“How Safe Is Safe Enough?” Practices of Evidence for Technical Safety in Times of Societal Uncertainty

The project aims to analyze practices of evidence concerning technical safety in both German states between the 1950s and the 1980s, using two specific technological fields – automobiles and nuclear power – as case studies. As key technologies of the atomic and the consumer age, both fields have had a substantial part in transforming the idea of safety/security into a societal core value. Making use of the chiasmus “practicing evidence – evidencing practice”, we study discourses as well as concrete practices of technical safety as an increasingly important precondition for the societal acceptance of technology.

Project leader(s):
Prof. Dr. Karin Zachmann, Dr. Stefan Esselborn

Period:
01.04.2017 – 31.03.2020

Project type:
["Postdoc-Projekt \/ Post Doc Project"]

Funding institution:
DFG