From the Eyes of a Social Scientist Engineer: Engineering in Relationships


Book Description

If the people in our lives are important, if we want to maintain quality relationships with them, we must handle relationships more carefully. The subject to be discussed here is to first define relationships from the perspective of a social scientist, then analyze the dynamics of relationships from the perspective of an engineer, analyze how they work, their basic and sub-systems, areas of problem, and how these problems can be handled and solutions can be developed with engineering methods. The book covers the characteristics, types, maintenance and engineering aspects of friendship, work, family and social relations. In addition, the characteristics of good relationships, happy love relationships, features of happy marriages, relationship problems and how engineering applications can be used for their solutions are also examined.




Reflections on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident


Book Description

This book focuses on nuclear engineering education in the post-Fukushima era. It was edited by the organizers of the summer school held in August 2011 in University of California, Berkeley, as part of a collaborative program between the University of Tokyo and UC Berkeley. Motivated by the particular relevance and importance of social-scientific approaches to various crucial aspects of nuclear technology, special emphasis was placed on integrating nuclear science and engineering with social science. The book consists of the lectures given in 2011 summer school and additional chapters that cover developments in the past three years since the accident. It provides an arena for discussions to find and create a renewed platform for engineering practices, and thus nuclear engineering education, which are essential in the post-Fukushima era for nurturing nuclear engineers who need to be both technically competent and trusted in society.







Steinmetz: Engineer and Socialist


Book Description

When Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865-1923) died suddenly at the height of his fame, his face was as familiar to Americans as that of Babe Ruth, Henry Ford, or Jack Dempsey. Newspapers quoted his views on religion, politics (he was a Socialist), science, and future technological wonders. All were intrigued by the Horatio Alger tale of the penniless, hunchbacked German immigrant who rose to fame as the Wizard of Science, chief engineer at General Electric, and symbol of the new breed of scientists who daily surpassed the feats of Thomas Alva Edison. This intellectual biography follows Steinmetz from his education in Germany to his rise as General Electric’s chief consulting engineer. Steinmetz obtained nearly 200 patents; he made his most important contributions in electrical energy loss (or hysteresis), the understanding and wider use of alternating current, and high-voltage power transmission. General Electric became Steinmetz’s home, his identity, and a platform from which he stepped onto the wider stage of world affairs. As leader of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Socialist councilman in Schenectady, New York, and part-time professor at Union College, Steinmetz attempted to “engineer” society in the direction of a technocratic utopia by promoting welfare capitalism, Lenin’s electrification of the Soviet Union, and other schemes — all with limited success. In a life filled with contrasts, perhaps even Steinmetz himself, a prominent Socialist serving as chief engineer of a major corporation, was not always able to separate the myth from the man. Steinmetz: Engineer and Socialist was the subject of the 2014 PBS documentary film, “Divine Discontent.” “Well informed by recent studies of similar mythologizing, Kline explains both the rise and decline of Steinmetz’s popular reputation.” — Robert Friedel, Science “Kline’s explanations are lucid and he offers broader insights about science and technology that will interest all cultural historians.” — Mark Pittenger, Journal of American History “Steinmetz not only provides the first comprehensive, technically sophisticated analysis of Steinmetz’s engineering achievements, but also carefully examines his influential political and social writings, and judiciously dissects the making of the ‘Wizard of Schenectady’ legend.” — David Sicilia, Reviews in American History




Culture and Social Transformations


Book Description

As China enters the second decade of the 21st century, it faces tremendous challenges and crisis. How did China arrive at this point of crisis? How do we understand the nature of the challenges? More than any existing study of reform-era China, this volume offers a theoretical discussion of the cultural and social roots of the reform. It does so for the purpose of further exploring whether or not it is possible to imagine alternatives. Contributors to this second volume of “Culture and Social Transformations in Reform Era China” address these questions by exploring some of the most contentiously debated topics including liberalism, human rights, rule of law, the state, capitalism, and socialism.




Weather and Society


Book Description

Weather and Society: Toward Integrated Approaches provides the first interdisciplinary approach to the subject of weather and society. This guide to the evolving set of problem-solving approaches to weather’s societal issues successfully integrates social science’s techniques, concepts and methodologies into meteorological research and practice. Drawing especially on the work of the WAS*IS workshops (Weather and Society * Integrated Studies), this important reference offers a framework for starting to understand how the consideration of societal impacts can enhance the scientific disciplines that address the scope and impacts of weather, particularly meteorology. Filled with tools, concepts, case studies and helpful exercises, this resource: Lays the groundwork for conducting interdisciplinary work by learning new strategies and addressing typical challenges Identifies leaders of the movement to integrate social science and meteorology and highlights their contributions Includes discussion of such tools as Geographic Information Systems, survey design, focus groups, participatory research and interviewing techniques and concepts Reveals effective integrated research and applications though real-world examples in a global context Helps to identify ways to pursue research, application, and educational opportunities for integrated weather-society work Weather and Society is a hands-on guide for academics, students and professionals that offers a new approach to the successful integration of social science concepts and methodologies into the fabric of meteorological research and practice.




Rethinking Infrastructure Across the Humanities


Book Description

Infrastructure comprises a combination of sociotechnical, political, and cultural arrangements that provide resources and services. The contributors to this volume show, in their respective fields, how infrastructures are both generative forces and the materialized products of quotidian practices that affect and guide people's lives. Organized via shared conceptual foci, this volume demonstrates infrastructuralist perspectives as an important transdisciplinary approach within the humanities.




Resources in education


Book Description




Technicity vs Scientificity


Book Description

The relationship between technicity and scientificity is often overlooked or avoided despite being a determining factor for establishing interdisciplinarity. By focusing on this relationship and highlighting a number of its ramifications, this book sheds light on the hidden or skewed stakes that condition a wide array of scientific projects. The authors present different approaches based on their own professional experience, focusing on the technique–science relationship in domains as diverse as brain mapping, the decipherment of Mycenaean writing and the design process. Each chapter presents varying and often opposing epistemological conclusions to provide the reader with a wide breadth of examples in different fields. Although the scope of this book is far from exhaustive, it serves as a starting point for the necessary and long-overdue clarification of the relationship between these neighboring, yet disjointed, sectors.




The SAGE Handbook of Geographical Knowledge


Book Description

A refreshingly innovative approach to charting geographical knowledge. A wide range of authors trace the social construction and contestation of geographical ideas through the sites of their production and their relational geographies of engagement. This creative and comprehensive book offers an extremely valuable tool to professionals and students alike. - Victoria Lawson, University of Washington "A Handbook that recasts geograph′s history in original, thought-provoking ways. Eschewing the usual chronological march through leading figures and big ideas, it looks at geography against the backdrop of the places and institutional contexts where it has been produced, and the social-cum-intellectual currents underlying some of its most important concepts." - Alexander B. Murphy, University of Oregon The SAGE Handbook of Geographical Knowledge is a critical inquiry into how geography as a field of knowledge has been produced, re-produced, and re-imagined. It comprises three sections on geographical orientations, geography′s venues, and critical geographical concepts and controversies. The first provides an overview of the genealogy of "geography". The second highlights the types of spatial settings and locations in which geographical knowledge has been produced. The third focuses on venues of primary importance in the historical geography of geographical thought. Orientations includes chapters on: Geography - the Genealogy of a Term; Geography′s Narratives and Intellectual History Geography′s Venues includes chapters on: Field; Laboratory; Observatory; Archive; Centre of Calculation; Mission Station; Battlefield; Museum; Public Sphere; Subaltern Space; Financial Space; Art Studio; Botanical/Zoological Gardens; Learned Societies Critical concepts and controversies - includes chapters on: Environmental Determinism; Region; Place; Nature and Culture; Development; Conservation; Geopolitics; Landscape; Time; Cycle of Erosion; Time; Gender; Race/Ethnicity; Social Class; Spatial Analysis; Glaciation; Ice Ages; Map; Climate Change; Urban/Rural. Comprehensive without claiming to be encyclopedic, textured and nuanced, this Handbook will be a key resource for all researchers with an interest in the pasts, presents and futures of geography.