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Nuclear experts and nuclear expertise in a global context after 1945 Nuclear experts and nuclear expertise in a global context after 1945 Veranstalter:
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Metzler, Gabriele Sachse, Carola |
| Copyright Year | 2015 |
| Abstract | Nuclear experts and nuclear expertise were at the center of a workshop hosted by Gabriele Metzler (Berlin) and Carola Sachse (Vienna) at Humboldt University Berlin on 6 and 7 October 2014. The participants, mostly historians and political scientists from various continents, aimed at researching these experts and their knowledge in a global context after 1945. The conference thus sought to shed light on a phenomenon that can be seen as crucial for our understanding of the last century. It is impossible to think of the international and social history of the second half of the 20th century without considering the role experts played in this „nuclear age.“ To put it briefly, there would have been no „Cold War“, as we are accustomed to labeling this period, if there had not been physicists who developed the weapon of that age. In general, atomic power was the product of a longterm research process, and scientific experts were the decisive protagonists in the detection and utilization of nuclear fission. Their expertise enabled the leaders of states, the military and the economy to put nuclear knowledge to strategic use. They thereby helped transform the post-war world order. At the same time, so-called „counter-experts“ questioned the potential and the consequences of the military and civil use of nuclear power, giving scientific credence to social protest movements. Expertise became more and more important during the 19th and 20th century, as the knowledge society developed dynamically. Lutz Raphael referred to this process as „scientification of the social,“ a concept that has gained lasting influence in historiography. Experts with scientific knowledge became increasingly present in bureaucracies, political parties, parliaments and the economy. Soon they played a vital role in social processes because they possessed the authority to produce knowledge and define problems. What did experts have to do in order to be regarded as such? Most importantly, they had to follow a particular verbal and nonverbal strategy. They referred to the concepts of „truth“ and „objectivity;“ additionally, they displayed their expertise by using elaborate rhetorical and performative strategies, creating legitimacy through trust. Experts behaved in a way that lent credence to what they were saying, and they used specific rhetorical and visual strategies to make their audience believe what they maintained. In her introduction, CAROLA SACHSE delineated six questions that served as guidelines for the discussion. These were: 1. How can we understand knowledge about nuclear energy after 1945? 2. Who was an expert and how did they justify their status as such? What role did trust as an immaterial resource play in that context? 3. How did they organize? How did experts from countries further from the center of the Cold War participate? 4. Did this „community of knowledge“ develop a transnational identity? Did it contribute to the delegitimizing of the nation-state and of national statehood? 5. How did governments, the public and protest movements perceive these experts? 6. What part did experts play with regard to (non-) proliferation of nuclear weapons? Subsequent contributions approached the issue from different angles, touching upon different fields. Some of them studied particular individuals who, as experts, played vital roles in establishing and promoting the field of nuclear expertise. In his talk, SEBASTIAN VEHLKEN (Lüneburg) for example focused on scientist Wolf Häfele. He situated Häfele’s work in an „age of hypotheticality,“ stressing the importance of computer simulations for the development of nuclear theory. WAQAR ZAIDI (Lahore) concentrated on James T. Shotwell’s attempts to popularize his proposals for the international control of atomic energy in the United Sates. By doing so, Zaidi sought to alter our understanding of early postwar atomic internationalism, and the role scientists and non-scientists played within the construction of the expertise on nu- |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/index.asp?id=5709&pn=tagungsberichte&type=tagungsberichte&view=pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
