Technologies for Unstructured Thought: Creativity in Military and Industrial Settings 1935-1965

Lecture of the ZGW Lecture series at November 4, 2015

This lecture draws from my research project on the history of creative thought in military-industrial contexts between 1935-1965. It traces how processes of unstructured thought, such as having an "uncontrolled flow of ideas", came to be framed as a positive technologies for garnering new knowledge, especially in American military and industrial contexts, and how these technologies were gradually institutionalized to the point of becoming common sense. It details how the employment and valorization of unstructured thought emerged in response to e.g. military and managerial rationalities, the standardization and disciplining of work, and the incorporation of social scientists in corporate America.