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This dissertation explores the complex interactions between the Cold War military-scientific apparatus, the idea of a culture of the Cold War, and the desert environment of the Tularosa Basin in south-central New Mexico. During and after World War II, the War Department and then the Department of Defense established several military reserves in the region. The massive White Sands Missile Range (at 3,200 square miles the largest military reserve in North America and larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined) and other military attachés would increasingly define the culture and economy of the Tularosa Basin. Historians have cast places such as White Sands Missile Range as cratered wastelands. Yet the missile range and surrounding military reserves became a contested landscape that centered on the viability of the nonhuman natural world. Diverse communities sought to find their place in a Cold War society and in the process redefined the value of a militarized landscape. Undeniably, missile technology had a profound impact on south-central New Mexico and thus acts as a central theme in the region's postwar history. However, in the years after 1945, environmentalists, wildlife officials, tourists, and displaced ranchers, amongst many others, continued to find new fangled meanings and unexpected uses for the militarized desert environment of south-central New Mexico. The Tularosa Basin was not merely a destroyed landscape. The design and sheer size of the missile range compelled local, national, and transnational voices to not just make sense of the economic implications of the missile range and surrounding military sites, but to rethink its cultural and environmental values in a changing Cold War society. It was a former home to ranchers still tied to the land through lease and suspension agreements. New Mexico Department of Game and Fish personnel cast the site as perfect for experimentation with exotic big game. Environmentalists and wildlife biologists saw the site as ideal for the reintroduction of the Mexican wolf. Tourists came to know the landscape through the simple obelisk at the Trinity Site. While missiles cratered the desert floor, the military bureaucracy did not hold absolute power over the complex interactions between cultures, economies, and the nonhuman natural environment on the postwar Tularosa Basin. / History

yes / Thomas S. Kuhn is famous both for his work on the Copernican Revolution and his ‘paradigm’ view of scientific revolutions. But Kuhn later abandoned the notion of paradigm (and related notions) in favour of a more ‘evolutionary’ view of the history of science. Kuhn’s position therefore moved closer to ‘continuity’ models of scientific progress, for instance ‘chain-of-reasoning’ models, originally championed by D. Shapere. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate around Kuhn’s new ‘developmental’ view and to evaluate these competing models with reference to some major innovations in the history of cosmology, from Copernicanism to modern cosmology. This evaluation is made possible through some unexpected overlap between Kuhn’s earlier discontinuity model and various versions of the later continuity models. It is the thesis of this paper that the ‘chain-of-reasoning’ model accounts better for the cosmological evidence than both Kuhn’s early paradigm model and his later developmental view of the history of science.

In this dissertation, I explore a selection of recent work in the philosophy and history of experiment, with an eye toward reformulating its focus and redirecting its future path. Specifically, I re-examine a traditional problem in the philosophy of experiment: how to make sense of scientists' attempts to separate experimental “signal” or “entity” from background “noise” or “artifact.” This aspect of the analysis of the practice of scientists—the day to day task of getting one's experimental equipment and techniques to give reliable results that will be accepted by prevailing scientific standards—requires modifications in order to be made compatible with an adequate notion of historiography and with a philosophically and historically tenable view of scientific epistemology. I show that the concept of historical narrative is a crucial, if not primary, construct in answering these questions about interpreting experimental practice. Particular historical narratives, and the historiographies that guide their construction, constitute the crucial evidence for any legitimate view of the epistemological and cultural significance of scientific experimentation. However, narrativity and historiography must be deconstructed before their conceptual significance for experimentation can be evaluated adequately. The metahistorical construct I implement in order to analyze questions concerning scientific experimentation is the technological infrastructure of science.Joseph Pitt's concept of the technological infrastructure of science, a material/cultural network of artifacts and structures that enables and sustains the mature sciences, provides the theoretical foundation for my analysis of experimentation. I extend and refine Pitt's concept of technological infrastructure in order to create a metahistorical tool that researchers in many fields, including Science and Technology Studies (STS), Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Technology, Cultural Studies (of Science and Technology), History of Science, and History of Technology, may utilize when analyzing experimentation. To this end, I develop the technological infrastructure as an incorporation, extension and/or replacement of, for example, Thomas Kuhn's “disciplinary matrix,” Bruno Latour's “network,” Peter Galison's “ short-, middle-, and long-term constraints,” Ian Hacking's “coherence of thought, action, materials, marks,” Hans-Jörg Rheinberger's “experimental system,” Andrew Pickering's “mangle of practice,” and Richard M. Burian's “interaction of mechanisms, of structures and functions, at a great many levels.” / Ph. D.

Vetenskapshistoria är ett viktigt inslag inom naturkunskap i gymnasieskolan. Denna studies syfte är att använda ett, i internationell forskning, etablerat analysschema för att undersöka hur vetenskapshistoria framställs i läromedel i termer av sju olika dimensioner: 1) typ och organisering, 2) material, 3) kontext, 4) det historiska innehållets status, 5) lärandeaktiviteter kopplat till vetenskapshistoria, 6) ”internal consistency”, och 7) bibliografi kopplad till vetenskapshistoria. Data från två läromedel för kursen Naturkunskap 1a1 samlades in baserat på dessa dimensioner och analyserades vilket gav kvalitativa resultat. Resultatet av denna studie visar att läromedel framställer vetenskaplig utveckling som linjär och enkel genom framträdande dimensioner. Detta i samband med genier i vetenskapliga kontexter genom konst och texter skrivna av läromedelsförfattare, ofta i introducerande kapitel och utan lärandeaktiviteter. Vidare visar resultatet att undanskymda dimensioner i läromedlen är framställningar av vanliga vetenskapspersoner, genom exempel på verklig vetenskaplig utveckling med hjälp av historiska undersökningar i teknologiska eller sociala kontexter. Likaså är frånvarande dimensioner religiösa och politiska kontexter, originaldokument, fördjupande lärandeaktiviteter, samt bibliografier. Detta blir den bild av vetenskap och vetenskapshistoria vilken presenteras för eleverna, resten måste kompletteras i undervisning. Resultatet visar att vetenskapshistoria används i läromedel i linje med vad internationell forskning visat. Resultatet av detta arbete är relevant och aktuellt för att guida framtida undersökningar, vilka kan ge mer insikt i läromedlens innehåll, genom att identifiera aktuella dimensioner i svensk kontext. Vidare har även fyra implikationer för svensk skola identifierats: a) vikten av lärares val av läromedel då vetenskapshistoriska kontexter varierar, b) lärarens medvetenhet om vetenskaplig utveckling och framställning, c) läromedels ”internal consistency” gällande vetenskapshistoria, d) bristen på fördjupande lärandeaktiviteter kopplat till vetenskapshistoria. Därför behövs forskning som visar vilka förtjänster och brister läromedel har, vilket möjliggör initierade val av lärare för komplettering av undervisning. Sammanfattningsvis visar detta arbete att vetenskapshistoria har stor potential som inte nyttjas fullt ut i läromedel vilket innebär att elever inte ges tillgång till viktiga resurser för lärande. Lärare måste vara medvetna om framträdande, undanskymda och frånvarande dimensioner i lärandeerbjudandet för att möjliggöra komplettering i resterande undervisning. Inte minst då individens utveckling gynnas, utan även för att stärka landets kapacitet att utbilda, skapa kompetens och kvalitetssäkra utbildning för framtida utmaningar och omställningar.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T14:16:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sonia Regina Tonetto.pdf: 1372040 bytes, checksum: 8041dda5cc94d8c48e9bf949419c38de (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work aims to analyze the ideas about methods of teaching science in the early twentieth advocated by prominent scientists as Marcellin Berthelot, Paul Langevin and Henri Poincaré and the important contribution of these scientists in the reform of French teaching, 1902. Furthermore, we sought to understand the difficulties faced in teaching in French schools of that period, we sought to also to understand what these scientists believed to be the ideal science teaching method and the influence of positivist ideas in these discussions. We analyzed in particular the role of Co-operative Education of Mme Curie (1907-1908) and the objectives of the group of teachers, including Paul Langevin, which was involved in the discussions on the reform. This work was developed from the analysis of documents filed at the Institut Curie and at Bibliothèque Nationale de France, texts and books written by scholars and scientists, with direct and indirect participation in the reform, records of lectures, articles and manuscripts of the children who participated in the cooperative, as Isabelle Chavannes and Irène Curie / Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar as ideias sobre métodos de ensino de ciências, no início do século XX, defendidas por cientistas de destaque, como Marcellin Berthelot, Paul Langevin e Henri Poincaré e a importante participação desses cientistas na reforma do ensino francês de 1902. Além disso, procurou-se entender as dificuldades enfrentadas no ensino nas escolas francesas daquele período, compreendendo o que esses cientistas acreditavam ser o método ideal para o ensino de ciências e a influência das ideias positivistas nessas discussões. Analisa-se em particular o papel da Cooperativa de Ensino de Mme Curie (1907-1908) e os objetivos do grupo de professores que, como Paul Langevin, se envolveu nos debates sobre a reforma. Este trabalho foi desenvolvido a partir da análise de documentos depositados no Institut Curie e na Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, textos da época, livros escritos por estudiosos e cientistas com participação direta e indireta na reforma, registros de conferências, artigos publicados, manuscritos das crianças que participaram da cooperativa, como Isabelle Chavannes e Irène Curie

The aim of the dissertation is to study the problem definitions and the governmental rationality of new activities aimed at reforming criminals, the poor and workers in Sweden during the mid-1800s. Three case studies analyse the solitary confinement penitentiary, the district visiting poor relief and the bildung-society for workers. A fourth case study analyses the introduction of crime statistics and prison photography. I argue that these different activities were part of the historical process that have been characterised as ”the birth of the social” and the new governmental rationality, ”liberal governmentality”. The initiators presupposed that civilisation had negative behavioural consequences among the lower classes. At the same time they expressed optimism regarding new fostering instances and how such could be integrated to a mutually supporting network. The aims of the new reformatory principles were regularly described as capacities for self-reflection, self-regulation and self-control among the lower classes. The dissertation shows that the new activities localised and defined a new set of problems and questions in terms of the social. ”Society” was what was to be protected as its ”inner” relationships were described as going through comprehensive historical changes. The ambition to lead, manage and organise the behaviours and values of the lower classes was even more far-reaching than was the desire to exert direct discipline. Order, well being and morals were integrated in a field of problems where effects on the lifestyles of the lower classes constituted the ultimate authoritative body.