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