Davide Orsini | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (original) (raw)

Teaching Documents by Davide Orsini

COURSE OVERVIEW History has been traditionally focused on studying people's past, but people's li... more COURSE OVERVIEW History has been traditionally focused on studying people's past, but people's lives and experiences can be understood by analyzing the power relations embodied by the tools and techniques available to them. In order to understand the past, we must have some understanding of the role that technologies have played in co-shaping societies. Reciprocally, technologies often seem to bear the mark of the particular cultures in which they arise or flourish. The study of the history of technology therefore quickly brings us face to face with tricky questions: what is a technology? How is it related to, or different from, applied science? Can one technology be objectively superior to another? Are some technologies inevitable? Can there be technologies without users? Is technological change the same thing as progress? Are some cultures more technologically oriented than others? Are there distinct national styles of technology, and if so, is that because nations adapted themselves to a particular network of technologies, or the other way around? This course is a study of individual technologies-artifacts, processes, and systems-from the previous three centuries, and is aimed at introducing you to potential answers to these questions. Through discussion, writing, and the study of recent historical scholarship on the history of technology, and related disciplines, we will examine the ways in which technologies and societies interact. LEARNING OUTCOMES Upon completing this course, students will be able to: • Explain how culture and technology influence each other, and give examples of the different forms this can take.

Course description and objectives: This course will offer a survey of the main themes, theories, ... more Course description and objectives: This course will offer a survey of the main themes, theories, and approaches developed in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). Graduate students will have the opportunity to explore concepts and methods that will enable them to develop their projects in the history of science and technology according to traditional and current theoretical debates in the field. In the last three decades history of science and technology scholars have contributed enormously to the development of STS, and at the same time have adopted concepts and shared perspectives of contiguous disciplines, such as sociology and anthropology of science. The selection of readings described in detail below, reflects this consolidated and fruitful interdisciplinary approach. In addition to this, in recent years engineering and medical schools, but also physical and biological sciences department, have introduced social studies of science in their curricula. For this reason, while it is intended to satisfy the needs of graduate students in the history department (and other humanities and social science units) this course offers students from other disciplines, including engineering, medicine, and geo-physical sciences, an opportunity to engage critically with problems and questions concerning the social impact and relevance of scientific research and applied science.

Environmental knowledge is not only the result of applied methods, ecological models, and bio-sam... more Environmental knowledge is not only the result of applied methods, ecological models, and bio-sampling strategies that experts use for risk assessment, urban planning, and forecasting. Non-experts also learn about the environment through practice, experience, and processes of knowledge transmission that are integral to the livelihood of local communities, and vital components of their socio-cultural systems. This graduate course explores historical and ethnographic approaches to the study of environmental knowledge and risk. The first part will be focused on historical and ethnographic studies of popular environmental knowledge, exploring the vast literature on bodily practices and experiences of the environment, and the construction of space, and place. The second part of the course will examine how scientists and experts produce and use knowledge about the environment, and assess risk (both from human activities and natural events). The last part of the course will focus on sociotechnical controversies about environmental risk and public health, and will give students the possibility to discuss concrete examples, such as the recent crisis of water contamination in Flint, Michigan. Assignments: Every week (excluding the first one) each participant is expected to post a response concerning the reading material. Responses should primarily address the main topics of the week and ideally should contribute a question or two concerning the arguments * Please note that this is a draft. There will be only minor changes in the readings for the later weeks (I will communicate them at the beginning of the course) but the rest will remain unaltered. You can go ahead and purchase (or borrow) the required books listed below. As for the assignments and the final papers, I will give you more detailed instructions on the first day of class.

Objectives: This graduate seminar will examine important works of scholarship covering a wide ran... more Objectives: This graduate seminar will examine important works of scholarship covering a wide range of topics, including: systems theory and social construction of technology, issues of production, use, and obsolescence, cultural studies of technology, race and gender, and technological failure. The major focus will be on 19th-20th century America, but the course will explore also European, African, and Asian case studies. Students will become familiar with core STS readings showcasing diverse historical approaches. We will identify key themes and debates and analyze how authors use evidence, theory, and narrative strategies to make their arguments. Requirements include online and class discussion and short writing assignments, including one book review, reading responses, and a final research paper on a topic of your choice. Assignments: Every week (excluding the first one) each participant is expected to post a response concerning the reading material. Responses should primarily address the main topics of the week and ideally should contribute a question or two concerning the arguments proposed by the authors of the works we will read. For example, thinking about our first week readings, it would useful to explore Winner's argument about the political qualities of technical artifacts. What does he mean by social constructionism? What are the shortfalls of social constructionism, according to him? What analytical alternatives does he present as more efficacious? Are the examples he uses convincing? If yes, why? If not, * Please note that this is a draft. There will be only minor changes in the readings for the later weeks (I will communicate them at the beginning of the course) but the rest will remain unaltered. You can go ahead and purchase (or borrow) the required books listed below. As for the assignments and the final papers, I will give you more detailed instructions on the first day of class.

Papers by Davide Orsini

Environmental History, 2020

Annali dell'Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento, 2020

The Atomic Archipelago: US Nuclear Submarines and Technopolitics of Risk in Cold War Italy, 2021

In 1972, the US Navy installed a base for nuclear submarines in the Archipelago of La Maddalena o... more In 1972, the US Navy installed a base for nuclear submarines in the Archipelago of La Maddalena off the northeastern shore of Sardinia, Italy. In response, Italy established a radiation surveillance program to monitor the impact of the base on the environment and public health. In the first systematic study of nuclear expertise in Italy, Davide Orsini focuses on the ensuing technopolitical disputes concerning the role and safety of US nuclear submarines in the Mediterranean Sea from the Cold War period to the closure of the naval base in 2008. His book follows the struggles of different groups—including local residents of the archipelago, US Navy personnel, local administrators, Italian experts, and politicians—to define nuclear submarines as either imperceptible threats, much like radiocontamination, or efficient machines at the service of liberty and freedom.
Unlike inland nuclear power plants, vividly present and visible with their tall cooling towers and reactor containers, the mobility and invisibility of submarines contributed to an ambivalence about their nature, perpetuating the idea of nuclear exceptionalism. In Italy, they symbolized objects in constant motion, easily removable at the first sign of potential harm. Orsini demonstrates how these mobile sources of hazard posed special challenges for both expert assessments and public understandings of risk, and in contexts outside the Anglo-Saxon world, where unique social power dynamics held sway over the outcome of technopolitical controversies.

Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 1985

An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies, Second Edition reflects the latest advances in... more An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies, Second Edition reflects the latest advances in the field while continuing to provide students with a road map to the complex interdisciplinary terrain of science and technology studies. Distinctive in its attention to ...

Comparative Studies in Society and History, 2020

This study draws on ethnographic and archival evidence from the Italian Archipelago of La Maddale... more This study draws on ethnographic and archival evidence from the Italian Archipelago of La Maddalena, offshore from the northeastern corner of Sardinia, where in 1972 the U.S. Navy installed a base for nuclear submarines. It addresses two questions: (1) How do non-experts make sense of radiological risk absent knowledge and classified information about its instantiations and consequences? (2) How do objectifications of risk change and stabilize within the same community over time? STS scholarship has emphasized the epistemic and relational dimensions of lay/expert controversies over risk assessment. Many case studies, mostly focused on the Anglo-Saxon world, have assumed lay and expert ways of knowing are incompatible due to clashing cultural identities. I use Keane's concept of “semiotic ideologies” and Peircean semiotic theory to critically reassess the validity of that assumption and examine the role of material evidence in processes of signification to explain how experts and non-experts fix, challenge, and negotiate the meanings of radiological risk in sociotechnical controversies. I critically review empirical studies and analyze ethnographic and archival data to advance a set of methodological and substantive arguments: meanings of risk change as new signs become available for interpretation; and meanings of risk are semiotically regimented: their emergence or silencing depend upon the power relations in place in a given community and organizational efforts to assemble coherent technopolitical arguments. I call this set of organizational practices “politics of coherence."

Quaderni Storici 161 (2), 2020

Questo breve lavoro prende le mosse dall’eredità storiografica di Carlo Poni per svolgere una ri-... more Questo breve lavoro prende le mosse dall’eredità storiografica di Carlo Poni per svolgere una ri-flessione sullo sviluppo parallelo di due approcci analitici quasi coevi: la microstoria e gli Science and Technology Studies (STS). Il tema principale dell’articolo si snoda attraverso una strategia comparativa dei due approcci focalizzata sui concetti fondamentali e sulle proposte metodologiche più innovative della microstoria e degli STS: l’uso dei case studies, la rintracciabilità dei percorsi di singoli attori per ricostruire la rete di relazioni e di interazioni che costituiscono la trama del loro vissuto e di sistemi sociotecnici, la rivalutazione della dimensione materiale dei fenomeni sociotec-nici. Infine, viene proposta una possibile via italiana agli STS attraverso una riflessione sulle fonti storiche analizzate da Poni, e sulla necessità di considerare seriamente le peculiarità dello sviluppo della tecnoscienza in società e culture diverse da quelle tradizionalmente studiate dagli STS.

Books by Davide Orsini