Useful Nature(s)

Science, Pedagogy and the Power of Youth in Early Modern Central Europe

Whitmer, Kelly J.

The study of youth remains a tantalizing prospect in the sciences today, particularly as a means of extending life. Many institutions rely on the flexibility, cheaper labor and creative approaches to problem solving that young people often carry with them into research and professional environments. Now, as in the past, practitioners of the sciences are drawn to evidence of intellectual precocity or signs of premature ingenuity. Useful Nature(s) recovers the largely untold story of science’s preoccupation with the power of the young, including their heightened capacities to “know use” and to embody playful, yet productive, forms of physical labor. It focuses on a pivotal moment in the history of early modern Central European communities, when scholars, physicians, teachers and administrators began calling for intensified investigations of the young body, particularly its tendency to play, to move constantly, and to deploy tools and materials strategically. Drawing much needed attention to science’s fascination with youth’s power, Useful Nature(s) highlights efforts to derive benefit from the young person’s relationship to the future and potential to dramatically reconfigure knowledge-making practices and communities.