Jonathan Coopersmith

Bio: Jonathan Coopersmith is an academic researcher from Texas A&M University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Electrification & Pornography. The author has an hindex of 11, co-authored 35 publications receiving 365 citations.

Does Your Mother Know What You Really Do? The Changing Nature and Image of Computer‐Based Pornography

Abstract: Pornography has historically been closely connected with the rise of communication technologies, often providing male customers the justification to become early adopters. In recent decades, the digitalization of data, the Internet, and the World Wide Web have accelerated this trend. Cybersex—electronic pornography—has proved an early and profitable market for almost every new computer‐based service. As well as providing revenues, cybersex has also trailblazed new business and operational practices that later diffuse to other markets.

Pornography, videotape and the Internet

Abstract: Pornography has had a significant role in the promotion and diffusion of new communication technologies. New technologies have also altered the nature of pornography in the last few decades. These technologies include VCRs, camcorders, Minitel, computers, and the Internet. Pornographic products have served to stimulate interest in these new technologies, despite their higher initial costs. The attractions include greater perceived privacy and easier access. As each of these technologies matures and prices drop, the importance of pornographic products diminishes relatively, but not absolutely. Another pattern is the elimination of the distinctions among producers, distributors, and consumers as do-it-yourself video and computers have permitted a "democratization" of pornography. At the risk of appearing indifferent to moral issues, the author focuses on pornography's importance in diffusing new technologies (VCRs, camcorders, Minitel, computers, and the Internet), and how these technologies have reshaped the nature of pornography. Driving this transformation have been the great capitalist engines of innovation and the quest for profits. Like war, pornography has served as an agent of change for both, and similarly benefitted greatly.

The Electrification of Russia, 1880-1926

Abstract: Russia, 1880–1926 is the first full account of the widespread adoption of electricity in Russia, from the beginning in the 1880s to its early years as a state technology under Soviet rule. Jonathan Coopersmith has mined the archives for both the tsarist and the Soviet periods to examine a crucial element in the modernization of Russia. Coopersmith shows how the Communist Party forged an alliance with engineers to harness the socially transformative power of this science-based enterprise. A centralized plan of electrification triumphed, to the benefit of the Communist Party and the detriment of local governments and the electrical engineers. Coopersmith's narrative of how this came to be elucidates the deep-seated and chronic conflict between the utopianism of Soviet ideology and the reality of Soviet politics and economics.

The ‘National System of Innovation’ in historical perspective

Abstract: Contrary to some recent work on so-called 'globalisation', this paper argues that national and regional systems of innovation remain an essential domain of economic analysis. Their importance derives from the networks of relationships which are necessary for any firm to innovate. Whilst external international connections are certainly of growing importance, the influence of the national education system, industrial relations, technical and scientific institutions, government policies, cul- tural traditions and many other national institutions is fundamental. The historical examples of Germany, Japan and the former USSR illustrate this point, as well as the more recent contrast between East Asian and Latin American countries. Introduction: The National System of Friedrich List According to this author's recollections, the first person to use the expression 'National System of Innovation' was Bengt-Ake Lundvall and he is also the editor of a highly original and thought-provoking book (1992) on this subject. However, as he and his colleagues would be the first to agree (and as Lundvall himself points out) the idea actually goes back at least to Friedrich List's conception of "The National System of Political Economy' (1841), which might just as well have been called 'The National System of Innovation'. The main concern of List was with the problem of Germany overtaking England and, for underdeveloped countries (as Germany then was in relation to England), he advocated not only protection of infant industries but a broad range of policies designed to accelerate, or to make possible, industrialisation and economic growth. Most of these policies were concerned with learning about new technology and applying it. The racialist and colonialist overtones of the book were in strong contrast to the inter- nationalist cosmopolitan approach of the classical free trade economists and List's belief that Holland and Denmark should join the German 'Bund' and acquire German nationality because of their 'descent and whole character' reads somewhat strangely in the European Community of today. Nevertheless, despite these unattractive features of his outlook, he clearly anticipated many contemporary theories. After reviewing the changing ideas of economists about development in the years since the Second World War, the World Bank (1991) concludes that it is intangible investment in knowledge accumulation which is decisive rather than physical capital investment, as was at one time believed (pages 33-35). The Report cites the 'New Growth Theory'

The sources of social power

Abstract: Distinguishing four sources of power in human societies – ideological, economic, military and political – The Sources of Social Power traces their interrelations throughout human history In this first volume, Michael Mann examines interrelations between these elements from neolithic times, through ancient Near Eastern civilizations, the classical Mediterranean age and medieval Europe, up to just before the Industrial Revolution in England It offers explanations of the emergence of the state and social stratification; of city-states, militaristic empires and the persistent interaction between them; of the world salvation religions; and of the particular dynamism of medieval and early modern Europe It ends by generalizing about the nature of overall social development, the varying forms of social cohesion and the role of classes and class struggle in history First published in 1986, this new edition of Volume 1 includes a new preface by the author examining the impact and legacy of the work

America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940

Abstract: From the Publisher: The telephone looms large in our lives, as ever present in modern societies as cars and television. Claude Fischer presents the first social history of this vital but little-studied technology—how we encountered, tested, and ultimately embraced it with enthusiasm. Using telephone ads, oral histories, telephone industry correspondence, and statistical data, Fischer's work is a colorful exploration of how, when, and why Americans started communicating in this radically new manner. Studying three California communities, Fischer uncovers how the telephone became integrated into the private worlds and community activities of average Americans in the first decades of this century. Women were especially avid in their use, a phenomenon which the industry first vigorously discouraged and then later wholeheartedly promoted. Again and again Fischer finds that the telephone supported a wide-ranging network of social relations and played a crucial role in community life, especially for women, from organizing children's relationships and church activities to alleviating the loneliness and boredom of rural life. Deftly written and meticulously researched, America Calling adds an important new chapter to the social history of our nation and illuminates a fundamental aspect of cultural modernism that is integral to contemporary life. Author Biography: Claude S. Fischer is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of To Dwell among Fris: Personal Networks in Town and City (1982) and The Urban Experience (1984).