[Sci-tech-public] Date Correction: Brown Bag Lunch Talk is OCTOBER 5th

Debbie Meinbresse meinbres at MIT.EDU
Fri Sep 16 20:18:30 EDT 2005


>How Can Academics Respond to Katrina?
>A Brown Bag Lunch Discussion of Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of
>Disaster in Chicago by Eric Klinenberg (U. Chicago Press, 2002) led by
>Mike Fischer, Hugh Gusterson, and David Jones.
>
>DATE:   Wednesday, October 5, 2005
>TIME:   12:00 - 1:30
>LOCATION:       E51-095
>
>Natural disasters and their consequences raise many questions that
>need (or at least would benefit from) STS perspectives.  As we all
>struggle to figure out how to respond to Katrina, Hugh, Mike, and I
>thought it might be useful to get together to discuss an excellent
>book that provides a possible model for analysis.  In 1995 a heat
>wave struck Chicago, leaving roughly 700 people dead.  The patterns
>of mortality bear striking similarities to New Orleans: largely
>black, marginalized, elderly, in poor neighborhoods, often public
>housing, with no one to turn to for help; their plight was the
>outcome of decades of misguided urban policy and urban mismanagement,
>etc.  Sociologist Eric Klinenberg published an analysis, a "social
>autopsy" of this "natural" disaster: _Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of
>Disaster in Chicago_ (U. Chicago Press, 2002).
>
>We will get together to discuss this book in a brown bag lunch,
>Wednesday, October 5, 12-1:30, room E51-095.
>
>The book was extensively and controversially reviewed.  For one
>interesting set (available via Proquest), see the reviews in
>_Contemporary Sociology_, March 2004, pp. 137-156, and his angry
>response in the September issue, pp. 521-528.
>
>For anyone interested who can't get their hands on a book, or don't
>have time to read the whole thing, see Klinenberg, "Denaturalizing
>Disaster: A Social Autopsy of the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave," _Theory
>and Society_ 28 (April 1999): 239-295, available via MIT e-resources.
>
>And for people REALLY interested, he was interviewed on All Things
>Considered on 14 August 2003, and on Fresh Air (but not by Terry
>Gross) on 15 August 2002.
>
>Hope to see you there!  Feel free to bring your lunch; we'll provide 
>coffee and dessert.
>
>David Jones
>
>Debbie Meinbresse
>STS Program, MIT
>617-452-2390

Debbie Meinbresse
STS Program, MIT
617-452-2390 
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