This article provides an overview of the analysis of technological zones. A
technological zone can be understood as a space within which differences between
technical practices, procedures and forms have been reduced, or common standards
have been established. Such technological zones take broadly one of three forms: (1)
metrological zones associated with the development of common forms of
measurement; (2) infrastructural zones associated with the creation of
common connection standards; and (3) zones of qualification which come into
being when objects and practices are assessed according to common standards and
criteria. The article argues that technological zones can have more or less clear
borders, but such borders increasingly do not correspond to the borders of
nation-states. Through a discussion of the global oil industry, some of the ways in
which the formation of technological zones has become critical to contemporary
economic and political life are examined.
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