"The main emphasis in the programme is historical. It focusses on understanding the role of technical change in the modernisation process of Dutch society in the twentieth century. The research is based on the approach of contextual history of technology, which studies both 'design' and 'context'. Design refers to the specific technical characteristics and resulting constraints and opportunities, while context includes a range of economic, social, political and cultural factors. There are no simple recipes for writing such a history. The reflection on how to write contextual history is part of the research programme. Many contextual histories of technology focus on the social shaping of design, thus how actors construct new technologies. This type of work is not sufficient, because it largely neglects the societal consequences (intended and unintended) of technology developments. A core feature of the programme is the ambition to synthetise the 'social shaping of technology' with the 'technology shaping of society' (so how a technology influences society). Writing a contextual history of technology is not only an intellectual challenge and of interest to historians, but also of great relevance for a wider public, policy-makers (in government and industry) and engineers. Serving this interest is part of the mission of the programme.The mission of the programme can be defined as: 1) to contribute to an understanding of how technologies have shaped Dutch society in the twentieth century, and how emerging technologies have shaped society as well; 2) to communicate research results with a wider public, policy-actors and engineers."