Susan GREENHALGH, interviewed by Gonçalo SANTOS and Jun ZHANG on 28/February/2025

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In this episode, anthropologist and science studies specialist Susan Greenhalgh talks about her most recent book, Soda Science. Making the World Safe for Coca-Cola, taking TechnoViews listeners deep inside the secret world of corporate science, where powerful companies and allied academic scientists mold research to meet industry needs. The episode begins with a brief account of how industry leader Coca-Cola mobilized allies in academia to create a soda-defense science that would protect the industry’s profits by advocating physical exercise, not dietary restraint, as the priority solution to the problem of obesity. The goal of soda science was to use science to discourage the introduction of restrictive public policies like soda taxes that would threaten the revenues of giant soda companies like Coca-Cola. The author then explains why soda science should not be seen as fake science; it is real science, conducted by real and eminent scientists, but distorted to serve corporate benefits. This corruption of the science of obesity raises crucial questions about conflicts of interest in scientific research and the cunning ways giant corporations like Coca-Cola come to shape our diets, lifestyles, and health to their own needs. The author then establishes a contrast between the effects of soda science in China and in the US, and she then discusses some of the biggest challenges she faced during her research in these two countries on such a sensitive topic. Finally, the author discusses the importance of anthropology and the social sciences in the current era of misinformation and disinformation, sharing a few stories that were not included in the book.

FEATURED AUTHOR

Susan GREENHALGH is the John King and Wilma Cannon Fairbank Professor of Chinese Society Emerita at Harvard University. An anthropologist, her interests lie in the entanglements of state, corporation, science, and society, and their consequences for human health and social justice writ large. She is author of Just One-Child: Science and Policy in Deng's China; and Cultivating Global Citizens: Population in the Rise of China; co-author of Governing China's Population: From Leninist to Neoliberal Biopolitics; and co-editor of Can Science and Technology Save China?, among other titles.

BOOK WEBSITE

Greenhalgh, Susan. 2024. Soda Science. Making the World Safe for Coca-Cola. University of Chicago Press, 352 pages | 18 halftones, 7 tables | 6 x 9

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo221451790.html

John B. LOURDUSAMY and Tiago SARAIVA, interviewed by Gonçalo SANTOS and Jun ZHANG on 13/August/2024

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Dr. Lourdusamy and Dr. Saraiva present their recently published book, Moving Crops and the Scales of History, speaking on behalf of a larger collective of authors that includes also Francesca Bray and Barbara Hahn. The episode begins with a discussion of key concepts such as the “cropscape” and the “scales of history,” showing how these concepts challenge stereotypical understandings of historical processes, breaking open traditional historical structures of period, geography and direction and revealing the significance of previously invisible actors and forces. Significant attention is given to the process of book composition. The authors provide unique insights on the process of writing and the criteria that were used to select crops and stories. We also learn that some crops and stories were left out of the book and the reasons why such crops and stories were not included. Finally, the authors explain how they came together as a collective and discuss the virtues and challenges of the pioneering collaborative model of writing developed in the book.

FEATURED AUTHORS

John B. LOURDUSAMY is an Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Science, Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Tiago SARAIVA is a Full Professor of History at Drexel University, co-editor of the journal History and Technology, and a member of the new Cambridge History of Technology editorial team.

BOOK WEBSITE

Francesca Bray, Barbara Hahn, John B. Lourdusamy and Tiago Saraiva. 2024. Moving Crops and the Scales of History. Yale University Press (Yale Agrarian Studies Series).

Awarded the Edelstein Prize 2024 by the Society for the History of Technology and the Bentley Book Prize 2024 by the World History Association

Lin ZHANG, interviewed by Joseph BOSCO on 13 December 2023

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In this episode, Dr. Zhang discusses the definition of the “entrepreneur” and why it is important. She also discusses why the idea that entrepreneurship would decrease inequality has become so popular in among PRC leaders. The author also explains the significance of her three cases, and elaborates on the life course of one of the interviewees. She also talks about the tension between seeing entrepreneurship as culturally important and avoiding cultural essentialism.

FEATURED AUTHOR

Dr. Lin ZHANG, author of the book The Labor of Reinvention: Entrepreneurship in the New Chinese Digital Economy, published in 2023 by Columbia University Press. Dr. Zhang earned a PhD in Communication at the University of Southern California, and is currently an Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies at the University of New Hampshire, focusing on critical innovation studies, knowledge and digital labor, and intersectionality.

AUTHOR WEBSITE

University website: https://cola.unh.edu/person/lin-zhang

Personal website: https://linzhangweb.org/