Environmental battles and the rise of scientism during the Second Reich

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25380430
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Economic history
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Takita Hiromichi 九州大学, 経済学研究科(研究院), 教授 (50117149)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: Environmenta History / Industrialisation / Environmental Pollution / Civil Movement / Chemical Industry / Oligopolistic Firm / Environmental Policy

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The 1880s makes a big turning point in the industrial concession-procedure in Germany. One of the distinctive criterion is that the industrial inspectors play an important role there. This research aims at a critical consideration on the prevailing theory ,which considers them as “specialists for the fabricants ”. We approach to this problem from two viewpoints, i.e. case study on some concession-battles brought out during 1880s-1900 and pursuit of the petitions got up by the German Chemical Association in order to reform the concession-procedure. We confirm their neutral activities and a fact that the Chemical Association regards them not as its friends. They do their best to protect factory laborers and neighborhood by proposing the technical“ best practice ” as concessional conditions.

Free Research Field

Economic History