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SUMMARY:'The American soldier' in Jerusalem: on measurement\, travel and t
 ranslation - Tal Arbel (Tel Aviv University/University of Edinburgh)
DTSTART:20181122T130000Z
DTEND:20181122T140000Z
UID:TALK111196@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Richard Staley
DESCRIPTION:The paper examines the cross-cultural migration of scaling\, a
  technique of measurement that revolutionized social psychology in the 193
 0s and 1940s\, and found multiple applications in education\, government a
 nd industry in the United States. It focuses on an American-led and design
 ed survey-based study of troop morale\, which took place among Jewish mili
 tia fighters in Jerusalem during the 1948 Palestine War. Using rare archiv
 al materials\, memoirs and reportage on life in the besieged city\, the pa
 per traces the difficulties involved in measuring individual attitudes and
  laying claims for statistical certitude in a politically foreign and ofte
 n hostile setting.\n\nJoining global historians of science who have reject
 ed unidirectional narratives of cultural export and influence\, I demonstr
 ate that there was nothing inevitable or obvious about the eventual adopti
 on of sample surveys. The institutionalization of this scientific practice
  in the nascent Israeli state was due primarily to individual initiative a
 nd personal charisma\, and to the successful rendering of expertise intell
 igible in the vernacular. Yet\, highlighting the 'iterability' of science 
 in translation\, I also show that embedded in officer reports\, personnel 
 selection procedures and field manuals\, behavioural science concepts and 
 claims have often been reframed and infused with local patterns of reasoni
 ng\, or appropriated to promote other ends.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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