S & S Scholars Award - Treating Sewage: Technology, Science, Labor and Law in an Industrial Ecosystem

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• 批准号: 0551858
• 负责人: Daniel Schneider
• 金额: $ 9.48万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-05-15 至 2008-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0551858&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: & Scholars; Award; Treating; Sewage

Intellectual Merit: Biological sewage treatment, like electricity, power generation, telephones, or mass transit, is one of the key technologies of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Present in almost every town and city, sewage treatment plants are a major part of the infrastructure of the developed nations, and are responsible not only for protecting public health, but also the ecology of rivers, lakes and oceans. In the United States alone, the estimated capital stock of public sewerage facilities in 1997 was $274 billion, with annual spending for construction and operation and maintenance of almost $50 billion. Despite their ubiquity and importance, however, sewage treatment has received little attention from historians of science and technology. Nevertheless, sewage treatment provides a rich arena for addressing several important issues in science and technology studies. This project will examine the relationship between science, engineering and craft work, using the concept of process control as a case study. Sanitary scientists encouraged plant operators to use laboratory-based tests to control the sewage process. Operators, on their part, often utilized more craft-based, experiential methods. By examining the history of process control in sewage treatment plants, this project addresses issues of technical work, conflict between engineers and production plant operators, and the history of labor control in technical industries. The proposal also explores the tensions between engineers and operators. Both groups were part of the main professional society for sewage plant workers. Analyzing their interactions in professional societies reveals the ways in which boundaries between science, engineering and craft-work were negotiated, established, and at times transgressed. The study will also examine the conflict between public and private interest in patenting scientific discoveries. Sewage treatment processes resulted in many new discoveries, and were the subject of long-running patent feuds. This project will examine publicly-supported research on sanitation as well as concerns in the scientific profession over the ethics of privatizing scientific discovery. Analysis of those issues will offer insights into current disputes regarding the patenting of university and government sponsored research. Broader Impacts: Sewage treatment plants are essential for preventing pollution and protecting the public health. By understanding the factors important in their operation, this project will lead to a better understanding for improving sewage treatment plant performance. In addition, sewage treatment plants are ecosystems. Understanding their management provides insights into ecosystem management in general. Ecosystem management has become one of the nation's primary conservation strategies, adopted by many federal and state resource management agencies. Despite its increasing use, however, there remains much uncertainty about its scope, practice, and success. Ecosystem management has a number of definitions, but at its root it can be described as the manipulation of the processes in the ecosystem to sustain the delivery of desired goods and services. (Christensen 1996). Yet ecosystem management as a process is poorly understood. Historical analysis can provide critical insight into this increasingly dominant way of understanding and managing nature. People have been manipulating the environment for human needs for millennia. By focusing on the practice of ecosystem management, as undertaken by scientists and engineers, fisheries and forestry workers, planners and policy makers, historians can help illuminate the development of ecosystem management over time, and analyze reasons for its successes, failures, persistence, or demise.

智力优势：生物污水处理，像电力，发电，电话或公共交通一样，是19世纪末和20世纪的关键技术之一。污水处理厂是发达国家基础设施的重要组成部分，几乎遍布每个城镇，不仅负责保护公众健康，还负责保护河流、湖泊和海洋的生态。仅在美国，1997年公共污水处理设施的资本存量估计为2 740亿美元，每年用于建造、运营和维护的开支几乎为500亿美元。尽管它们的普遍性和重要性，然而，污水处理很少受到科学和技术历史学家的关注。然而，污水处理提供了一个丰富的竞技场，以解决科学和技术研究中的几个重要问题。这个项目将研究科学，工程和工艺工作之间的关系，使用过程控制的概念作为案例研究。卫生科学家鼓励工厂运营商使用实验室测试来控制污水处理过程。运营商方面，他们经常使用更多基于工艺的经验方法。通过研究污水处理厂过程控制的历史，本项目解决了技术工作，工程师和生产厂操作员之间的冲突，以及技术行业的劳动力控制的历史问题。该提案还探讨了工程师和运营商之间的紧张关系。这两个团体都是污水处理厂工人主要专业协会的一部分。分析他们在专业社会中的互动，揭示了科学、工程和手工艺之间的界限是如何被谈判、建立和有时被超越的。这项研究还将审查在科学发现专利方面公共利益和私人利益之间的冲突。污水处理工艺带来了许多新的发现，也是长期专利纠纷的主题。 该项目将审查公共支持的卫生研究以及科学界对科学发现私有化的道德问题的关注。 对这些问题的分析将为当前有关大学和政府资助的研究的专利纠纷提供见解。 更广泛的影响：污水处理厂对于防止污染和保护公众健康至关重要。通过了解其运行中的重要因素，本项目将导致更好地了解提高污水处理厂的性能。此外，污水处理厂是生态系统。了解它们的管理提供了对生态系统管理的一般见解。生态系统管理已成为国家的主要保护战略之一，许多联邦和州资源管理机构采用。然而，尽管其使用越来越多，但其范围，实践和成功仍然存在很大的不确定性。生态系统管理有许多定义，但从根本上说，它可以被描述为操纵生态系统中的过程，以维持所需货物和服务的提供。（Christensen 1996）。然而，人们对生态系统管理作为一个过程知之甚少。历史分析可以为这种日益占主导地位的理解和管理自然的方式提供批判性的见解。几千年来，人们一直在操纵环境以满足人类的需求。通过关注科学家和工程师、渔业和林业工作者、规划者和政策制定者所从事的生态系统管理实践，历史学家可以帮助阐明生态系统管理随着时间的推移而发展，并分析其成功、失败、持续或消亡的原因。