Conferences

Biological Explanations of Behavior: Philosophical Perspectives
Thursday, June 12th to Sunday, June 15th, 2008
Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany

  Workshops

To be scheduled

  Symposia

Science Studies Symposium
"Thinking Through Science: Philosophical Perspectives on Biology, Geography and History"
3:30 - 6:00 pm Friday May 9th, 2008
131 Tate Lab of Physics, University of Minnesota
The research presented at this symposium was funded by the McKnight Summer Fellowship program

Time and Relativity Symposium
October 25–27, 2007  
Co-sponsored by: Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, Program in History of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota.

  Author Meets Readers Series

Author: Jennifer Alexander, HSTM and Mechanical Engineering
Commentators:
1. Naomi Scheman (Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies & Philosophy)
2. Andrew Feenberg (Simon Fraser University) and 3. To be named

Time: Friday 3:30-5:30 pm, September 26, 2008

The Mantra of Efficiency
From Waterwheel to Social Control
by
Jennifer Karns Alexander

Description

Efficiency—associated with individual discipline, superior management, and increased profits or productivity—often counts as one of the highest virtues in Western culture. But what does it mean, exactly, to be efficient? How did this concept evolve from a means for evaluating simple machines to the mantra of progress and a prerequisite for success? In this provocative and ambitious study, Jennifer Karns Alexander explores the growing power of efficiency in the post-industrial West. Examining the ways the concept has appeared in modern history—from a benign measure of the thermal economy of a machine to its widespread application to personal behaviors like chewing habits, spending choices, and shop floor movements to its controversial use as a measure of the business success of American slavery—she argues that beneath efficiency's seemingly endless variety lies a common theme: the pursuit of mastery through techniques of surveillance, discipline, and control. Six historical case studies—two from Britain, one each from France and Germany, and two from the United States—illustrate the concept's fascinating development and provide context for the meanings of, and uses for, efficiency today and in the future.

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Created: February 6, 2008
Updated: May 2, 2008