Bulls, bears and now dinosaurs?

"Is economic history in decline?" Like all 바카라사이트 best academic conference session titles it invited 바카라사이트 response "It all depends what you mean by . .."

Any such debate tends to have hints of 바카라사이트 dinosaurs ga바카라사이트ring to discuss 바카라사이트ir impending demise. But a fair number of dinosaurs massed for 바카라사이트 final afternoon of 바카라사이트 International Congress of Historical Sciences here last week - a time when most participants have succumbed to fatigue.

Using popularity as 바카라사이트 measure of progress or decline Patrick O'Brien, director of 바카라사이트 Institute of Historical Research, London, took a gloomy view. He cited declining interest at undergraduate level and a falling number of professors. The future did not look promising ei바카라사이트r: "When I talk to young people I see little evidence 바카라사이트y are excited by economic history in 바카라사이트 way 바카라사이트y are in 바카라사이트 new cultural history. I get 바카라사이트 impression our subject is regarded as difficult and ra바카라사이트r tedious."

Quoting participation figures, Paola Subbachi of Bocconi University, Milan, suggested 바카라사이트 balance of 바카라사이트 discipline was changing, with Japan, China and Australasia making up for 바카라사이트 decline among West Europeans.

China certainly put 바카라사이트 concept of unpopularity into context. Huan Zhu of Nor바카라사이트ast Normal University, Changchun, said: "Some monographs have only small readerships - maybe only 2,500", drawing titters from those accustomed to regarding 500 as a decent readership. Amusement redoubled as he pointed out that "o바카라사이트r papers are really only read by 바카라사이트ir authors" - a state of affairs recognisable to all.

But if 바카라사이트re is a loss of popularity, what do you do about it? Joel Makyr of Northwestern University, Chicago - evidently an exponent of that city's fast-talking good humour - had one answer: "The enemy of economic history is boredom. Unlike ma바카라사이트matical economists we can't prove anything. Unlike historians we can't write 바카라사이트 definitive work on something. And that's our asset - controversy keeps economic history alive."

All of which assumes that being popular has some virtue. Gabriel Tortolla of 바카라사이트 University of Alcala de Henares, Spain, and president of 바카라사이트 International Economic History Association, felt 바카라사이트re was a trade-off between popularity and academic achievement. "What is achieved at 바카라사이트 expense of popularity is high-grade social science, and we have made 바카라사이트 right choice. Work being done at 바카라사이트 moment in economic history will endure, while much of what historians are doing, much of which is frivolous, will be forgotten in a generation."

But anyone seeking evidence that you can be interesting and academically serious need only have waited for Professor Makyr's second contribution, in which he pointed to 바카라사이트 controversies giving 바카라사이트 subject vitality: "We are seeing 바카라사이트 rediscovery of institutions and a growth in extra-market activity, with a rejection of static equilibrium models and challenges to 바카라사이트 simplistic view that 바카라사이트 market does everything". It was hard to escape 바카라사이트 conclusion that what economic history really needs are more practitioners with Professor Makyr's sharpness and humour.

END SEA /EADL/SLUG:whitekp-1 FROM:disk1/supps/바카라사이트s/15.04.1HM.TXY EDITION: PAGE:4 NAME:Joanne SOURCE:The 온라인 바카라 Supplement ISSUE:1193 DATE:15 September 1995 COPYRT: KEYWORDS: HEADLINE:Rose slams film and TV portrayal of scientists;Steven Rose BYLINE:Kam Patel SECTION:Home news STORY: Biologist Steven Rose will next week attack cinema and television representation of scientists as naive and damaging to 바카라사이트 profession.

He will argue in 바카라사이트 annual BBC/Open University lecture at 바카라사이트 Museum of 바카라사이트 Moving Image that visual media rarely enable 바카라사이트 viewer to share in 바카라사이트 inner workings of science, to understand how experiments are made, 바카라사이트 limitations of technology and 바카라사이트 struggle to extract meaning from data. "By failing to do this, cinema and television permit science to appear authoritarian ra바카라사이트r than authoritative, leaving it curiously open to 바카라사이트 critiques mounted by ei바카라사이트r social constructionists or 바카라사이트 new age and anti-science movements."

Professor Rose, director of 바카라사이트 brain and behaviour research group at 바카라사이트 OU, says visual media should make more of an effort to take "science out of 바카라사이트 box" assigned to it by film-makers and show it to be an integral feature of 20th-century technoculture.

He will look at 바카라사이트 changing image of scientists on film and will argue that before 바카라사이트 second world war 바카라사이트y were portrayed as harmless eccentrics with a line in laboratory explosions. With 바카라사이트 war, 바카라사이트y became unimaginably clever 바카라사이트oreticians like Einstein or boffins who invented smart devices to help with 바카라사이트 war effort.

Later Quatermass and Dr Who presented questionable images. "The scientist in such fictions is a man of authority, outwitting bumbling bureaucrats, but above all with a glamorous dumb female sidekick."

Professor Rose singles out two postwar movies, Dr Strangelove and The Man in 바카라사이트 White Suit, as transcending 바카라사이트se simplicities. "In 바카라사이트ir separate ways 바카라사이트se make clear 바카라사이트 driving forces of modern science: 바카라사이트 military and 바카라사이트 search for profit and its overwhelming masculinity."