Science and scientists in Victorian and Edwardian literary novels: insights into the emergence of a new profession, Public Understand. Sci. 16 (2007) 205–222 comes as good reminder of, who the authors of the time were, and, of their efforts and those of the literary world to bring Science to the wider Public.
This and much else is perhaps very much taken for granted today so a word "In Memoriam" for these early writers is surely merited. What is the situation in USA on evolution ...Sage Publications most probably do not readily reach the wider public unless comments appear via the press and internet news. Hint Hint.
This paper is due to Nicolas Russell, who Acknowledges "Members of the Humanities Programme at Imperial College London commented on earlier drafts of this paper, and several anonymous reviewers have looked at drafts carefully. Responding to their comments has greatly improved this paper, and I thank everyone involved for their critiques.
Comments welcome cf also my blogs
WebSearch –Try: Management-Methods-Foresight-Prospective Studies-Roadmaps-Innovation.
Web and Blog List
Wednesday 28 October 2009
When Charles Darwin, FRS,(12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) dared not publish: "On the Origins of Species "(1859) until after his death
Public harassement of Science and what of global environmental warnings ?
I came across this paper refering to post WWII relationships between Government and Science and thought I would give it a mention, a recommendation, if such is required.
If readers have comments to add this and all sage catelogue is freely available for three or four more days, to 31Oct. 2009 ,
Malthus at mid-century: neo-Malthusianism as bio-political governance in the post-WWII
United States
Abstract:
"The paper provides a discursive history of neo-Malthusianism in the United States, focusing primarily on the mid-20th century. In the process, the author, K. Schlosser of the Dept. of Geography and Geology, West Kentucky Univ., critically examines texts invoking Malthusian arguments in relation to the politics of sex and birth control, class and eugenics, and race and geopolitics, focusing on how they rendered human population growth intelligible in particularly reductive and naturalistic ways. The purpose is to show how this history impinges upon the construction of population-resource theory after WWII, focusing specifically on William Vogt’s book, "Road to survival" and Fairfield Osborn’s book, "Our plundered planet." (both published in 1948)
Schlosser argues that the production and circulation of generalized models of population-induced conflict in the post-war United States was an important part of the nationalization and government harnessing of science in the name of national security, and relevant to post-war developmentalism and early Cold War containment doctrine. This helps us understand how neo-Malthusian discourse has been deployed as a form of bio-political governance.
en référence à : Malthus at mid-century: neo-Malthusianism as bio-political governance in the post-WWII United States -- Schlosser 16 (4): 465 -- Cultural Geographies (afficher sur Google Sidewiki)More comments and refs.
I. "Faifield Osborn (President of the New York Zoological Society) has written out of his conviction that unless public opinion is aroused, and the proper conservation of the natural and human resources of every country regarded as a moral duty, then the Earth's fertility cannot continue to sustain her rising population. No nation in the long history of civilisation has been more violently destructive of its life-supporting resources than the United States of America - that "country of the great illusion", the country that "can feed the world"! But the problem is worldwide. Fundamental to the troubles not only of nations like China and India, but of all nations, is the misuse of the land by their people; in parts of Russia, in the British Commonwealth, in South America, Mexico, the process is taking place which has made the deserts of Central Asia and Mesopotamia.
Henry Fairfield Osborn,Jr
II. Originally in French then translated to English with Google Assited Translator:
a) About this book, Albert Einstein is quoted as saying : " While reading this book, the futility of most of our political quarrels compared with the deeper realities of life, is acutely felt."
b)For Jacques Grinevald, (1948- ) Bio in FR. [Interdisciplinary Science and Ecology] this is "A book which shows an epoch: it is the beginning of the new age of ecology throughout the world. A cry of alarm, after the Second World War, too quickly forgotten. F. Osborn cites the idea that man has become a new geological force. (...) This is the first generation of ecological disaster, after Hiroshima. "
(In The Biosphere of the Anthropocene, Geneva, 2008, p.101.)
De ce livre, Albert Einstein dit : « On sent d’une façon aiguë en lisant ce livre la futilité de la plupart de nos querelles politiques comparées avec les réalités profondes de la vie ». Pour Jacques Grinevald, c'est "Un livre-manifeste qui fait époque : c’est le début du nouvel âge de l’écologie à l’échelle du monde. Un cri d’alarme, au lendemain de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, trop vite oublié. F. Osborn cite l’idée que l’homme est devenu une nouvelle force géologique. (...) C’est la première génération du catastrophisme écologique, après Hiroshima." (In La Biosphère de l'Anthropocène, Genève, 2008, p.101.)
Friday 9 October 2009
Workaholism in Cross-Cultural Research from Sage Publications_more reading free to 31 OctO9
This note brings more work-related problem themes to the readers attention, this time from Cross-Cultural Research Journal, one among many helpful journals on science management, business, medicine, society...of apparently increasing relevence in recent times of crises.
This wiki post follows my two previous blog entries on my "This-Above-All" pages ( ref. Advances in Development of "Human Resources") my rapid review of management themes via Sage's Global online free acess to 31 Oct2009 aided greatly by Googles Toolbar new Sidewiki widget.
Join me as a reader and reviewer of your prefered Sage Journal. There is a serious journal here for every one's preoccupation whatever that may be.
Link
http://ccr.sagepub.com/
Insights on Emerging Trends and the Future of Human Resource Development
Hot on my rapid reviews of Advances in Developing Human Resources (a change from my professional origines in Materials, Minerals and Mining). The foresight focus of my management and MBA blog can hardly ignore this paper, Abstract and link below. Hopefully the DRH's et al will recover from the 2008 financial crises and 2009 considered by The Economist to be the year of the CFO-Chief Financial Officer.
Normally managers who share my professional discipline as a metallurgist and materials scienctist and engineer do not mistake natural physical resources, dead matter as opposed to the human-kind. Could using hard science concepts for the very much softer shorter-life variety be at the problem at heart?
Abstract:
The problem and the solution. The future holds countless challenges. The future cannot be known, and it must not be ignored. Understanding trends and indicators emerging today helps us to proactively think about potential future developments and positions us to constructively shape them. This article reports on a survey of 55 human resource development (HRD) and HRD-related practitioners and academics who identified trends, variables, and challenges that they believe are affecting and will affect the profession during the next 15 to 20 years. by
Refs:
Ruona, W. E. A., Lynham, S. A., & Chermack, T. J. (2003). Insights on emerging
trends and the future of human resource development. Advances in Developing
Human Resources, 5(3), 272-282
Univ. of Georgia, Texas A&M Univ., Univ. of Minnesota resp.
Abstract:
The problem and the solution. The future holds countless challenges. The future cannot be known, and it must not be ignored. Understanding trends and indicators emerging today helps us to proactively think about potential future developments and positions us to constructively shape them. This article reports on a survey of 55 human resource development (HRD) and HRD-related practitioners and academics who identified trends, variables, and challenges that they believe are affecting and will affect the profession during the next 15 to 20 years.
Ref:
Link to Sage Publications
Key words:emerging trends; HRD future role; HRD challenges
Advances in Developing Human Resources_Sage Free Online to 31 Oct09
Here in France one cannot avoid being moved by unusually high levels of work-related suicides. The current record is apparently held by France Telecom following previously notorious results at Renault-Techno Centre and Peugot Car manufacturers. Sage free access gives acces to many peer reviewed journals on management... more than I can ever hope to read. But on my first glance at Advances in Developing Human Resources let me bring your attention to the importance of the back to basics approach, freely available paper by Richard A. Swanson, intitled "The Foundations of Performance
Improvement and Implications
for Practice" written in 1999.
cf. link
Abstract:
The Problem and the Solution . A problem faced by almost all organizations,
and by those who work in them, is in meeting the constant demand for high
performance The demand for high performance affects everything, from assunng
sustainable financial growth of the organization to satisfying the next customer
standing at the front counter But without a holistic mental model of performance
and the theoretical elements that drive it, practitioners are left with the task of
dissecting and interpreting each situation they face Or even worse, they simply
charge ahead in a trial-and-error mode Performance improvement theory results
in powerful and practical principles and models to help practitioners identify and
solve performance problems.
Guns germs and steel->Guns, gems, and steel, Guns Minerals-Gems "coal iron and steel" : The Fate(s) of Human Societies_ One Year on
Judging by my previous post, ref. below, giving more weight if necessary to the obvious, ie. that coal as a fuel source is here to stay, as long as reserves last, approximately an estimated 400 years ...
As yet I have not been able to read the paper in Science, ref. previous post, but trust that while I and most EU experts, fully agree with Steven Chu on CCS, carbon capture and sequestration- it's part of a Socolow-Pacala Wedge strategy, n'est ce pas, ie. PRACTISE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGY however even this is considered insufficient since the likely numbers of qualified sequestration sites is well below the volumes required to sink the massive amounts of CO2 involved. (references and figures, volumes, numbers, may be found throught my interlinked blog posts.) So other innovative strategies to sequester the huge volumes CO2 equally or more efficiently are required, including obviously, protection of existing and increasing areas of Rainforests in the future (a subprimes problem?).
NB. Remember that today's European Community at peace, still, was underpinned by The European Coal and Steel Community.
Thanks for the prompt, marry.
RELATED POSTS.
Coal_Carbon Capture and Sequestration by Steven Chu U.S. Secretary of Energy and a Nobel Laureate in physics, G20?
Guns, gems and steel: The Fate(s) of Human Societies, 24 September 2008
Video capture widget trials and start of a Forsight-Hindsight Video Series 26 March 2009.
Jared Diamond's 5 point Framework to decipher why Societies Collapse, spot the advanced warning signs_ why and how Societies Survive past and present. Sunday, 29 March 2009.
Record Breaking Pittsburg Steelers of well-named US Coal Mining and Steel Town win US-Football’s Super Bowl_Bigger CCS Records need Breaking!
Roadmap - The Most Urgent Issue Facing Mankind - Climate Change and Energy from The Financial Times, 18 November 2008
SOLUTIONS
Creating Tomorrow - Never so necessary, never so urgent? - Organisational Change Processes & Strategy, 13 November 2008
References.
Dissertation.co.uk_MBA
Dissertation.co.uk
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