[SIGCIS-Members] [Fwd: CFP: From Automation to Computerized Design: Industrial Engineering, Machine Tools, and Digital Frontiers, 1930s-1980s]

Petri Paju petpaju at utu.fi
Thu Jan 14 04:00:41 PST 2010


To: H-BUSINESS at H-NET.MSU.EDU

[Submitted to the list by Carol Lockman <clockman at hagley.org> - ed.]

Call for Papers:

 From Automation to Computerized Design: Industrial Engineering,
Machine Tools, and Digital Frontiers, 1930s-1980s
Paris, September 15-17, 2010

To honor the centenary of Pierre Bézier, the eminent French
engineering designer (40 years at Renault after starting at a small 
design company), the University of Evry and its partners are convening a 
conference focused on post-1930 developments in areas to which Bézier 
made major contributions : machinery and industrial automation, controls 
and  computation (Bézier curves), the creation of computer visualization 
for design, and the diffusion of  mechanical/technical knowledge.
(Bézier worked extensively with machine tools before moving on to
computer innovations, virtual imagery, and technical education.)

Key questions the conference will address include:

- What significant innovations in machine tool
design/capability/control were adopted in the
industrial West, Japan, the Soviet Union and developing nations'
industries across the half century
after 1930?  How was such innovation organized and undertaken by
engineers, designers, computer
specialists, foremen, skilled workers, managers, users, etc.?  What
political, enterprise, or
competitive strategies impelled such advances?

- What new sources and methodologies can be used to link standard
visual and written discourses
about machine tools and computers to artifacts and  practices in use?

- What discourses emerged about automation and digital processing,
enthusiastic and critical, and
how did they affect channels of communication and/or patterns of
technical imitation and
appropriation internationally?

- How did ideas and ideologies about modernity and modernization and
about machine tools' iconic
status evolve across these decades ? What impact did such perspectives
have on the industrialization
process : policy, investment, organization, and competition in 
manufacturing?

- Through what means and with what efficacy were the new knowledge and
practices these innovations
generated shared among firms, industries and nations? What
consequences arose from differences in
diffusion?

- To what extent did computer-based innovations create problems even
while solving other
difficulties?  How did enterprises and shop floor personnel manage the
complexities that resulted?

Proposals, in English or French, should be submitted to
helene.marechal at univ-evry.fr<mailto:helene.marechal at univ-evry.fr> by 1
February 2010.

Each proposal should be sent in two files. One file should describe
the planned paper and be titled:
"Proposition PB&MO" plus, in the title, a short identifying phrase,
such as "Control Innovations".
The paper proposal should not exceed 300 words.
The second file should provide information about the author(s) and be
titled: "Proposition PB&MO"
plus the author(s) last name(s). This biographical information  should
not exceed 400 words. This
two-file approach will assure that the review of proposals will be
blinded, like much article
refereeing for journals.

An international committee of scholars will review all proposals and
the conference co-chairs will
contact authors to confirm the program by 1 March 2010. Among the 14
member review committee are :
Patrick Fridenson (EHESS), David Edgerton (Imperial College, London),
Anne-Françoise Garçon
(Paris-1) ; Kazuo Wada (University of Tokyo), Philip Scranton
(Rutgers), and Thomas Welskopp
(Bielefeld).

Funding for presenters' transportation and lodging will be provided.
Following the two conference
days, a group visit by bus to Renault's R&D division and to one of
its main plants south of Paris
will be offered. Also, the weekend following the conference features a
national historic heritage
festival.  Those attending who wish to visit classic and modern sites
will find many locations open
to visitors that weekend which are not available at other times.

Pu
blication of a collection of edited papers is expected.

Questions? Please contact Dr. Alain Michel: Alain.MICHEL at cite-sciences.fr

--
Maki Umemura
List editor, H-Business



----- End forwarded message -----


-- 
Susanna Fellman
Professor(acting)
Dept. of Social Science History
PO BOx 54
FI-00014 University of Helsinki

Email: susanna.fellman at helsinki.fi
phone +358-9-19124934


-- 
Petri Paju, FT, tutkija, Turun yliopisto
-- Ph.D. Researcher, Univ. of Turku
http://users.utu.fi/petpaju/



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