This seminar sets out to explore the role of energy in global history.
How did our highly energy-dependent world come into being? Taking the
provincialization of thermodynamics as a starting point, we will trace
the production and use of energy from the industrial
age, through the age of empires and up to today’s renewables
transition. Touching on the pre-industrial use of muscle and animal
power to situate the modern energy condition, we will interrogate the
relationship between energy and industry, ask how energy
enabled global movement and communication, and examine the social,
economic and political structures around the production and use of
energy. The seminar combines perspectives of global environmental
history, the sociology and history of science, and the social
sciences more broadly. Readings consist of recent scholarship,
classical texts, and primary material (*) from different parts of the
world.
- Trainer DS: Stephan Kaschner
- Trainer/in: europast europast
- Trainer/in: Wiebke Sophie Matschke
- Trainer/in: Daniela Ruß
Semester: WiSe 2022/23