Techno-Optimism Archive: Technological Optimism, Utopianism, Solutionism, and Hype in the Historical Press

Krystian Łukasik

doi:10.5334/johd.579

Techno-Optimism Archive: Technological Optimism, Utopianism, Solutionism, and Hype in the Historical Press

Journal of Open Humanities Data

Volume 12 (2026): Issue 1

By: Krystian Łukasik

Open Access

|Jun 2026

Abstract

The Techno-Optimism Archive Dataset is a curated collection of historical press examples of technological optimism and techno-solutionist thought. Drawn from dispersed digital archives of newspapers and magazines, it captures recurring promises that framed new technologies as remedies for major social, political, moral, and economic problems. The dataset consists of project-authored metadata and summaries describing individual records and was compiled primarily through archival research across digital repositories in order to bring into a reusable form materials that are publicly accessible yet often difficult to discover. It is deposited on Zenodo with accompanying documentation. The dataset can support research in the history of technology, media history, science and technology studies, and digital humanities.

References

Babbie, E. R. (2013). The practice of social research (13th ed.). Wadsworth Publishing.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Borup, M., Brown, N., Konrad, K., & van Lente, H. (2006). The sociology of expectations in science and technology. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 18(3–4), 285–298. 10.1080/09537320600777002
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Coburn, J. (2021). Defending the digital: Awareness of digital selectivity in historical research practice. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 53(3), 398–410. 10.1177/0961000620918647
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Danaher, J. (2022). Techno-optimism: An analysis, an evaluation and a modest defence. Philosophy & Technology, 35(2), 54. 10.1007/s13347-022-00550-2
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Galanos, V., Belsunces Gonçalves, A., Alvial-Palavicino, C., Bareis, J., Blackwell, B., Charette, M., Cheng, M. Y., Dorofeeva, O., Gloerich, I., Klingebiel, J., Lammar, D., Mehnert, W., Michalec, O., Milne, G., Ravn, L., Roßmann, M., Shanley, D., Shen, J., Soto-Sanfiel, M. T., … Vidmar, M. (2026). Towards Mapping and Defining critical hype studies: Multidisciplinary insights and future directions. Hype Studies. 10.5281/zenodo.18764034
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Gitelman, L. (2008). Always already new: Media, history, and the data of culture. MIT Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Łukasik, K. (2026). Techno-Optimism Archive Dataset (1.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. 10.5281/zenodo.19711129
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Marvin, C. (2020). When old technologies were new: Thinking about electric communication in the late nineteenth century. Oxford University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Morozov, E. (2013). To save everything, click here: The folly of technological solutionism. PublicAffairs.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Schwartz, J. M., & Cook, T. (2002). Archives, records, and power: The making of modern memory. Archival Science, 2(1), 1–19. 10.1007/BF02435628
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article