IV International Workshop “A Comparative Study of Nuclear Energy Programs from the 1940s until the 1970s"



Organized by the History of Science Unit, UPF

Barcelona, May 7-8., 2015
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Campus Ciutadella - Room 40.035 (Sala de Graus Albert Calsamiglia)


Workshop Description

The birth and diffusion of nuclear science and technology are probably  among the most far-reaching and significant changes in the  organizational forms, social and economic role, structure, and  contents of science and technology during the 20th century. The  complexity and demands of the nuclear energy option in terms of  technology, industry, economics and politics constitute strong enough  reasons to examine it from a wide variety of perspectives. The aim of  interdisciplinary historical reflection on the development of the  atomic programs which is proposed in this Conference is to make a  paradigmatic contribution to the generation of a framework of analysis  for the assessment of new policies of technological development in  general, and of that of energy in particular.

From this point of view, it is important to think over the nature of  the nuclear development programs between the 1950s and the 1980s in  order to determine their internal dynamics, to establish their  defining characteristics and to be able to bring the results to the  present-day discussion. The aim of the Conference is to provide a  comparative historical and systematic study of the development and  impact of nuclear programs in those European countries which hoped to  reach higher levels of industrial and economic development by  fostering nuclear power during the post-war period. This Conference  will help to show the historical character of processes of  technological development, as well as the need to deploy co-ordinated  economic theories and models in order to understand historical  processes of techno-scientific and industrial development in  contemporary societies. Because of the characteristics of nuclear  energy, the results of this Conference will be of great interest to  politicians, the administrators of scientific and industrial policies,  sociologists of science and technology, historians of technology and  science and of economics, and general historians of 20th-century Europe.

Invited speakers:

John Dimoia, NUS (Singapur)
Ivaylo Hristov, Plovdiv University "Paisii Hilendarski" (Bulgaria)
A. Vinod Kumar, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (India)
Gisela Mateos, UNAM (Mexico)
Diego H. de Mendoza, UNSAM (Argentina)
Đuro Miljanić, Institut Ruđer Bošković (Croatia)
Carlo Patti, Universidade Federal de Goiás (Brazil)
Albert Presas i Puig, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain)
Information
Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Departament d'Humanitats

Jaume I Building (Ciutadella Campus)
Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27
08005 Barcelona

Phone: +34 93 542 16 29
Fax: +34 93 542 16 20
Sponsored by MINECO - HAR2012-39260

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PhD Albert Presas i Puig
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27
08005 Barcelona