development in the Global South, 1960s–1970s
The limits to growth and development? Computer modeling, planetary limits, and the question of industrial development in the Global South, 1960s–1970s was published in Environment, Technology, and Dev...
degruyterbrill.com
A few 2025 reading higlights, a year that also included a lot of Natalia Ginzburg and Han Kang. The pile for 2026 is growing but recommendations are always welcome!
💼 Au 1er semestre 2026, le projet #ETRANHET du @cired.bsky.social recrute un·e stagiaire niveau Master SHS pour étudier comment les économistes ont pensé la ❓énergétique pendant la décolonisation 🇫🇷 (1946-80). 🗓️ Candidature avant le 15/01/2026 Tous les détails : www.centre-cired.fr/wp-content/u...
centre-cired.fr
In Cairo cycling began as an imported recreation for the ruling class, but it soon proliferated, serving the workaday needs of everyday people. In “Nationalist Autonomy to Capitalist Modernity,” Nourhan Sherif, Ranya Ayman and Carine Khalil trace Cairo’s cycling experience. ...
An academic disliked an Oxford Very Short Introduction (145 pages) in his field so much that he wrote a 200 page book review attacking it. www.pierre-legrand.com/ewExternalFi...
New on H-Sci-Med-Tech: Check out @henk-jandekker.bsky.social (Bielefeld University)’s review of David Obst’s book _ Saving Ourselves from Big Car_, pub 2025 @columbiaup.bsky.social Review available @hnetreviews.bsky.social www.h-net.org/reviews/show...
h-net.org
H-Net Reviews@hnetreviews.bsky.social · 8mo agoNew book review: Dekker on Obst, David: _Saving Ourselves from Big Car_. Columbia University Press, 2025. Published by H-Sci-Med-Tech. Read here: networks.h-net.org/node/20135504
ICOHTEC 2026: Call for Proposals is now open! The next Annual Meeting will take place 8–11 October 2026 at the Democritus University of Thrace (Greece), in collaboration with the Lab of Technologies, Research & Applications in Education and the Ethnological Museum of Thrace. Thread: 1/4 #histtech
"Umwelt - Technik - Wissen" - Ein großartiges Gemeinschafts- und Verflechtungsprojekt mit jungen Autor:innen aus der ganzen DACH-Region! Herzlichen Dank an alle Beteiligten und viel Spaß bei der Lektüre (Open Access)! #envhist #histtech #histsci #envirotech www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-7...
Umwelt – Technik – Wissen
Junge Forschung aus der Umweltgeschichte: warum Umwelt, Technik und Wissen als Triebfedern der Gesellschaft gelten.
transcript-verlag.de
1/ It's great to see that the new book Cycling Cities: The African Experiences has just been published! It’s a must-read for anyone interested in cycling and sustainable mobility and looks at African history through a new lens. A short thread: www.transitiestudies.nl/product/cycl...
Cycling Cities: The African Experience - SHT
Cycling Cities: The African Experience: explores a century of urban cycling across Africa—from the rural towns of Aba and Zomba to the bustling capitals of Cairo and Cape Town, and many cities in betw...
transitiestudies.nl
GWU-Member @czumbragel.bsky.social contributed to the radio feature “100 Years of Energy Transition–How Germany Almost Became Renewable Once Before” The episode explores how people once imagined a different energy future open.spotify.com/episode/3W18... #energistories #UniBielefeld #energyhistory
Energiewende 1925 - Als Deutschland fast schon einmal erneuerbar wurde
open.spotify.com
A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.
It's been almost four years since publishing my book on the history of Dutch cycling, and it's been great to see all the exciting work on global cycling history that has come out since. Such an underrated mode of transport in so many contexts, it's finally getting its due. www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...
Cycling Pathways
In an effort to fight climate change, many cities try to boost their cycling levels. They often look towards the Dutch for guidance. However, historians have only begun to uncover how and why the Neth...
aup.nl
Seriously, fuck off. I say that with all due gravity.
American Historical Association@historians.org · last yr.The AHA has published Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence in History Education, offering a disciplinary approach to AI that focuses on the specific needs and challenges of history educators. 🗃️
The July Issue of Technology and Culture is out now, with another exciting and diverse set of book reviews, including books in Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, and Russian: muse.jhu.edu/issue/55249
Project MUSE - Technology and Culture-Volume 66, Number 3, July 2025
muse.jhu.edu
The people of Gaza face starvation under the joint U.S.-Israeli food distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Our Reporter Got Into Gaza. He Witnessed a Famine of Israel’s Making.
The people of Gaza face starvation under the joint U.S.-Israeli food distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
interc.pt
Uitstekende kop; 14 gevluchte meisjes niet welkom. Dat het maar duidelijk is waar deze mannen met vuur en woede bang voor zijn; 14 meisjes.
RTL Nieuws@rtl.nl · last yr.Coevorden zwicht voor protesten inwoners: 14 gevluchte meisjes toch niet welkom #nieuws
NEW EPISODE! "What Makes a City a Cycling City?" Why do some cities become places where it’s easy to bike for transportation? We talk to the researchers behind the Cycling Cities project and look at places beyond Northern Europe to find out. Follow and listen: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
Interesting-looking new article on the history of motorized tricycles in Greece by Papazafeiropoulou, Tsouchlis, and Tympas. A nice case study of 'marginal mobilities' that foregrounds the role of users and the historical complexity of motorization pathways www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Marginal mobilities: three-wheeled vehicles in Greece from the 1940s to the present
The article discusses mobility in terms of sociotechnical normalization. A central hypothesis is that discipline and control are structural facets of mobility that create uneven mobilities. The art...
tandfonline.com
La part du vélo dans les déplacements domicile-travail a dépassé les 20% à Grenoble en 2021, contre 2% à St-Etienne. Les écarts entre villes de population semblable sont énormes, une politique volontariste sur la durée fait la différence. Chiffres fournis par Guy Bourgeois, dans la revue TIM.
Er wringt toch iets als elk dubbeltje dat aan zorg of onderwijs wordt uitgegeven drie keer moet worden verantwoord terwijl we blijkbaar wel denken ergens 19 miljard voor defensie vandaan te kunnen toveren.
