Conceived during a period of rapid and often unchecked technological development, the current issue of Afterall aims at reconsidering and expanding our understanding of what ‘technology’ is. A multifarious category, we approach technology here as always embedded within and informed by the particular conditions of the geopolitical, cultural and environmental contexts in which it is used and developed. Through this situated approach we hope to move away from a Eurocentric concept of technology and to make room instead for the multiple perspectives which shape what philosopher Yuk Hui calls ‘technodiversity’.