ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

At the Fringes of Earth Science Models

Session Submission Type: Organized Session

English Abstract

In this panel, we will discuss the making, circulation and development of Earth science models over the 20th century. More specifically, through three case studies from three different disciplines (atmospheric physics, oceanography, and socioeconomics), we aim to depart from the narratives and the perspectives focusing on the now dominating modelling in the Earth sciences. On the one hand, we will demonstrate how developments at the 'fringes' have led to shifts in mainstream modelling. On the other hand, we aim to understand how marginalisation of some modelling practices occurred within Earth sciences. For the purposes of this session, we will adopt a broad standard academic definition of model: a substitute for a target system in a particular inquiry. Additionally, 'fringes' will be analysed along four different axes: geographical, methodological, disciplinary and institutional.
While two papers will focus on overlooked institutions in lesser-studied locations, the third one will concentrate on a lesser-known modelling method. The first talk will show how the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO established international cooperation in the geopolitically tense and unequal context of the Mediterranean region, resulting in the creation of the first comprehensive numerical oceanographic models of the basin. The second presentation will study the construction and dismissal of the South American Bariloche economic model, which was produced in response to the dominating World3 model developed by the Club of Rome. The third paper will examine the interaction between numerical and physical modellers of the atmosphere in order to understand how numerical models became the dominant method of representation.

Sub Unit

• Organized Session

Chair

• Dania Achermann

Individual Presentations

• Oceanographic models and diplomacy by the margins - Pablo Lima Hernandez, Universidad de Sevilla

• Modeling the World in the 1970s: Historical and Political Struggles in the Genesis of the World3 and Bariloche Models - Giovanni Fava, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia

• Weathering numerical models - Barbara Mercier, Technische Universität Berlin

Session Organizer

• Barbara Mercier, Technische Universität Berlin