Papers by Thomas Kaiserfeld
Historisk tidsskrift, 2013
Ambix, 2004
Istvan Hargittai, The Road to Stockholm: Nobel Prizes, Science, and Scientists (Oxford, 2002)
An important perspective on institutions and technology is how they resist change, isolated or in... more An important perspective on institutions and technology is how they resist change, isolated or in tandem. Categories of institutional change are reviewed together with concepts such as path dependency, technological momentum and increasingly costly reversibility, all capture processes in which material and institutional practices and norms are stable. Resistance to change seems to rely on two fundamental characteristics. In some cases, it can be derived from the costs involved when changing practices or concretely substituting old technologies for new. In others, individual behavior may conserve existing practices, for instance, through conscious reluctance to change or through the force of routine. Most often, however, a combination of the two is the most important prerequisite for resistance to change.
Academics use projections in everyday practices, both in teaching and research presentations. The... more Academics use projections in everyday practices, both in teaching and research presentations. The custom is so common, it passes almost without reflection beyond what may be regarded as good and bad practices. In this article, the use of projections in research and academic teaching is exposed from Plato's allegory of the cave via camera obscura and laterna magica to skiopticon and overhead projectors. The resulting historical narrative of the academic use of projected images revolves around their interpretation as pedagogical tool, scientific instrument and entertaining gadgetry.
Det tomma Ingenjorshuset : Sociala processer, historiska handelser och ingenjorernas professional... more Det tomma Ingenjorshuset : Sociala processer, historiska handelser och ingenjorernas professionalitet
The Making of European Consumption, 2015
In March of 1963, one of Sweden's largest newspapers broke the story of "scandalous tours" (skand... more In March of 1963, one of Sweden's largest newspapers broke the story of "scandalous tours" (skandalresor)-a pernicious trend affecting leisure travelers. 1 The article described how Sweden's booming leisure-travel industry-especially package tours by air-failed to deliver the experiences depicted in travel companies' advertising. "Travel and get rich," one brochure of the time proclaimed. 2 The travel experience, within Sweden and abroad, would provide all things glorious, memories to enrich and last a lifetime. Ads and brochures extolled the virtues of everything from the luxurious hotels to the accessible beaches and ease of transportation. The reality was starkly different, however. Hotels, the article asserted, were anything but luxurious, beaches anything but close by, and transportation was neither quick nor convenient. 3 The newspaper cited international statistics showing chartered tours by air to be significantly more dangerous than regular flights. In 1962, for example, chartered tours accounted for only 10 percent of all passenger flights, yet 36 percent of all flight deaths occurred on chartered aircraft. 4 This reported that fatal flight accidents were five times more common on chartered flights than on standard runs. Further analysis proved that safety was on the rise for regular flights, while safety was decreasing on chartered flights. Beside the life-threatening dimension of travel, tourists were also subject to severe disappointments: prepaid packages of several-months' salary that led to being stranded in dreadful destination points-and ruined vacations. It was in the late 1950s and early 1960s that new patterns of leisuretravel consumption emerged in Europe. The trend was most pronounced in the small, wealthy countries on Europe's periphery-regions like Scandinavia that were relatively unscathed by the Second World War. Package-tour vacations became more popular during this period, when P. Lundin et al. (eds.
Lychnos, 2007
In historical research, the Swedish educational commission in mid-eighteenth century has been giv... more In historical research, the Swedish educational commission in mid-eighteenth century has been given two different faces. Firstly, it has been understood through its suggestions to reform education in primary and secondary schools. In these cases, the point of departure has been continental pedagogical debates. Secondly, it has been analysed as a tool of the government to take control over the universities. In this context, the perspective has often been political. Here, the ambition is to bring together these two sides of the commission's work in order to give a more accurate image of its problems and solutions, closely knit together as they were in the 18 th century, broken up only by later historical analysis. Both pedagogical and political perspectives influenced the main purpose of the commission, to make suggestions for differentiation at all levels of education, primary, secondary as well as tertiary. Thus, a closer analysis of the commission's two faces merges them into one. The alternatives introduced by the commission in order to differentiate education were the sciences such as natural history as well as economics. Through its suggestions for alternatives in order to differentiate, the positions of the debate over education throughout the 19th and 20th centuries were established.
Center on the Periphery Historical Aspects of 20th Century Swedish Physics, 1993
In Pursuit of a Promise Perspectives on the Political Process to Establish the European Spallation Source in Lund Sweden, 2012
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Papers by Thomas Kaiserfeld