Knowledge that Transforms

The recent tension around the privately owned Starlink satellite system during the Russian invasion of Ukraine once again illustrated the importance of global satellite networks as key infrastructures of communication. That satellite communication could have unprecedented consequences was realized early on. Christine E. Evans and Lars Lundgren bring us back to these early days, opening with a quote from Hanna Arendt on Sputnik. They focus on broadcasting, a radio service distinctly different from many others in its public reach with overt political consequences, and combine the interest in networks with that of content. In a five-chapter, co-written volume they cover the 1960s and 70s, but also give a prehistory and an epilogue. Thus the book offers a comprehensive history of the integration of satellite communication during the Cold War, merging new archival material from Soviet and socialist sources with those of the US and international broadcasting institutions. In the introduction and throughout, Evans and Lundgren bring together literatures that a few decades ago were separate, and draw simultaneously on, for example, science and technology studies, media-and communication studies, and history of technology with a particular focus on hidden integration and infrastructure, the latter underscored by the volume belonging to the infrastructures series of MIT Press. The following chapters begin with a prehistory of satellite networks in the 1950s, offering dreams and visions as well as early collaboration. Ch. 2 details the preparations for a global live satellite broadcasting event, which eventually did not materialize as one but two events, one western with the BBC as the central node and the other Soviet and the eastern bloc. Then follows a rewriting of one of the key processes in satellite history, namely the US global ambitions with Intelsat, European discontent, and Soviet Intersputnik. Ch. 4 tells the story of the construction of the ground segment

In her book Seeing Others: How Recognition Works-and How It Can Heal a Divided World, Miche `le Lamont embarks on an exploration of recognition, a concept that serves as a linchpin for understanding social dynamics and mitigating societal divisions.Lamont, a sociologist known for her contributions to the areas of culture, inequality, and social change, dissects how recognitionacknowledging and valuing the dignity and worth of others-operates at various levels of social interaction and institutional practice.The book is both a synthesis of her sociological research and an urgent call to foster recognition in an increasingly polarized world.Lamont's book is structured around a central thesis: recognition is essential for social cohesion and individual well-being.She contends that recognition is crucial for bridging divides and fostering inclusive societies.Through a detailed examination of various contexts, including case studies, Lamont illustrates how recognition, or the lack thereof, shapes personal interactions and influences broader social structures.Lamont's exploration of the role of narratives and symbols in fostering recognition is particularly compelling.She argues convincingly that stories and rituals play a crucial role in shaping collective identities and promoting mutual respect.Lamont also examines the barriers to recognition, such as systemic inequalities and cultural prejudices, and offers strategies to overcome these obstacles.The case studies span a wide range of contexts, from corporate settings in the United States to educational environments in France, demonstrating the universal relevance of recognition.These examples underscore the multifaceted nature of recognition and its effects on individuals and communities.Lamont's ability to weave together insights from sociology, psychology, and philosophy results in a nuanced and multidimensional understanding of recognition.This interdisciplinary lens effectively highlights the complexity of the concept and its implications across different spheres of life.The first two chapters and Chapter 7 highlight that the need to understand recognition transcends socioeconomic and generational divides, including both privileged and marginalized perspectives, emphasizing the transformative potential of the younger generation.Chapter 1 explores upper-middle class disillusionment with the promises of the American dream, and the next chapter contrasts this by presenting the struggles and aspirations of the working class.In Chapter 1, Lamont discusses how the upper-middle class measures worth through education, professional success, and lifestyle, linking social status directly to self-worth.However, she points out that this pursuit often leads to a narrow, exclusionary mindset that exacerbates social divisions.By focusing on their success, members of the upper-middle class may overlook broader societal responsibilities, contributing to a fragmented social fabric.

Historical books on business are not always widely read by organization scholars and are often unfairly equated with hagiographical corporate biographies commissioned by firms.Lubinski's carefully researched study of German business activities in India in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is a very different book as it offers insights into a variety of German firms, from the major engineering and chemical ventures such as Siemens, Bayer, and IG Farben to small enterprises, such as the cutlery manufacturers from Solingen (which rivaled Sheffield's trade) and gramophone companies.Adding to this kaleidoscopic overview are the various international cloaking companies, often Swiss, that aided German corporate interests during two world wars, when German firms were associated with a hostile home state.By taking such a long and broad lens, the book presents the shifting tides of economic and political trends that affected international business and shaped corporate strategies in ways that are rarely discussed in business research.Underpinned by historical research in several international archives and contextualized effectively with both present-day concepts and historical ideas and their reception in India, Germany, and the UK, the book offers an easy, smooth read, bringing not just events and people but also their life worlds and mental maps into a cohesive argument about the complex interaction between nationalism and international business.Lubinski draws on modern conceptions of nationalism, such as the historian Benedict Anderson's (1993) influential notion of imagined communities, but also historical ideas of the way nations and economic development interact.Some of the latter ideas include the German economist Friedrich List's work in the nineteenth century, which many Indian thinkers considered relevant, as well as American academic and political adviser Walt W. Rostow's later influential conception of economic development as a ''take off.''These two ideas frame the radically different ways in which nationalism can be the fulcrum of anticolonial notions of economic development.List's notion was deeply political, framed by Anglo-German industrial and imperial rivalries, and considered nations as almost fated communities that needed to invest in their shared future.In conjunction with the status of Germany as one of the most successful late-industrializing European powers, this idea was both appealing and legitimate to Indian nationalists and fit well into the emerging Swadeshi movement, which was a consumer movement exhorting people to buy local, or at the very least not from the British colonial masters.The chapter on bazaar goods is particularly interesting, as there are few business histories of the companies that provided consumer goods to informal

Book review of: The Interloper: Lessons from Resistance in the Field by Michel Anteby. Princeton University Press, 2024. 208 pp. $24.95, paper.