“Simple, clear, and easily understood by the farmer…”: On expert–layman communication in American soil science, 1920s–50s

2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 324-345
Author(s):  
Jan Arend

This article presents a case study of how American soil scientists encountered the increasing demands to prove the social utility of their scientific work in the first half of the twentieth century and how this influenced the professional rivalry and competition among them. Previous historical studies of agricultural science in the period have not overlooked the increasing demands for applicability that agricultural scientists were faced with at the time. However, in describing the response of agricultural scientists to these demands, research has focused on the content of their scientific work, that is, their methods, empirical interests, and theories. This study, by contrast, explores how the debates on applied vs. fundamental/basic research in American agricultural science were closely linked to the question of how scientific knowledge could be made understood to laymen and practitioners.

Author(s):  
Gordon Boyce

This book is an in-depth case study of the Furness Withy and Co Shipping Group, which operated both tramp and liner services and was one of the five major British shipping groups of the early twentieth century. It demonstrates how British shipowners of this period generated success by exploring Christopher Furness’ career in relation to the social, political, and cultural currents during a time of tremendous shipping growth in Britain and the establishment of some of the largest shipping firms in the world. It approaches the study from three angles. The first analyses how the Furness Group expanded its shipping activities and became involved with the industrial sector. The second illustrates the organisational and financial structure of the enterprise. Finally, the Group’s leadership and entrepreneurship is scrutinised and placed within the wider context of twentieth century British business. The case study begins in 1870, with an introduction explaining how Christopher Furness came to join the family company, Thomas Furness and Co. in order develop services, expand, and instigate the changes and mergers that brought the Furness Group into existence. There are thirteen chronologically presented chapters, a bibliography, and seven appendices of data including an ownership timeline, tonnage statistics, acquisitions, a list of maritime associates, and a timeline of Christopher Furness’ life. The book concludes in 1919 with the de-merging of the Furness Group’s shipping and industrial holdings, the resignation of the Furness family from the company’s board, the sale of their shares, and the move into managing the firm’s industrial interests.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-120
Author(s):  
Chang-Xue Shu

Abstract Engineering science in the China of 1901-40 had unique characteristics that disrupt the idea of a universal approach to its history.1 The following case study describes the ideas and trials of introducing bamboo into the seemingly globalised technology of reinforced concrete—an innovation developed across the borders of mechanical, naval, civil, and aeronautical engineering. The article showcases a way of knowing and working by twentieth century engineers that has not been fully acknowledged, and is not only a phenomenon of China. While bamboo was a complicated and somewhat marginal object for engineering, it did make the European concrete technology more viable in the construction sites of China, and stimulate engineers’ experimental and resourceful spirit in mobilising both craft and scientific knowledge. It also opened up a challenge to engineering science of the time.


Author(s):  
Novita A Wulandari ◽  
Nurdin Jusuf ◽  
Otniel Pontoh

AbstractFishermen household has a special characteristic, such use the use of coastal and marine areas (common property) as a factor of production, working hours should follow the oceanographic conditions (sail only an average of about 20 days in a month, the rest is relatively idle). Fishermen were particularly vulnerable to seasonal changes caused by climate change, making studies of the lives of fishermen generally emphasize the poverty and economic uncertainty experienced fishermen and their families. Based on those problems that can be formulated, any strategy that made the fisherman community in meeting the needs of the household?. The purpose of this study are: 1). examines the general state of the village Tateli Dua Mandolang Minahasa District of Northern Sulawesi province, 2). detailing the standard of living in terms of the social aspect is education, number of dependents, age structure, and organization / social institutions, 3). detailing the standard of living in terms of the economic aspects ie venture capital, marketing catches, income and expenditure, 4). explore and learn strategies fishermen community in meeting the needs of the household. Basic research will be used is a case study. The case study is a study done by studying a particular case in which the object is limited (Helmi and Satria, 2012). The results showed that in meeting household needs, fishermen in the village Tateli Two has a three-pronged strategy: 1). The use of alternative livelihoods, 2). Contributions empowerment fisherman's wife, and 3). Saving of household spending.Keywords: Household, Fishermen, Strategy AbstrakRumah tangga nelayan memiliki ciri khusus seperti penggunaan wilayah pesisir dan laut (common property) sebagai faktor produksi, jam kerja harus mengikuti kondisi oseanografis (melaut hanya rata-rata sekitar 20 hari dalam satu bulan, sisanya relatif menganggur). Nelayan menjadi sangat rentan terhadap perubahan musim yang diakibatkan oleh perubahan iklim, membuat kajian-kajian terhadap kehidupan nelayan umumnya menekankan pada kemiskinan dan ketidakpastian ekonomi yang dialami nelayan dan keluarganya. Berdasarkan hal tersebut dapat dirumuskan permasalahan yaitu, strategi apa saja yang dilakukan masyarakat nelayan dalam memenuhi kebutuhan rumah tangga?. Tujuan dari penelitian ini yaitu : 1). menelaah keadaan umum Desa Tateli Dua Kecamatan Mandolang Kabupaten Minahasa Provinsi Sulawesi Utara, 2). merinci taraf hidup ditinjau dari aspek sosial adalah pendidikan, jumlah tanggungan keluarga, struktur umur, dan organisasi/lembaga sosial, 3). memerinci taraf hidup ditinjau dari aspek ekonomi yaitu modal usaha, pemasaran hasil tangkapan, pendapatan dan pengeluaran serta 4). menggali dan mempelajari strategi masyarakat nelayan dalam memenuhi kebutuhan rumah tangga. Dasar penelitian ini adalah studi kasus. Studi kasus adalah penelitian yang dilakukan dengan cara mempelajari satu kasus tertentu pada obyek yang terbatas (Helmi dan Satria, 2012). Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa dalam memenuhi kebutuhan rumah tangga, nelayan yang ada di Desa Tateli Dua memiliki tiga bentuk strategi yaitu 1). Penggunaan mata pencaharian alternatif, 2). Kontribusi pemberdayaan istri nelayan, dan 3). Penghematan belanja rumah tanggaKata Kunci : Rumah tangga, Nelayan, Strategi


1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 686-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Grinyer

This paper examines differing institutional responses to and interpretation of the same scientific and medical data, and looks at the way in which policies, ostensibly based upon these interpretations, are presented to public audiences. The case study concerns the use of AZT as a prophylactic for injured health care workers. Data was collected from personal in depth interviews in two health authorities and telephone interviews with a further 35 health authorities. Observations include the fact that widely different interpretations of scientific data by scientific and medical experts is likely to be presented to the lay audience in terms of scientific certainty, based on an institutional need for certainty and consensus. Contrary to conventional perspectives which would suggest that scientific knowledge was completed in its expert arena, then applied in different settings, this analysis suggests that the scientific knowledge is socially ‘completed’ or ‘closed’ in each of the different situations in which it is interpreted into practice. Ideal models of both the science and of organisational working practice, appear to have been used as the basis of these different constructions.


Author(s):  
Frederick Suppe

Bridgman founded high-pressure experimental physics and was committed to a classical empiricist view of science – a view challenged by twentieth-century developments in relativistic and quantum mechanics. He argued that developments in special relativity showed the experimental operations scientists performed were suitable substitutes for basic constituents of matter, thus founding operationalism, a methodological position which influenced logical positivism and, transformed beyond his recognition, was expropriated by the behaviourist school in the social sciences. As Bridgman grappled with the challenges of general relativity and quantum mechanics, he increasingly parted company with his positivistic and behaviourist followers by moving more towards subjectivist views of science and knowledge. These later views led him to see and explore intimate connections between foundations of scientific knowledge and human freedom.


Author(s):  
Anjan Chakravartty

Armed with the framework for thinking about naturalized metaphysics given in the previous chapters, this chapter turns to a case study in the metaphysics of science. By considering a case in some detail, various aspects of the prior framework are exemplified in a concrete way. The example considered comes from a popular arena of discussion in contemporary metaphysics of science: the attribution of a specific kind of property, dispositional properties, in giving interpretations of scientific work and practices such as explanation. The appeal to dispositional properties represents a case study of how some have attempted to use scientific knowledge and practice as a starting point or inspiration for ontological theorizing—one in which answers to certain questions, such as what stands in need of explanation and what is genuinely explanatorily powerful, figure centrally.


Author(s):  
Kirsten Leng

The Introduction makes a case for gendering the history of sexology; specifically it argues that focusing on women’s ideas facilitates a more complex understanding of sexology as a form of knowledge and power. It begins by introducing the key figures and exploring the kinds of political promise they saw in scientific knowledge. It then challenges the limits of Foucault’s highly influential analysis of sexology by contextualizing sexology’s emergence within the rise of the women’s movement in the later nineteenth and early twentieth century. Moreover, the Introduction draws on the sociology of science to reframe sexology as a field, and thus to argue that sexology was built and animated by a diverse range of actors with disparate investments in the creation of this knowledge. Finally, it discusses the limitations of women’s sexual scientific work and the ambivalent legacy it bequeathed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-73
Author(s):  
Erika Pérez

Relying on the experiences of the Dalton-Zamorano family of Rancho Azusa in Southern California, this article examines how a Californio family fared socially and economically from the mid-nineteenth century to the turn of the twentieth century, a period undergoing rapid social, political, economic, and cultural change. It focuses on the social and geographic borders that the Dalton-Zamoranos crossed culturally, racially, and spatially to pursue upward mobility and social integration. I argue that the Dalton-Zamoranos are a representative case study of biethnic families in Southern California and of the adaptations these families made following the geopolitical regime change. Outlined here is a story not only about struggle and misfortune but also of negotiation and survival by a once-prominent, ethnically mixed family whose trials and tribulations reflected rapid societal changes ushered by a new emergent industrial and capitalist order in the Southwest.


1997 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence G. Carbone

AbstractAssessments of animal experience and consciousness are embedded in all issues of animal welfare policy, and the field of animal welfare science has been developed to make these evaluations. In light of modern studies of the social construction of scientific knowledge, it is surprising how little attention has been paid to date on how crucial evaluations about animals are made. In this paper, I begin to fill that gap by presenting a historical case study of the attempt to define the pain and distress of one common practice in animal research-the use of the tabletop guillotine to decapitate laboratory rodents. I describe the negotiations involved in reaching consensus on the meaning of the available data and caution animal care and use committees that they should always work with the realization that our scientific knowledge of what animals experience is partial and provisional knowledge at best.


Author(s):  
Alberto Pepe

The processes that drive knowledge production and dissemination in scientific environments are embedded within the social, technical, cultural and epistemic practices of the constituent research communities. This article presents a methodology to unpack specific social and epistemic dimensions of scientific knowledge production using, as a case study,  the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), a National Science Foundation “little science” research center involved in theoretical and applied work in the field of wireless communication and sensor networks. By analysis of its scholarly record, I construct a social network of coauthorship, linking individuals that have coauthored scholarly artifacts (journal articles and conference papers), and an epistemic network of topic co-occurrence, linking concepts and knowledge constructs in the same scholarly artifacts. This article reports on ongoing work directed at the study of the emergence and evolution of these networks of scientific interaction. I present some preliminary results and introduce a socio-epistemic method for an historical analysis of network co-evolution. I outline a research design to support further investigations of knowledge production in scientific circles.


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