On the Epistemology of Computer Simulation

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Pias
Keyword(s):  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Computer Simulations ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Computer ◽  
The 1960S

"Der Aufsatz plädiert dafür, die Geschichte der wissenschaftlichen Computersimulation auf eine spezifisch medienhistorische Weise zu untersuchen. Nach einigen Vorschlägen zur Charakterisierung der Besonderheiten von Computersimulationen werden zwei Beispiele interpretiert (Management-Simulationen der 1960er und verkehrstechnische bzw. epidemiologische Simulationen der 1990er). Daraus leiten sich Fragen nach dem veränderten Status wissenschaftlichen Wissens, nach der Genese wissenschaftstheoretischer Konzepte und nach wissenschaftskritischen Optionen ab. </br></br>The paper suggests to analyze the history of scientific computer simulations with respect to the history of media. After presenting some ideas concerning the peculiarities of computer simulation, two examples (management simulations of the 1960s; traffic-related and epistemological simulations of the 1990s) are interpreted. From them, further questions concerning the status of scientific knowledge, the genesis of epistemological concepts and their critique are derived. "

Hegemonic Masculinity and Beyond

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Hearn ◽  
Marie Nordberg ◽  
Kjerstin Andersson ◽  
Dag Balkmar ◽  
Lucas Gottzén ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Hegemonic Masculinity ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Men And Masculinities ◽  
Research And Policy

This article discusses the status of the concept of hegemonic masculinity in research on men and boys in Sweden, and how it has been used and developed. Sweden has a relatively long history of public debate, research, and policy intervention in gender issues and gender equality. This has meant, in sheer quantitative terms, a relatively sizeable corpus of work on men, masculinities, and gender relations. There is also a rather wide diversity of approaches, theoretically and empirically, to the analysis of men and masculinities. The Swedish national context and gender equality project is outlined. This is followed by discussion of three broad phases in studies on men and masculinities in Sweden: the 1960s and 1970s before the formulation of the concept of hegemonic masculinity; the 1980s and 1990s when the concept was important for a generation of researchers developing studies in more depth; and the 2000s with a younger generation committed to a variety of feminist and gender critiques other than those associated with hegemonic masculinity. The following sections focus specifically on how the concept of hegemonic masculinity has been used, adapted, and indeed not used, in particular areas of study: boys and young men in family and education; violence; and health. The article concludes with review of how hegemonic masculinity has been used in Swedish contexts, as: gender stereotype, often out of the context of legitimation of patriarchal relations; “Other” than dominant, white middle-class “Swedish,” equated with outmoded, nonmodern, working-class, failing boy, or minority ethnic masculinities; a new masculinity concept and practice, incorporating some degree of gender equality; and reconceptualized and problematized as a modern, heteronormative, and subject-centered concept.

scholarly journals Image of the city and modern architecture in the Polish feature films of the 1960s’

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (31) ◽  
pp. 135-144
Author(s):  
Adam Nadolny
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Film Image ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The City

This article focuses on the inter-dependencies between the film image and architecture. The author has attempted to define what sort of historical background preconditions the film image to gain the status of a source for research on the history of Polish urban planning and post-war architecture, with particular emphasis placed on the 1960s.

Women and Capitalism: Oppression or Emancipation? A Review Article

1988 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 534-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Working People ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Transition To Capitalism ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Two Sides ◽  
Status Of Women

In the last few years, work in social history and the history of women has centred on the transition to capitalism and the great bourgeois political revolutions—also variously described as industrialization, urbanisation, and modernisation. Throughout this work runs a steady debate about the improvement or deterioration brought about by these changes in the lives of women and working people. On the whole, sociologists of the 1960s and early 1970s and many recent historians have been optimistic about the changes in women's position, while feminist and Marxist scholars have taken a much more gloomy view.1 There has been little debate between the two sides, yet the same opposed arguments about the impact of capitalism on the status of women crop up not only in accounts of Britain from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, but also in work on women in the Third World, and cry out for critical assessment.

Rhetorische Epistemologie der Wissenschaften

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-219
Author(s):  
Alexander Thumfart
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Science Culture ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Results

During the last three decades research in the rhetoric of natural science has established itself as a prominent topic in the history of science, culture, and society. Despite this overall success, the status, function and place of rhetoric in the process of knowledge production is still ambivalent and disputed. While some scholars place rhetoric right in the centre of the construction of scientific knowledge, others support the view that scientific knowledge is epistemologically privileged. Based on research done by the prominent sociologist, philosopher, and historian Bruno Latour, the article argues that rhetoric plays a minimal role in the production of knowledge but is crucial in the dissemination and (successful) implementation of scientific results.

scholarly journals The rhetoric of computer simulations in astrophysics: a case study

2010 ◽  
Vol 09 (03) ◽  
pp. A02 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aimee Kendall Roundtree
Keyword(s):  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Computer Simulations ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Scientific Paper ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Rhetorical Figures ◽  
Theoretical Science ◽  
Primary Materials

This article is a case study and rhetorical analysis of a specific scientific paper on a computer simulation in astrophysics, an advanced and often highly theoretical science. Findings reveal that rhetorical decisions play as important a role in creating a convincing simulation as does sound evidence. Rhetorical analysis was used to interpret the data gathered in this case study. Rhetorical analysis calls for close reading of primary materials to identify classical rhetorical figures and devices of argumentation and explain how these devices factor in the production of scientific knowledge. This article describes how abduction, dilemma, compensatio, aetiologia, and other tactics of argumentation are necessary in creating the simulation of a supernova. Ultimately, the article argues that rhetorical mechanisms may be responsible for making some simulations better and more sound than others.

Resistance is in the air: From post-politics to the politics of expertise

2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442110341
Author(s):  
Nicola da Schio ◽  
Bas van Heur
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Public Knowledge ◽  
Societal Actors ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Knowledge Dynamics

Knowledge about air pollution is key, both to contest the status quo and to propose a different environmental imaginary as to how urban reality should be. Empirically, this paper focuses on Brussels and its history of air pollution contestation over the last fifty years, in order to trace how knowledge dynamics shape the politics of air. Theoretically, the paper offers a critical reading of the ‘post-political city’ literature that has been omnipresent in urban studies, human geography and political ecology over the last decades, in order to offer a more sophisticated theorization of expertise and knowledge. The paper offers at least three key insights. First, lay as well as public knowledge is of key importance in making air pollution manifest as a matter of concern. Making a perceived problem visible to a wider public in itself can be transformative and can pressure governments to respond, albeit rarely adequately. Second, the use of scientific knowledge by social movements and civil society plays a central role in contesting established priorities and in developing counter strategies, often alternating lay knowledge and more formal scientific knowledge in the process. At the same time, scientific knowledge and other forms of specialized expertise also play an important role in solidifying existing hierarchies of authority. Third, our analysis points to the centrality of the state as an arena for political action and to the importance of a politics of shifting blame and responsibility onto other layers of government or other societal actors.

Racism and Ethnic Relations in the Portuguese-Speaking World

2012 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
White Supremacy ◽  
Ethnic Relations ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Native People ◽  
East African ◽  
Brazilian Literature ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Impact

How did racism evolve in different parts of the Portuguese-speaking world? How should the impact on ethnic perceptions of colonial societies based on slavery or the slave trade be evaluated? What was the reality of inter-ethnic mixture in different continents? How has the prejudice of white supremacy been confronted in Brazil and Portugal? And how should we assess the impact of recent trends of emigration and immigration? These are some of the major questions that have structured this book. It both contextualises and challenges the visions of Gilberto Freyre and Charles Boxer, which crystallised from the 1930s to the 1960s but which still frame the public history of this topic. The book studies issues including recent affirmative action in Brazil or Afro-Brazilian literature, blackness in Brazil compared with Colombia under the dynamics of identity, recent racist trends in Portugal in comparative perspective, the status of native people in colonial Portuguese Africa, discrimination against forced Jewish converts to Christianity and their descendants in different historical contexts, the status of mixed-race people in Brazil and Angola compared over the longue duree, the interference of Europeans in East Timor's native marriage system, the historical policy of language in Brazil, and visual stereotypes and the proto-ethnographic gaze in early perceptions of East African peoples. It covers the gamut of inter-ethnic experiences throughout the Portuguese-speaking world, from the sixteenth century to the present day, integrating contributions from history, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, literary and cultural studies. The book offers a radical updating of both empirical data and methodologies, and aims to contribute to current debates on racism and ethnic relations in global perspective.

scholarly journals Public Islam in the Contemporary World: A View on the American Case

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Rhys H. Williams
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Order ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Case ◽  
The 1960S

The article reviews the status of the highly diverse community of American Muslims, with reference to US national identity and immigration history, history of Islam in the USA, and civil society organization. It is found that on average, and after the civil right movement of the 1960s, Muslims are very well assimilated into the US society and economy, in which the specific American civil society and religious organizations play an important enabling part, providing networks and inroads to society for newcomers as well as vehicles for preserving ethniccultural distinctiveness. This broad pattern of development has not changed in the aftermath of 9/11 and ensuing wars on terror. Compared with the Nordic context, where Muslims are often considered challenging to a secular social order, American Muslims do not stand out as more or differently religious, or any less American, than other religious communities. It is tentatively concluded that, downsides apart, US national identity and civil society structure could be more favorable for the social integration of Muslims than the Nordic welfare state model.

scholarly journals Virtual Realism: Really Realism or only Virtually so? A Comment on D. J. Chalmers’s Petrus Hispanus Lectures

Disputatio ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (55) ◽  
pp. 297-331
Author(s):  
Claus Beisbart
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Computer Simulations ◽  
Real Object ◽  
Virtual Object ◽  
Digital Object ◽  
Virtual Reality Environment ◽  
Virtual Objects ◽  
The Status ◽  
Digital Objects ◽  
Scientific Computer

AbstractWhat is the status of a cat in a virtual reality environment? Is it a real object? Or part of a fiction? Virtual realism, as defended by D. J. Chalmers, takes it to be a virtual object that really exists, that has properties and is involved in real events. His preferred specification of virtual realism identifies the cat with a digital object. The project of this paper is to use a comparison between virtual reality environments and scientific computer simulations to critically engage with Chalmers’s position. I first argue that, if it is sound, his virtual realism should also be applied to objects that figure in scientific computer simulations, e.g. to simulated galaxies. This leads to a slippery slope because it implies an unreasonable proliferation of digital objects. A philosophical analysis of scientific computer simulations suggests an alternative picture: The cat and the galaxies are parts of fictional models for which the computer provides model descriptions. This result motivates a deeper analysis of the way in which Chalmers builds up his realism. I argue that he buys realism too cheap. For instance, he does not really specify what virtual objects are supposed to be. As a result, rhetoric aside, his virtual realism isn’t far from a sort of fictionalism.

New Zealand School Uniforms in the Era of Democracy: 1965 to 1975

Costume ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-183
Author(s):  
Elaine Webster
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Education System ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
School Uniforms ◽  
Democratic Ideal ◽  
Slow Development ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
School Uniform ◽  
The 1960S

School uniforms are dynamic cultural forms and as such have meanings specific to the cultures in which they are worn. In New Zealand the history of their development is also a history of changing meanings specific to the New Zealand culture, connected to the status of children and the changing educational and social objectives of the education system. After a relatively slow development in New Zealand, school uniforms came into their own during the 1950s only to undergo radical change and diversification in the 1960s. During the 1970s school uniform as a practice reached a new extreme, allowing expressions of individualism and pluralism, values associated with a democratic ideal. Although such expressions threatened to overturn the sustaining principles of uniforms and uniformity, instead they reinforced uniforms as carriers and protectors of a powerful democratic ideal embedded in the New Zealand education system.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document