Eric Schatzberg
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226583839
- eISBN:
- 9780226584027
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226584027.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
A sustained discourse about the relationship between science and technology only emerged after World War I. This discourse drew on the nineteenth-century concept of applied science. But applied ...
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A sustained discourse about the relationship between science and technology only emerged after World War I. This discourse drew on the nineteenth-century concept of applied science. But applied science was deeply ambiguous. It could refer to a field of practical knowledge, or it could imply the applications of academic science. Before World War II, some academics, mainly in the social sciences, defined technology as applied science. Sustained discussion of the science-technology relationship first emerged in the 1930s, not from natural scientists, social scientists, or engineers, but rather from historians of science. Historians of science drew from the Continental discourse of Technik to develop their own approach to the science-technology relationship. These scholars were responding in part to Soviet Marxists who presented a materialist approach to the history of science in a famous 1931 conference session, published as Science at the Cross Roads.Less
A sustained discourse about the relationship between science and technology only emerged after World War I. This discourse drew on the nineteenth-century concept of applied science. But applied science was deeply ambiguous. It could refer to a field of practical knowledge, or it could imply the applications of academic science. Before World War II, some academics, mainly in the social sciences, defined technology as applied science. Sustained discussion of the science-technology relationship first emerged in the 1930s, not from natural scientists, social scientists, or engineers, but rather from historians of science. Historians of science drew from the Continental discourse of Technik to develop their own approach to the science-technology relationship. These scholars were responding in part to Soviet Marxists who presented a materialist approach to the history of science in a famous 1931 conference session, published as Science at the Cross Roads.
Rita Nikolai and Christian Ebner
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199599431
- eISBN:
- 9780191731518
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199599431.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management
In recent years, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have adopted different strategies to increase permeability between dual vocational training and higher education. Germany relies on the ...
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In recent years, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have adopted different strategies to increase permeability between dual vocational training and higher education. Germany relies on the consideration of occupational competencies for higher education admission, while Switzerland and Austria have introduced double-qualification certificates that enable the simultaneous acquisition of a vocational degree and a higher education entrance qualification. Two points may be identified as the motivation for the reform impulse leading to the introduction of double qualifications in Switzerland and Austria. The first is the lack of attractiveness of the dual training system to most qualified young people; the second is the availability of attractive alternatives, such as the general upper secondary school system in Switzerland and the attractive full-time school-based VET options available in Austria. In Germany, the dual training system is already attractive to qualified young people; hence, there is less competition between the dual training system and other educational courses at upper secondary level.Less
In recent years, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have adopted different strategies to increase permeability between dual vocational training and higher education. Germany relies on the consideration of occupational competencies for higher education admission, while Switzerland and Austria have introduced double-qualification certificates that enable the simultaneous acquisition of a vocational degree and a higher education entrance qualification. Two points may be identified as the motivation for the reform impulse leading to the introduction of double qualifications in Switzerland and Austria. The first is the lack of attractiveness of the dual training system to most qualified young people; the second is the availability of attractive alternatives, such as the general upper secondary school system in Switzerland and the attractive full-time school-based VET options available in Austria. In Germany, the dual training system is already attractive to qualified young people; hence, there is less competition between the dual training system and other educational courses at upper secondary level.
Eric Schatzberg
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226583839
- eISBN:
- 9780226584027
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226584027.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
As the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century gave way to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth, collaboration between artisans and men of letters strengthened, despite persistent ...
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As the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century gave way to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth, collaboration between artisans and men of letters strengthened, despite persistent aristocratic prejudice against the mechanical arts. Encouraged by Francis Bacon’s widespread influence in Britain and France, Enlightenment authors explored the relationship between natural knowledge and productive activity as expressed in terms of a discourse of art and science. Many Enlightenment authors rejected the hierarchy that placed science above art, and instead viewed the relationship in terms of mutual dependence. Yet two key changes weakened potential conceptual links between science and the mechanical arts. First, the emergence of fine arts as a new concept in the mid-eighteenth century in effect stripped aesthetic creativity from the mechanical arts. And with the rise of industrial capitalism in the late eighteenth century, industrialists, not artisans, emerged as new allies for men of science.Less
As the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century gave way to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth, collaboration between artisans and men of letters strengthened, despite persistent aristocratic prejudice against the mechanical arts. Encouraged by Francis Bacon’s widespread influence in Britain and France, Enlightenment authors explored the relationship between natural knowledge and productive activity as expressed in terms of a discourse of art and science. Many Enlightenment authors rejected the hierarchy that placed science above art, and instead viewed the relationship in terms of mutual dependence. Yet two key changes weakened potential conceptual links between science and the mechanical arts. First, the emergence of fine arts as a new concept in the mid-eighteenth century in effect stripped aesthetic creativity from the mechanical arts. And with the rise of industrial capitalism in the late eighteenth century, industrialists, not artisans, emerged as new allies for men of science.
Michail Peramatzis
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588350
- eISBN:
- 9780191728877
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588350.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
Chapter 4 addresses the negative issue of what, in Aristotle's view, natural forms should not be understood as: their essence is not like that of mathematical or Platonist forms. After comparing ...
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Chapter 4 addresses the negative issue of what, in Aristotle's view, natural forms should not be understood as: their essence is not like that of mathematical or Platonist forms. After comparing mathematical with natural forms, Chapter 4 asks how to differentiate between them, and how to determine the types of matter (if any) which are essential to natural forms but not essential to mathematical entities. The contrast between the objects studied by mathematical sciences and those examined by physics suggests that, while mathematical form is essentially independent of all perceptible types of matter (collectively), natural form should not be conceived in this fashion. Not only higher‐level mathematical branches but also applied/subordinate mathematical sciences deal with abstract mathematical forms which are essentially independent of matter, while physics studies forms which are essentially non‐abstract and non‐mathematical.Less
Chapter 4 addresses the negative issue of what, in Aristotle's view, natural forms should not be understood as: their essence is not like that of mathematical or Platonist forms. After comparing mathematical with natural forms, Chapter 4 asks how to differentiate between them, and how to determine the types of matter (if any) which are essential to natural forms but not essential to mathematical entities. The contrast between the objects studied by mathematical sciences and those examined by physics suggests that, while mathematical form is essentially independent of all perceptible types of matter (collectively), natural form should not be conceived in this fashion. Not only higher‐level mathematical branches but also applied/subordinate mathematical sciences deal with abstract mathematical forms which are essentially independent of matter, while physics studies forms which are essentially non‐abstract and non‐mathematical.
Sonja D. Schmid
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262027953
- eISBN:
- 9780262326100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262027953.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter uses nuclear physics and reactor engineering as an example to illustrate uniquely Soviet discussion over “fundamental” and “applied” research during the Cold War. Post-Stalinist ...
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This chapter uses nuclear physics and reactor engineering as an example to illustrate uniquely Soviet discussion over “fundamental” and “applied” research during the Cold War. Post-Stalinist scientists found creative strategies around Party control that involved “boundary work” emphasizing scientific universalism. These strategies involved both a public image campaign for peaceful uses of nuclear energy (which linked abstract research agendas to concrete applications and the public good), and also the creation of organizational structures that would firmly anchor fundamental science in the country’s institutional landscape. The success of these strategies ironically reinforced a symbiotic relationship between science and the state by buttressing the rhetoric of “scientific neutrality” versus state ideology. While deeply contradictory, the rhetorical demarcation between “fundamental” and “applied” science served to materialize specific organizational arrangements, which in turn shaped the kind of research deemed appropriate, and the kinds of applications regarded desirable. This rhetorical move made it possible that both an “international” design and a uniquely “Soviet” model of nuclear power reactors found resonance among Soviet decision makers.Less
This chapter uses nuclear physics and reactor engineering as an example to illustrate uniquely Soviet discussion over “fundamental” and “applied” research during the Cold War. Post-Stalinist scientists found creative strategies around Party control that involved “boundary work” emphasizing scientific universalism. These strategies involved both a public image campaign for peaceful uses of nuclear energy (which linked abstract research agendas to concrete applications and the public good), and also the creation of organizational structures that would firmly anchor fundamental science in the country’s institutional landscape. The success of these strategies ironically reinforced a symbiotic relationship between science and the state by buttressing the rhetoric of “scientific neutrality” versus state ideology. While deeply contradictory, the rhetorical demarcation between “fundamental” and “applied” science served to materialize specific organizational arrangements, which in turn shaped the kind of research deemed appropriate, and the kinds of applications regarded desirable. This rhetorical move made it possible that both an “international” design and a uniquely “Soviet” model of nuclear power reactors found resonance among Soviet decision makers.
Sigrid Schmalzer
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262027953
- eISBN:
- 9780262326100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262027953.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter traces the emergence of a set of mutually reinforcing priorities in Cold War-era Chinese science: application, native techniques, mass mobilization, and most importantly, self-reliance. ...
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This chapter traces the emergence of a set of mutually reinforcing priorities in Cold War-era Chinese science: application, native techniques, mass mobilization, and most importantly, self-reliance. These priorities had immense ideological significance for Maoism and nationalism, and carried practical weight for China as a developing country. Moreover, China's relative isolation during certain periods of the Cold War intensified the emphasis on self-reliance and related priorities. With roots in the pre-1949 revolutionary period, and crystallizing in 1958 as China departed from the Soviet model, the idea of self-reliance eclipsed the actual importance of transnational influences and produced a belief in a uniquely socialist-Chinese approach to science. Ironically it became even more sharply articulated through the international exchanges of the 1970s, as foreign scientists eager to bring home exotic epistemologies participated in the promotion of Chinese uniqueness. In a few cases at least, such claims to uniqueness went beyond shaping the way people talked about science to change the actual character of scientific knowledge produced in Cold War China.Less
This chapter traces the emergence of a set of mutually reinforcing priorities in Cold War-era Chinese science: application, native techniques, mass mobilization, and most importantly, self-reliance. These priorities had immense ideological significance for Maoism and nationalism, and carried practical weight for China as a developing country. Moreover, China's relative isolation during certain periods of the Cold War intensified the emphasis on self-reliance and related priorities. With roots in the pre-1949 revolutionary period, and crystallizing in 1958 as China departed from the Soviet model, the idea of self-reliance eclipsed the actual importance of transnational influences and produced a belief in a uniquely socialist-Chinese approach to science. Ironically it became even more sharply articulated through the international exchanges of the 1970s, as foreign scientists eager to bring home exotic epistemologies participated in the promotion of Chinese uniqueness. In a few cases at least, such claims to uniqueness went beyond shaping the way people talked about science to change the actual character of scientific knowledge produced in Cold War China.
Eric Schatzberg
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226583839
- eISBN:
- 9780226584027
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226584027.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
From the turn of the twentieth century until World War II, the concept of technology gradually diffused throughout the social sciences. This diffusion did not, however, lead to a cohesive ...
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From the turn of the twentieth century until World War II, the concept of technology gradually diffused throughout the social sciences. This diffusion did not, however, lead to a cohesive understanding of the term technology. As academic boundaries between the social sciences hardened, several largely independent discourses of technology emerged, primarily in economics, sociology, and anthropology. By the early 1930s, the concept of technology had largely shed its nineteenth-century meaning as the science of the industrial arts. By World War II, technology had become a general term in the social sciences that referred to the material means of production, transportation, and communication. Yet academics rarely reflected deeply on technology as a concept in social theory, continuing the historical neglect of human productive activities by elite scholars.Less
From the turn of the twentieth century until World War II, the concept of technology gradually diffused throughout the social sciences. This diffusion did not, however, lead to a cohesive understanding of the term technology. As academic boundaries between the social sciences hardened, several largely independent discourses of technology emerged, primarily in economics, sociology, and anthropology. By the early 1930s, the concept of technology had largely shed its nineteenth-century meaning as the science of the industrial arts. By World War II, technology had become a general term in the social sciences that referred to the material means of production, transportation, and communication. Yet academics rarely reflected deeply on technology as a concept in social theory, continuing the historical neglect of human productive activities by elite scholars.
Eric Schatzberg
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226583839
- eISBN:
- 9780226584027
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226584027.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
By the end of the 1930s, the concept of technology seemed on the verge of becoming a keyword in academic discourse. But during and after World War I, science became even more identified with ...
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By the end of the 1930s, the concept of technology seemed on the verge of becoming a keyword in academic discourse. But during and after World War I, science became even more identified with technological modernity, displacing the concept of technology. Ironically, in an era when modern technology drew ever more heavily on science, natural scientists and humanist intellectuals doubled down on the ideology of pure science. Yet countervailing trends during the early Cold War encouraged wider use of the concept of technology. These trends included a new economic discourse on technological innovation, critiques of technology based in Continental philosophy, and the rise of the history of technology as an academic field.Less
By the end of the 1930s, the concept of technology seemed on the verge of becoming a keyword in academic discourse. But during and after World War I, science became even more identified with technological modernity, displacing the concept of technology. Ironically, in an era when modern technology drew ever more heavily on science, natural scientists and humanist intellectuals doubled down on the ideology of pure science. Yet countervailing trends during the early Cold War encouraged wider use of the concept of technology. These trends included a new economic discourse on technological innovation, critiques of technology based in Continental philosophy, and the rise of the history of technology as an academic field.
Ian Shaw
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231166409
- eISBN:
- 9780231541602
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231166409.003.0009
- Subject:
- Social Work, Research and Evaluation
Following reflections on how scientists in social work and other fields have contemplated the challenge of contributing to the application of their work, I consider four questions: 1. How should we ...
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Following reflections on how scientists in social work and other fields have contemplated the challenge of contributing to the application of their work, I consider four questions: 1. How should we think about the uses and misuses of science in social work? 2. What should we make of the demands for the impact of science? 3. Are some forms of social work science less susceptible to influence than others? 4. What is the relationship between knowing and doing in social work science? I close the chapter, and the book, with a reminder of the limits of social work science.Less
Following reflections on how scientists in social work and other fields have contemplated the challenge of contributing to the application of their work, I consider four questions: 1. How should we think about the uses and misuses of science in social work? 2. What should we make of the demands for the impact of science? 3. Are some forms of social work science less susceptible to influence than others? 4. What is the relationship between knowing and doing in social work science? I close the chapter, and the book, with a reminder of the limits of social work science.
Robert McCaughey
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231166881
- eISBN:
- 9780231537520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231166881.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter focuses on the growth of Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) during the years 1995–2007. It first considers the deanship of Zvi Galil and the ...
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This chapter focuses on the growth of Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) during the years 1995–2007. It first considers the deanship of Zvi Galil and the improvement in computer science under his watch, along with his restoration of the chemical engineering department that was previously integrated into the Henry Krumb School of Mines, Mineral Engineering and Materials Science. It then examines the changes within the departments of mining, minerals and metallurgy and applied physics/applied mathematics, as well as the establishment of a department of biomedical engineering. It also discusses the reinvention of the industrial engineering and operations research department and the positive developments in the departments of electrical engineering and mechanical and civil engineering. Finally, it describes Galil's legacy and his departure in 2007.Less
This chapter focuses on the growth of Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) during the years 1995–2007. It first considers the deanship of Zvi Galil and the improvement in computer science under his watch, along with his restoration of the chemical engineering department that was previously integrated into the Henry Krumb School of Mines, Mineral Engineering and Materials Science. It then examines the changes within the departments of mining, minerals and metallurgy and applied physics/applied mathematics, as well as the establishment of a department of biomedical engineering. It also discusses the reinvention of the industrial engineering and operations research department and the positive developments in the departments of electrical engineering and mechanical and civil engineering. Finally, it describes Galil's legacy and his departure in 2007.
David Byrne
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847424518
- eISBN:
- 9781447301486
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847424518.003.0011
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Research and Statistics
This chapter draws on the arguments presented in preceding chapters in developing a proposal for the proper forms and role of applied social science in the 21st century with a particular emphasis on ...
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This chapter draws on the arguments presented in preceding chapters in developing a proposal for the proper forms and role of applied social science in the 21st century with a particular emphasis on the role of knowledge in relation to present interwoven ecological and financial crises. It argues for a responsibility in terms of praxis — in effect reversing the arguments Max Weber made at the beginning of the 21st century for a distinction between the academic and political modes of practice. It examines a number of issues involved in the statement that applied social research is political.Less
This chapter draws on the arguments presented in preceding chapters in developing a proposal for the proper forms and role of applied social science in the 21st century with a particular emphasis on the role of knowledge in relation to present interwoven ecological and financial crises. It argues for a responsibility in terms of praxis — in effect reversing the arguments Max Weber made at the beginning of the 21st century for a distinction between the academic and political modes of practice. It examines a number of issues involved in the statement that applied social research is political.
David Byrne
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847424518
- eISBN:
- 9781447301486
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847424518.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Research and Statistics
This chapter addresses ‘the methodological foundations of applied social science’. It begins with a critique of existing meta-theoretical positions through a consideration of the implications of ...
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This chapter addresses ‘the methodological foundations of applied social science’. It begins with a critique of existing meta-theoretical positions through a consideration of the implications of understanding social research practice as necessarily post-positivist, focusing in particular on the implications of realism for applied social research. It develops an account of ‘complex realism’ based on the implications of understanding the social world as composed of complex open systems. The chapter deals in summary with two opposing methodological positions which have had considerable influence in relation to formal discussions of the methodological foundations of social research. It reviews the arguments about quantity versus quality: asserts that the methodological disputes between quantitative and qualitative modes of social inquiry are always fatuous. It turns to issues surrounding knowing and acting — the content of the Greek term ‘praxis’ which is the foundation of all conceptions of critical social science, particularly but by no means exclusively as informed by the thinking of Marx.Less
This chapter addresses ‘the methodological foundations of applied social science’. It begins with a critique of existing meta-theoretical positions through a consideration of the implications of understanding social research practice as necessarily post-positivist, focusing in particular on the implications of realism for applied social research. It develops an account of ‘complex realism’ based on the implications of understanding the social world as composed of complex open systems. The chapter deals in summary with two opposing methodological positions which have had considerable influence in relation to formal discussions of the methodological foundations of social research. It reviews the arguments about quantity versus quality: asserts that the methodological disputes between quantitative and qualitative modes of social inquiry are always fatuous. It turns to issues surrounding knowing and acting — the content of the Greek term ‘praxis’ which is the foundation of all conceptions of critical social science, particularly but by no means exclusively as informed by the thinking of Marx.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226068633
- eISBN:
- 9780226068664
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226068664.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Publishers and authors—including scientists—usually hoped to make money from popular science literature, but most of the authors also had deeper motivations. Some scientists felt that it was ...
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Publishers and authors—including scientists—usually hoped to make money from popular science literature, but most of the authors also had deeper motivations. Some scientists felt that it was important that the public was informed about science by people who knew what was really going on. But while scientists and science writers were genuinely enthusiastic about their subject, they had deeper reasons for wanting to promote science both to those with political and social influence, and to the public at large. By the early decades of the century, the scientific community in Britain was already highly professionalized and was expanding rapidly, especially in those areas in which science could be applied to technological development. Yet scientists still argued that the country did not provide enough support for science, in part because the governing class did not appreciate the subject. This chapter, which examines the debates about science in nineteenth-century Britain and its implications for discovery as well as religion, also discusses applied and subversive science.Less
Publishers and authors—including scientists—usually hoped to make money from popular science literature, but most of the authors also had deeper motivations. Some scientists felt that it was important that the public was informed about science by people who knew what was really going on. But while scientists and science writers were genuinely enthusiastic about their subject, they had deeper reasons for wanting to promote science both to those with political and social influence, and to the public at large. By the early decades of the century, the scientific community in Britain was already highly professionalized and was expanding rapidly, especially in those areas in which science could be applied to technological development. Yet scientists still argued that the country did not provide enough support for science, in part because the governing class did not appreciate the subject. This chapter, which examines the debates about science in nineteenth-century Britain and its implications for discovery as well as religion, also discusses applied and subversive science.
Robert McCaughey
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231166881
- eISBN:
- 9780231537520
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231166881.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book provides a social history of Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). It combines archival research with oral testimony and contemporary interviews to build a ...
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This book provides a social history of Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). It combines archival research with oral testimony and contemporary interviews to build a portrait of one of the oldest engineering schools in the United States. The book follows the evolving relationship between SEAS's engineers and the rest of the Columbia University student body, faculty, and administration. It also describes the interaction between SEAS staff and the inhabitants and institutions of New York City, where the school has resided since it was founded in 1864. It compares the historical struggles and achievements of the school's past engineers with the present-day battles and accomplishments of their successors. It contrasts the school's teaching and research approaches with those of other engineering schools. It provides both a localized history of a school striving to define itself within a university known for its strengths in the humanities and the social sciences and a wider story of the transformation of the applied sciences into a critical component of American technology and education.Less
This book provides a social history of Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). It combines archival research with oral testimony and contemporary interviews to build a portrait of one of the oldest engineering schools in the United States. The book follows the evolving relationship between SEAS's engineers and the rest of the Columbia University student body, faculty, and administration. It also describes the interaction between SEAS staff and the inhabitants and institutions of New York City, where the school has resided since it was founded in 1864. It compares the historical struggles and achievements of the school's past engineers with the present-day battles and accomplishments of their successors. It contrasts the school's teaching and research approaches with those of other engineering schools. It provides both a localized history of a school striving to define itself within a university known for its strengths in the humanities and the social sciences and a wider story of the transformation of the applied sciences into a critical component of American technology and education.
Robert Bud
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781474424929
- eISBN:
- 9781474496087
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474424929.003.0032
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Repeated press discussion of the upturning of traditional civilisation through science underlies the chapter’s treatment of science and the press explored through three sections. The first summarises ...
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Repeated press discussion of the upturning of traditional civilisation through science underlies the chapter’s treatment of science and the press explored through three sections. The first summarises an historical scholarship which has gone beyond old categories of popularisation to show how the press constructed science in the public sphere, principally before the Second World War. Secondly, the chapter explores the coverage of ‘applied science’ by the press during that period. It deals with the contributions of such journalists covering ‘modern life’ as Vera Brittan and Storm Jameson as well as celebration of local industrial research laboratories on the one hand and warnings of the danger of new weapons on the other. Finally, there is a treatment of science in the press and its ‘medicalisation’ during the post Second-World-war period. Increasingly, contrasting enthusiasms and terrors have been mapped and analysed by the literature that has grown out of the new scholarship in public engagement with science, and by the broader study of science, technology and society.Less
Repeated press discussion of the upturning of traditional civilisation through science underlies the chapter’s treatment of science and the press explored through three sections. The first summarises an historical scholarship which has gone beyond old categories of popularisation to show how the press constructed science in the public sphere, principally before the Second World War. Secondly, the chapter explores the coverage of ‘applied science’ by the press during that period. It deals with the contributions of such journalists covering ‘modern life’ as Vera Brittan and Storm Jameson as well as celebration of local industrial research laboratories on the one hand and warnings of the danger of new weapons on the other. Finally, there is a treatment of science in the press and its ‘medicalisation’ during the post Second-World-war period. Increasingly, contrasting enthusiasms and terrors have been mapped and analysed by the literature that has grown out of the new scholarship in public engagement with science, and by the broader study of science, technology and society.
Robert McCaughey
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231166881
- eISBN:
- 9780231537520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231166881.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter evaluates the status of Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) as it celebrates its 150th anniversary. It first looks at the SEAS faculty, which increased ...
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This chapter evaluates the status of Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) as it celebrates its 150th anniversary. It first looks at the SEAS faculty, which increased from thirty-eight men in 1939 to 183, including twenty-seven women, in 2013. It then considers developments that produced a transnational SEAS faculty of research-focused applied scientists, in place of the earlier all-male teaching engineers. It also compares SEAS with other engineering schools in America and its departments with their Columbia science counterparts and discusses the entrepreneurship of SEAS graduates, Columbia's emphasis on interdisciplinary and collaborative working relationships across campus(es), the current SEAS undergraduate students and alumni, and the role played by SEAS deans in its transformation. The chapter concludes by assessing the place of Columbia in New York City and the place of engineering within Columbia.Less
This chapter evaluates the status of Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) as it celebrates its 150th anniversary. It first looks at the SEAS faculty, which increased from thirty-eight men in 1939 to 183, including twenty-seven women, in 2013. It then considers developments that produced a transnational SEAS faculty of research-focused applied scientists, in place of the earlier all-male teaching engineers. It also compares SEAS with other engineering schools in America and its departments with their Columbia science counterparts and discusses the entrepreneurship of SEAS graduates, Columbia's emphasis on interdisciplinary and collaborative working relationships across campus(es), the current SEAS undergraduate students and alumni, and the role played by SEAS deans in its transformation. The chapter concludes by assessing the place of Columbia in New York City and the place of engineering within Columbia.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226068633
- eISBN:
- 9780226068664
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226068664.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Some of the revolutionary developments in science had immediate practical implications. And it was these applications that were most likely to catch the attention of general readers. There was some ...
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Some of the revolutionary developments in science had immediate practical implications. And it was these applications that were most likely to catch the attention of general readers. There was some involvement by academics in writing about applied science, especially in areas such as chemistry that corresponded to established university subjects. But most of the applied scientists worked in industry or in government institutions, and were less free to express themselves. As far as most readers were concerned, science and technology were indistinguishable. Popular science magazines were, in fact, devoted mostly to applied science and engineering. The subjects covered related both to everyday life, where innovations such as radio were having a huge impact, and to the wider application of science in the industries that now provided most people with their livelihood. There were more traditional interests that linked amateur observers with the realms of science: astronomy and natural history. One of the most active areas of science in the nineteenth century had been geology, which had transformed people's view of the earth's past.Less
Some of the revolutionary developments in science had immediate practical implications. And it was these applications that were most likely to catch the attention of general readers. There was some involvement by academics in writing about applied science, especially in areas such as chemistry that corresponded to established university subjects. But most of the applied scientists worked in industry or in government institutions, and were less free to express themselves. As far as most readers were concerned, science and technology were indistinguishable. Popular science magazines were, in fact, devoted mostly to applied science and engineering. The subjects covered related both to everyday life, where innovations such as radio were having a huge impact, and to the wider application of science in the industries that now provided most people with their livelihood. There were more traditional interests that linked amateur observers with the realms of science: astronomy and natural history. One of the most active areas of science in the nineteenth century had been geology, which had transformed people's view of the earth's past.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804770750
- eISBN:
- 9780804778374
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804770750.003.0002
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management
The business school is part of the research university, a twentieth-century invention that established the research profession and professoriate and integrated the values of professional science into ...
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The business school is part of the research university, a twentieth-century invention that established the research profession and professoriate and integrated the values of professional science into higher education and in industry. The research university performed two new values and purposes, knowledge discovery and occupational training, in addition to the university's traditional function of cultural preservation. In and through the research university, the business school and the college acquired professional status that exceeded that of the previous sole profession, the ministry. Both institutions, and the research university in general, organized under the value of specialization and the value-creating synergy between basic science and applied science. Science was professionalized in the technical institute and the graduate school, as exemplified by the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago, respectively. This chapter discusses the history of the research university and the rise of the scientific tradition. It looks at the classical college, the scientific school, and University Extension.Less
The business school is part of the research university, a twentieth-century invention that established the research profession and professoriate and integrated the values of professional science into higher education and in industry. The research university performed two new values and purposes, knowledge discovery and occupational training, in addition to the university's traditional function of cultural preservation. In and through the research university, the business school and the college acquired professional status that exceeded that of the previous sole profession, the ministry. Both institutions, and the research university in general, organized under the value of specialization and the value-creating synergy between basic science and applied science. Science was professionalized in the technical institute and the graduate school, as exemplified by the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago, respectively. This chapter discusses the history of the research university and the rise of the scientific tradition. It looks at the classical college, the scientific school, and University Extension.
Robert McCaughey
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231166881
- eISBN:
- 9780231537520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231166881.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines developments at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) during the years 1980–1994. The departure in 1980 of William J. McGill as Columbia ...
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This chapter examines developments at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) during the years 1980–1994. The departure in 1980 of William J. McGill as Columbia president marked the end of a crucial turnaround chapter in the school's history. His successor was Michael I. Sovern, the first Jew to become president of Columbia. This chapter first considers the changes implemented at SEAS's Department of Computer Science before discussing Columbia's response to the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act. It then evaluates the deanships of Robert A. Gross and David H. Auston, efforts to establish bioengineering at Columbia on a firmer foundation, and the establishment of the Morris A. Schapiro Center for Engineering and Physical Science Research. It also discusses the hiring of more women in the engineering faculty and the increase in SEAS admissions.Less
This chapter examines developments at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) during the years 1980–1994. The departure in 1980 of William J. McGill as Columbia president marked the end of a crucial turnaround chapter in the school's history. His successor was Michael I. Sovern, the first Jew to become president of Columbia. This chapter first considers the changes implemented at SEAS's Department of Computer Science before discussing Columbia's response to the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act. It then evaluates the deanships of Robert A. Gross and David H. Auston, efforts to establish bioengineering at Columbia on a firmer foundation, and the establishment of the Morris A. Schapiro Center for Engineering and Physical Science Research. It also discusses the hiring of more women in the engineering faculty and the increase in SEAS admissions.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804770750
- eISBN:
- 9780804778374
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804770750.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management
This chapter examines Chester Barnard's epistemology for a management science and his argument with Herbert Simon, founder of organization science. Simon separated research from experience, thus ...
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This chapter examines Chester Barnard's epistemology for a management science and his argument with Herbert Simon, founder of organization science. Simon separated research from experience, thus establishing the boundaries between management science and practice. Instead of drawing from cases to develop the new science's governing principles, however, he based his work mainly on one text and his experience with it: Barnard's The Functions of the Executive. According to Barnard's epistemology of applied social science, each new science demarcates a new field that is different from ordinary action. Although Simon operated within these parameters, Barnard developed a science that explained parameter-setting per se. Barnard corresponded extensively with Simon, who revised his classic work, Administrative Behavior (1947). Barnard supported Simon's research because he thought that Simon rationalized away the hard problems at the heart of an applied social science. Barnard, however, never published his own foundational document that he began drafting in 1940.Less
This chapter examines Chester Barnard's epistemology for a management science and his argument with Herbert Simon, founder of organization science. Simon separated research from experience, thus establishing the boundaries between management science and practice. Instead of drawing from cases to develop the new science's governing principles, however, he based his work mainly on one text and his experience with it: Barnard's The Functions of the Executive. According to Barnard's epistemology of applied social science, each new science demarcates a new field that is different from ordinary action. Although Simon operated within these parameters, Barnard developed a science that explained parameter-setting per se. Barnard corresponded extensively with Simon, who revised his classic work, Administrative Behavior (1947). Barnard supported Simon's research because he thought that Simon rationalized away the hard problems at the heart of an applied social science. Barnard, however, never published his own foundational document that he began drafting in 1940.