Reminder CfP "1970s: Turn of an era in the history of science?" - Deadline April 30
Call for
papers: Workshop "1970s: Turn of an era in the history of science?"
Centre for Science Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
September 14-15, 2015
Deadline:
April 30, 2015
Confirmed
speakers:
Mark Carey,
University of Oregon, Eugene, USA
Michael
Egan, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
Rüdiger Graf,
Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam, Germany
Elke Seefried,
Institut für Zeitgeschichte, München, and Universität Augsburg, Germany
Call for
papers
The decade
of the 1970s is regarded as a ‘turn of an era’ by many scholars. Eric Hobsbawm
describes the shift from a “golden age” of rapid economic growth to an age of
economic stagnation. Helmut Kaelble refers to it as “a major turning point
or turning period of the 20th century”. Niall Ferguson depicts the 1970s as a time of
crisis in many spheres: the economic (with high inflation), political (with new
movements and political conflicts), social (with increases in abortion, crime,
class conflict, marital breakdown, and racial tensions), and popular culture.
Konrad Jarausch marks this period as “the end of confidence”, describing a
shift from progress optimism to cultural pessimism. Jeremy Black emphasizes the
rise of environmental transformations and environmental consciousness in the
1970s, whilst Thomas Borstelmann argues that “the years of uncertainty and
disillusionment” during this period opened opportunities for reform,
improvement and cultural change.
Where do
the sciences feature in this picture of the 1970s? Whilst historical interest
in this period has risen quickly in recent years, little attention has so far
been paid to the role of science in this decade of crisis and political and
cultural change. Historian of science Jon Agar, as a rare exception, suggests
the “long 1960s” as a “period of ‘sea change’” in the history of science. He
depicts changing institutional dynamics, a multiplication of experts, the rise
of value- and knowledge-based social movements, and orientation towards the
self as transformative forces in science and its cultural context. He argues
that we lack sufficient synthetic accounts for the sciences. Others prefer to speak
of the ‘long 1970s’ to contrast features of unrest and crisis with enthusiasm
in fields such as scientific planning and
futurology.
This
workshop aims to address these questions and to cast light on the sciences
and their relationships to broader themes of political crisis and cultural
transformation in the 1970s. This turn of an era raises many questions. How did
the events of the 1970s impact the sciences and their perception in broader
culture? To what extent were scientists affected by changing economic and
political contexts and social interests? How did scientists view society during
the 1970s, and how did they seek to portray themselves in light of broader
social and political unrest? In what ways did scientists contribute to change
in the 1970s? Broader historiographic questions, too, are of interest: How do
Cold War science narratives help or hinder to understand the 1970s? Which
concepts can serve to investigate the rise of environmental interest in science
and broader culture? What continuities and discontinuities in the
(environmental) sciences are visible from the pre-1970s to the post-1970s?
Within these broad topics, this workshop will focus on the role of
environmental interest and resources in science in the 1970s. Pertinent topics
to be discussed are scientific efforts related to nuclear energy, the oil
crises, limits of growth, alternative energy technologies, environmental
pollution, future planning, etc. Other topics dealing with science and its
cultural impact in the 1970s will also be considered. We invite contributions of individual papers to
this workshop. Please provide a 300-word abstract and a short CV. Some travel
funding is available for young scholars. Please indicate if you need financial
support. Deadline is April 30, 2015. Submissions should be sent to the following
address: 1970s-workshop@css.au.dk. This call for papers is available online at http://css.au.dk/en/research/projects/cultures-of-prediction/events/.
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Matthias Heymann
Centre for Science Studies
Aarhus University
Ny Munkegade 118, Building 1530
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark