*RGS-IBG Annual Conference*
*Edinburgh*
*3-5 July 2012*
Organisers: Jochen F. Mayer and Luise Fischer (University of Edinburgh)
Call for Papers
*Geography, Science and Machines c. 1750-1960*
This session is concerned with the role of machines within the history
and geography of scientific knowledge-making c. 1750-1960. Our
proposal is informed by the belief that scholarship within historical
geography and the work on the geography of science has largely
neglected the material and technological bases to scientific
knowledge-making and to the ordering of the social world more broadly.
Scholarship has been interested in the technology and instruments of
exploration on earth (Driver 2001), and in outer-space (MacDonald
2007). There has been less attention, however, to historical and
sociological work that emphasised the role of material infrastructure
in the organisation of state power and the role of material cultural
practice in the manufacture of scientific knowledge (Shapin and
Schaffer 1985/2011; Callon 2004; Latour 2005; Bennett and Joyce 2010).
This proposal builds on such attempts to bridge the history of
technology and the history/geography of science. We explicitly ask
about the relationship between 'machines' and practices of knowledge
making in the wider social and cultural contexts. We apply a broad
understanding of 'machines'. They can be considered a (seemingly)
independently functioning structure and a human construction and
device. 'Machines' may describe 'small' instruments or 'large'
technologies (mechanical systems, or electronic systems). In the
attempt to avoid material determinism, we are particularly interested
in studies that explore the inclusion of human design and practice
into the meaning of 'machines', and that investigate the spatiality of
such human-machine relationships. We especially welcome papers that
explore the networks of technologies, institutions, and human
practices that allow a given society to select, store and produce
scientific knowledge.
Papers may include themes such as:
- The role (whether present or absent) of machines in scientific
knowledge making, e.g., machines in geographical knowledge production,
circulation, and reception
- Geographies of knowledge technologies (e.g., their construction,
meaning, and application) and human-machine relationships
- GIS as a 'machine' and the history of GIS within (the) geographical
discipline(s)
- Government/bureaucracy as machine, and machines within
government/bureaucracy (office machines such as typewriters etc.)
- Spatial interaction and scalar effects of 'machines' and
human practices
Please submit your abstract of 250 words (max. and including key
words) to both organisers Jochen Mayer ([log in to unmask]) and
Luise Fischer ([log in to unmask]) by *26 January 2012*.
Jochen F.Mayer
PhD Student
Institute of Geography
School of GeoSciences
University of Edinburgh
Drummond Street
Edinburgh EH8 9XP
www.jochen-f-mayer.com
--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
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