Lea Haller

Lösung für das Knappheitsproblem oder nationales Risiko? Auf Erdölsuche in der Schweiz

Remedy for Shortage or Risk for National Security? The Search for Oil in Switzerland. Over several decades, geologists, entrepreneurs, politicians, and public authorities dealt with a potential petroleum occurrence in Switzerland. They provided scientific expertise, granted concessions, invested capital and sank bore holes. Although the endeavour was never successful economically, it reveals how closely related geopolitical situations and the exploitation of natural resources were. This article investigates the search for crude oil in Switzerland from the 1930s until the 1960s, combining a history of science and technology perspective with a history of the political regulations and economic considerations concerning the extractive industry. It traces the changing fears and hopes about potential oil occurrences in Switzerland: From an investment to overcome future shortages, to the risk of imperial desires if oil would be found in abundance.

Einleitung: Rechnen mit der Natur: Ökonomische Kalküle um Ressourcen

Der internationale Handel bestehe hauptsächlich im Tausch von Manufakturprodukten gegen Rohstoffe und Naturprodukte, schrieb der Ökonom und Staatswissenschaftler Friedrich List 1841 in Das nationale System der politischen Ökonomie. Infolge Angebot und Nachfrage ergebe sich eine gegenseitige Abhängigkeit zwischen rohstoffproduzierenden und industriegüterexportierenden Ländern, oder in den Worten Lists:

Stress, Cortison und Homöostase

This article investigates the emergence of the concept of stress in the 1930s and outlines its changing disciplinary and conceptual frames up until 1960. Originally stress was a physiological concept applied to the hormonal regulation of the body under stressful conditions. Correlated closely with chemical research into corticosteroids for more than a decade, the stress concept finally became a topic in cognitive psychology. One reason for this shift of the concept to another discipline was the fact that the hormones previously linked to the stress concept were successfully transferred from laboratory to medical practice and adopted by disciplines such as rheumatology and dermatology. Thus the stress concept was dissociated from its hormonal context and became a handy formula that allowed postindustrial society to conceive of stress as a matter of individual concern. From a physiological phenomenon stress turned into an object of psychological discourse and individual coping strategies.