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SUMMARY:Death\, Money\, Mathematics : life insurance in France (1780-1840)
  - Caroline Ehrhardt (Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis)
DTSTART:20250121T143000Z
DTEND:20250121T153000Z
UID:TALK220528@talks.cam.ac.uk
DESCRIPTION:Numerous works published in the last two decades have consider
 ed mathematical activity from the point of view the practices to which it 
 gives rise\, but the question of the social and economic anchorage in whic
 h this activity is embedded more often than not remains a blind spot. By e
 xamining the trajectories and productions of actors trained in mathematics
  (and sometimes even active in this field) and employed by insurance compa
 nies in France between the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the 
 nineteenth centuries\, this talk aims to build bridges between the history
  of mathematics and economic and social history. &nbsp\;\nI will focus on 
 the professional dimension of the application of statistics and probabilit
 y to insurance and pension issues\,&nbsp\;to better understand how mathema
 tical activity can take place in the context of white-collar work\, as pro
 fessional work whose objective is not the development of mathematics per s
 e\, but the production of value.&nbsp\;The mathematics of insurance\, late
 r to be known as actuarial science\, provides an ideal opportunity to stud
 y not only&nbsp\; the practice of mathematics as a necessary technique for
  the conduct of economic activities\, but also the mechanisms on which suc
 h practice is based\, the concrete acts of intellectual work that it induc
 es\, and the way in which it both fits into and reinforces social hierarch
 ies and sales arguments.&nbsp\;
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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