Delaware Business Blog

Green Capitalism? At the Crossroads of Environmental and Business History

Investigate and experience the unfolding history of American business, technology, and innovation and its impact on the world, with Hagley at this upcoming conference!
SCHEDULE:

Thursday, 30 October

8:30-9:00 Coffee

9:00-9:30 Welcoming remarks

Erik Rau, Hagley Museum and Library

Hartmut Berghoff, German Historical Institute-D.C.

9:30-12:00 Session 1: Firms as Conservationists?

William D. Bryan, Emory University: Corporate Conservation and Conflict: Determining the Ideal Forms of Development for the American South

Julie Cohn, University of Houston: Utilities as Conservationists: The Conundrum of Electrification during the Progressive Era in North America

David B. Cohen, Brandeis University: Capitalism and the Wilderness Idea: The Case of the Great Northern Paper Company

Frank Uekötter, University of Birmingham: How Green was Chemurgy? A Movement in Search of Corporations

Comment: Ann Greene, University of Pennsylvania

12:00-1:00 lunch

1:00-3:00 Session 2: Consumers’ Demands

Ai Hisano, University of Delaware: Making Natural: Coloring Florida Oranges, 1930s-1950s

Brian C. Black, Penn State Altoona: Energy Hinge: Green Consumerism and the Energy Scene since 1973

Rachel Gross, University of Wisconsin, Madison: Greening Outdoor Recreation in the Age of Plastics

Comment: Adam Rome, University of Delaware

3:30-5:30 Session 3: Globalization

B. R. Cohen and Matthew Plishka, Lafayette College: Cottonseed, Oil, and the Environmental Entanglements of a Global Gilded Age Industry

Emily K. Brock, Max Planck Institute: Naming Commodities: Colonial Power, American Business and the Rebranding of a Tropical Forest Tree in the Philippines

Simone Müller-Pohl,University of Freiburg: Why American Cities go Wasting Abroad: Local Political Economy and International Trade in Hazardous Waste

Comment: Yda Schreuder, University of Delaware

5:30-6:30: Reception

6:30-8:30: Dinner

Friday 31 October

8:30-9:00 Coffee

9:00-11:30 Session 4: Firms Going Green

David Kinkela, State University of New York Fredonia: Hi-Cone Plastic Six-Pack Rings, Ocean Pollution, and the Challenge of a Global Environmental Problem

Bart Elmore, University of Alabama: Towards a History of Sustainable Business?: What the Coca-Cola Company Can Tell us about the Ecological Causes of Corporate Restructuring

Leif Fredrickson, University of Virginia: The Rise and Fall of an Ecostar: Environmental Technology Innovation and Marketing as Policy Obstruction

Ann-Kristin Bergquist. Umeå University: Dilemmas of Going Green: Company Strategies in the Swedish Mining Company Boliden 1960-2000

Comment: John McNeil, Georgetown University

12:30-2:00 Session 5: Governance

Roman Köster, Bundeswehr University Munich: Private Companies and the Recycling of Household Waste in West Germany, 1965-1990

Hugh Gorman, Michigan Technology University: The Role of Businesses in Constructing Systems of Environmental Governance

Comment: Brian Balogh, University of Virginia

2:00-3:00 Conference summary

Christine Meisner Rosen, Haas School of Business, University of California-Berkeley

Advance registration is free but required. Contact Carol Lockman, clockman@Hagley.org, for program and registration information.

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