Papers by Alexander Schwerin
Covid-19, Klimakrise, Big Tech, algorithmic bias, #MeToo: Wissen, Wissenschaft und Technologie ha... more Covid-19, Klimakrise, Big Tech, algorithmic bias, #MeToo: Wissen, Wissenschaft und Technologie hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren in einem Maße politisiert wie letztmals um 1980. Damals waren die Themen noch andere: Waldsterben, Ozonloch, Atomkatastrophen, Genmanipulation, Automatisierung. Mit der Kritik an der bestehenden Wissensordnung entstand innerhalb von sozialen Bewegungen, bald aber auch in Politik, Wirtschaft und der offiziellen Wissenschaft das Bedürfnis nach alternativen Formen von Wissen: »Gegenwissen«. Was war dieses Gegenwissen? Wo war es erfolgreich? Wo scheiterte es? Und warum ist es heute wieder aktuell? Diesen Fragen widmet sich der erste Band von cache, der die Recherchen von zwölf Wissenschafts- und Technikhistoriker*innen aus der Schweiz, Deutschland und Österreich miteinander verschaltet
An increasing number of studies have appeared that together come under the label of governmentali... more An increasing number of studies have appeared that together come under the label of governmentality. The topics show that an analysis related to practices can integrate a broad spectrum of social phenomena that is out of the range of conventional theories of the state. Less well known is the founding text of governmentality studies. Foucault's "history of governmentality" is a genealogy of liberal governments, ending with the rise of the recent so-called neoliberal transformation of the 1970s. The weakness of that text is that it fails to show the connections of the concept of governmentality to epistemology. Also, recent studies mention the power relations of knowledge only globally, leaving science in a sphere of its own. However, originality and strength of the analysis of governmental power depends on its linkage to a history of knowledge.
As the carcinogenic and mutagenic effects of synthetic chemicals such as food additives, pesticid... more As the carcinogenic and mutagenic effects of synthetic chemicals such as food additives, pesticides, and active agents in medicines came to be better understood, the harmlessness of many common substances, including cyclamates, came into question. While carcinogens became the object of regulation in the 1950s, regulatory measures to prevent mutagenic harm to consumers’ and workers’ health were developed only in the 1970s and 1980s. The US Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of cyclamates in 1969, while other countries, including West Germany, were reluctant to follow the FDA in that decision. The debate is silent today, but a conclusion on the safety of cyclamates was never reached. This undetermined situation was not an exception but exemplifies the problems of mutagen and carcinogen regulation and reflects the characteristics of chemopolitics in the environmental age. For an answer to why the regulation of cyclamates differed in several countries, one must consider the national cultures of regulation: the specificities in terms of regulatory institutions and their relation to industry, of the regulatory body of laws and rules, as well as of health politics, public discourse, and science. Knowledge together with the way knowledge is produced is a key subject for the study of chemopolitics. Knowledge of the detrimental effects of sweeteners was communicated, debated, interpreted, criticized, taken for granted, and addressed in regulatory action. Cyclamates are a good case study to highlight the historic epistemology of this knowledge, that is, the rules and practices of research into health risks.
Mobilisierung der Strahlenforschung im Nationalsozialismus. Der Fall Boris Rajewsky, in: Moritz E... more Mobilisierung der Strahlenforschung im Nationalsozialismus. Der Fall Boris Rajewsky, in: Moritz Epple, Johannes Fried, Raphael Gross u. Janus Gudian (Hgg.): „Politisierung der Wissenschaft“. Jüdische Wissenschaftler und ihre Gegner an der Universität Frankfurt vor und nach 1933, Göttingen: Wallstein 2016: 395-424 (= Schriftenreihe des Frankfurter Universitätsarchivs 5). Alexander v. Schwerin (Berlin) opens his essay, Mobilisierung der Strahlenforschung im Ntttionalsozialisrnw- Der Fall Boris Rajewsky (>>Mobilization of Radiation Research under National Socialism- the Case of Boris Rajewsky«), with the observation rhar Rajewsky's scientific expertise made him indispensable in both the Third Reich and West Germany and that he enjoyed a successful career under both political systems. Against this background, it is scarcely credible that such a powerful seieneist (he had around 22 postdoctoral students and became the mostsenior radiation protection scientist in the West German nuclear program) could escape the political demands of rhe time. According to v. Schwerin, the Russian emigrant very quickly succeeded in gaining rhe trust of influential Nazisand thereby in defusing the questions regarding his trustworrhiness raised by his origin. As the former assistant ofFriedrieb Dessauer, he was in a good position to succeed the latteras the director of the Institute for rhe Physical Faundarions of Medicine (subsequently rhe Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biophysics, which was housed in the villa of the banker Georg Speyer, a founding patron of the University ofFrankfurr, that had been expropriatcd by the Nazis). Rajewsky argued after the war that joining the SA served the sole purpose of making his person credible in the eyes of the Nazis and thus also of saving his imtitute. Von Schwerin contrasts these Statements with a Ietter by Rajewsky to the head of the Frankfurt Dozentenbund (the National Sodalist university lecturers' association), in which Rajewsky expressed his willingness to promote the interests of members of the Dozentenbund in his capacity as a member of the Administrative Board of the Helmholtz Association. In his work, Rajewsky was an able science manager and science politician who maintained an extensive system of comacts reaching into the highest state offices of the Third Reich. In addition, he benefited from ehe fact that his field, the usc of radiation techniques and radioactive substances, rapidly acquired economic relevance and that his institutewas entrusted with monitaring and measuring radioactivity co determine harmfullimits and maximum tolerance doses. Rajewsky became all but indispensable, however, when x-rays also began to be used for armaments. Later in the war, the Army High Command commissioned Rajewsky's institute co study thc effects of radiological weapons. As a result, some members of the institute's staff ran experiments with Rajewsky's knowledge using radioactive inhalants on patients wichout informing them. Von Schwerin concludes that Rajewsky collaborated activdy with National Socialism, to which he accommodated his way of thinking and working. The practical side ofhis work testifies to this, even though he never exposed himself to ideological reproach. In his denazification trial, only Rajewsky's personal ourlook was subjected to examination but not his practical work as a scientisr or rhe research of the institute that he headed. However, under Rajewsky's leadership scientific research rook full advantage of the opporrunities afforded by thc political climate.
Technikgeschichte, 2014
Überblick Die Bedrohung durch technisch induzierte Gefahren bildete in den 1950er und 1960er Jahr... more Überblick Die Bedrohung durch technisch induzierte Gefahren bildete in den 1950er und 1960er Jahren ein zentrales gesundheitspolitisches Thema in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Die Sorge machte sich insbesondere an zwei Bereichen technischer Entwicklung fest: der zivilen und militärischen Entwicklung der Atomtechnik und der steigenden Verwendung von Lebensmittelzusatzstoffen durch die expandierende Lebensmittelindustrie. In beiden Fällen ging es um die Bedrohung durch gering dosierte, aber chronische Gesundheitsgefahren für große Teile der Bevölkerung. Grundlage für diese Problemwahrnehmung am Übergang des Atomzeitalters zur Massenkonsumgesellschaft war ein neues-mutationsgenetisches oder genotoxisches-Gefahrenmodell, das Grundannahmen des bis dahin unhinterfragt geltenden toxikologischen Gefahrenmodells und darauf aufbauende regulatorische Instrumente wie Grenzwerte und Strategien in Frage stellte. Festmachen lässt sich dies an der von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) verfolgten Forschungspolitik und risikopolitischen Politikberatung. Im Zentrum der Darstellung stehen die Umstände und Zusammenhänge der (langen) Gründungsgeschichte der DFG-Senatskommission für Mutagenitätsfragen.
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History of science and science studies have become increasingly interested in models and modeling... more History of science and science studies have become increasingly interested in models and modeling processes in recent years. One reason for this is the awareness that the understanding of experimental science begins with the understanding of experimental practice. This paper traces a long trajectory starting in the 1920s in the breeding facilities of the German Research Fund, the basis for the first German research program in comparative medical genetics, and ending with the foundation of the German Mouse Clinic in 2001.
Osiris, 2005
The history of human experimentation in the twelve years between Hitler&a... more The history of human experimentation in the twelve years between Hitler's rise to power and the end of the Second World War is notorious in the annals of the twentieth century. The horrific experiments conducted at Dachau, Auschwitz, Ravensbrueck, Birkenau, and other National Socialist concentration camps reflected an extreme indifference to human life and human suffering. Unfortunately, they do not reflect the extent and complexity of the human experiments undertaken in the years between 1933 and 1945. Following the prosecution of twenty-three high-ranking National Socialist physicians and medical administrators for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Nuremberg Medical Trial (United States v. Karl Brandt et al.), scholars have rightly focused attention on the nightmarish researches conducted by a small group of investigators on concentration camp inmates. Less well known are alternative pathways that brought investigators to undertake human experimentation in other laboratories, settings, and nations.
Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 2010
Regulation and the prevention of danger are among the main characteristics of the modern state. H... more Regulation and the prevention of danger are among the main characteristics of the modern state. However, the idea and the conceptualization of what danger is have changed over time. The genealogy of these changes shows that the history of social change and the history of knowledge are well connected. The 1970s marked the start of a social transformation of Western industrialized societies. This article proposes that this transformation was connected with basic epistemic reconfigurations and that the genealogy of risk played a significant role. This thesis is explored through the example of DFG advisory politics. Beginning in the 1960s, the DFG expert commissions that had been established to make policy and regulation recommendations began to focus more and more on the health effects of environmental pollution. The Commission for Questions of Mutagenicity played a particularly interesting role because its recommendations resulted in the foundation of a research institution run by the...
Today biophysics is an established biological discipline. It may be described as a spectrum of ph... more Today biophysics is an established biological discipline. It may be described as a spectrum of physics-based techniques applied to biological problems. This becomes more evident when one goes back in the history of biophysics. Within Germany, the X-ray tube stood at the center of the disciplinary formation of biophysics. This article traces back the origins of biophysics to the very beginnings of radiology in the first two decades of the 20th century. Rather than biology itself, it was this early context of the practical use of the X-ray generator that initially introduced physicists to medical and biological problems. X-rays defined an innovative field of research and medical practice, particularly radiotherapy, binding physicians, including gynecologists, surgeons, radiologists, and physicists together. Physicists working on medical problems were sometimes called “medical physicists”. While radiology developed later into a medical discipline, institutions of medical physics existe...
![Research paper thumbnail of [Precarious matters. The radium economy, episteme of risk and the emergence of tracer technique in national socialism]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/78096059/thumbnails/1.jpg)
NTM, 2009
Following the traces of radioactive material is--as scholars have recently shown--a valuable hist... more Following the traces of radioactive material is--as scholars have recently shown--a valuable historical approach in order to evaluate the material 'factor' of science in action. Even though the origins of materials like radium and artificial isotopes are quite different, their circulation is interconnected. A material pathway can be drawn from the radium industry to the scientific rise of artificial isotopes as indicator substances in the 1930s, continuing to the building of networks by German scientists working for the war efforts. Also, this pathway reveals the role of radiation protection in establishing that material culture. Finally, the dynamics of material traces and institutional linkages is shown by the tracer work of biophysicists and radiation biologists working at the Genetic Department of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in Berlin and at the Institut de Chimie Nucléaire at Paris, which at that time was occupied by German troops.
Die Mutanten schlagen zurück, in: Nils Güttler, Margarete Pratschke & Max Stadler (Hgg.):... more Die Mutanten schlagen zurück, in: Nils Güttler, Margarete Pratschke & Max Stadler (Hgg.): Wissen, ca. 1980 (= Nach Feierabend. Zürcher Jahrbuch für Wissensgeschichte 12), Zürich-Berlin: Diaphanes 2016: 173-188.
Covid-19, Klimakrise, Big Tech, algorithmic bias, #MeToo: Wissen, Wissenschaft und Technologie ha... more Covid-19, Klimakrise, Big Tech, algorithmic bias, #MeToo: Wissen, Wissenschaft und Technologie hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren in einem Maße politisiert wie letztmals um 1980. Damals waren die Themen noch andere: Waldsterben, Ozonloch, Atomkatastrophen, Genmanipulation, Automatisierung. Mit der Kritik an der bestehenden Wissensordnung entstand innerhalb von sozialen Bewegungen, bald aber auch in Politik, Wirtschaft und der offiziellen Wissenschaft das Bedürfnis nach alternativen Formen von Wissen: »Gegenwissen«. Was war dieses Gegenwissen? Wo war es erfolgreich? Wo scheiterte es? Und warum ist es heute wieder aktuell? Diesen Fragen widmet sich der erste Band von cache, der die Recherchen von zwölf Wissenschafts- und Technikhistoriker*innen aus der Schweiz, Deutschland und Österreich miteinander verschaltet. cache 01 ist ab Mitte Juli 2020 sukzessive online verfügbar und wächst dort weiter; das Buch erscheint im September 2020.
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Papers by Alexander Schwerin
The relationship of science and technology – often seen as the relation of basic and applied research – is a constant theme in science and technology studies. Especially the commercialization of scientific research has steadily gained attention in the last years. Our workshop will focus on scientific institutions such as universities, independent research institutes and other national and international scientific organizations, and the roles they play in the commercialization of science.
The workshop covers a broad spectrum of aspects of commercialization in the second half of the 20th century with an emphasis on national and international comparisons. Contributions focus on scientific institutions and their governance, intellectual property law, financing and economics, the practices and effects of commercialization, science policy, and discourse. Next to the relatively often studied theme of patent protection, themes may include the licensing of research instruments, terms and clauses in employment contracts, publishing clauses, contract research, cooperation with industries, convergence of civil and military research contexts (dual-use-problem), outsourcing, start-ups and spin-offs, the architecture and spaces of technology transfer, and the politicization and the (public) debates of problems surrounding commercialization.
Diesen Fragen widmet sich der erste Band von cache, der die Recherchen von zwölf Wissenschafts- und Technikhistoriker*innen aus der Schweiz, Deutschland und Österreich miteinander verschaltet. cache 01 ist ab Mitte Juli 2020 sukzessive online verfügbar und wächst dort weiter; das Buch erscheint im September 2020.