Agustí Nieto-Galan

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE EUROPEAN PERIPHERY: SOME HISTORIOGRAPHICAL REFLECTIONS

In less than twenty years a number of developments have dramatically reshaped much of what was considered as common (historiographical) values among members of the established communities of historians of science and technology. The intense discussions concerning a number of theoretical issues, and the subsequent re-thinking of foundational historiographical problems, took place within a context characterized by the impressive scholarship produced by a continual increase in the number of scholars working in the history of science and technology, and also in the expanded range of themes to be studied. Relevant to this was an increase in funding, the establishment of new research centres, the availability of new academic positions, the consolidation of professional bodies, and the launching of many well-funded programs. Concomitantly, the proliferation of book series together with the access to a variety of new sources, and the implementation of a multitude of projects involving the digitalization of standard archival and bibliographical collections, all played a major role in defining the contours of the professional community of historians of science and the scope of the discipline. During the same period major transformations took place in both the actual study and the institutional contexts of the history of science and technology in a number of countries of the European periphery. On the whole, the developments which took place within the more established communities of historians of science and technology Hist. Sci., xlvi (2008)

Antonio Gramsci Revisited: Historians of Science, Intellectuals, and the Struggle for Hegemony

In 2001, Steven Fuller analysed the successful enterprise of Thomas S. Kuhn’s Structure of scientific revolutions as a two-sided story. In spite of its public image of neutrality and objectivity, the Structure, like all other products of academic research in the history of science, carried a political load. As chairman of the Anti-Communist Committee in the 1950s, and designer of science education policies, James B. Conant, Kuhn’s mentor, strongly supported an uncontroversial, neutral science, which was to be transmitted to the younger generations as a taken-for-granted worldview far from any critical reflection on the material conditions of thought. The Structure reinforced the idea that the scientific process remains essentially the same whenever and however it occurs. The Conant-Kuhn case has been widely discussed and has raised much controversy, but it would not be hard to find other examples in which, under the rhetoric of neutrality and objectivity, historians of science have tacitly shared the hegemonic values of the élites of their time. In spite of the longstanding perception of modern science as value-free knowledge of the external world, the new social and cultural history of science has contributed substantially in recent decades to the blurring of the old boundaries between a supposed ideology-free history of ideas and an ideology-loaded social history of science. As Dominique Pestre stated in a recent essay, professional scientists are progressively becoming experts in the service of political and economic power, and the old image of defenders of ‘truth’ seems to be fading quickly. We are today witnesses of the progressive disappearance of the old ideology-free rhetoric, which supposedly has allowed scientists to develop their careers successfully, detached from moral values, being socially and politically neutral. In the same vein, Sheila Jasanoff has pointed out that the dynamics of our contemporary politics, culture and power is intimately linked to the dynamics of science and technology. Through the study of the natural world and its transformations, politics today defines and refines the meaning of citizenship and civic responsibility, rivalry and solidarity, the boundaries between public and private, and the tensions between freedom and social control. At the 2001 annual meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science, Wiebe Bijker called for science and technology studies (STS) scholars to be more involved in the political debate. In his view:

Calico printing and chemical knowledge in Lancashire in the early nineteenth century : The life and 'colours' of John Mercer

Summary The life and works of John Mercer (1791–1866), a calico-printer from Lancashire, is a good example to illustrate the complexity of the process of printing cottons with natural colours, and the different skills required to obtain a final product able to be sold in the markets in the early years of the nineteenth century. A subtle combination of entrepreneurial dynamism, chemical knowledge, and expertise in the workshop provided a very special sort of ‘artisan-chemist’, who played a key role in the industrial prosperity of the coloured textiles in the early Victorian years. The paper tries to show how, apart from the traditional ‘great luminaries’ of the period (Gay-Lussac, Berzelius, Davy, or Dalton), self-educated provincial chemists such as Mercer also made significant practical and theoretical contributions.

'... not fundamental in a state of full civilization': The Sociedad Astronómica de Barcelona (1910-1921) and its Popularization Programme

Summary Scrutinizing the main activities of the Sociedad Astronómica de Barcelona (SAB), a scientific society that was founded in 1910 and lasted until 1921, this paper analyses how and why its members disseminated astronomy to society at large. Inspired by Camille Flammarion (1842–1925), and with a strong amateur character, the programme of the SAB raised interest among academic scientists, politicians, priests, navy officers, educated audiences, and positivist anticlerical writers. It rapidly conquered the public sphere through well-attended lectures, exhibitions, observations, and publications. In the context of an industrial city, which at that time was suffering serious social tensions, the popularization of astronomy transcended social and cultural boundaries. It created common ground between expert and lay knowledge, science and art, the ‘natural’ and the ‘social’, and between science and religion. In addition, it was considered as one of the only possible ways to raise the scientific level of a country such as Spain, which at that time perceived itself as peripheral, even backward, in terms of mainstream innovations in science and technology.

Free radicals in the European periphery: ‘translating’ organic chemistry from Zurich to Barcelona in the early twentieth century

In 1915, after acquiring first-hand knowledge of the new free radical chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Antonio Garcia Banus (1888-1955) became professor of organic chemistry at the University of Barcelona and created his own research group, which was the last from 1915 until 1936. He was a gifted teacher and a prolific writer who attempted to introduce international scientific standards into his local environment. This paper analyses the bridges that Banus built between the experimental culture of organic chemistry at the ETH and the University of Barcelona. It presents a case study which aims to provide new historical data for the general analysis of groups who conducted their work in the European periphery

The Images of Science in Modern Spain

These quotations share a pessimistic view of scientific culture in Spain. They reflect a negative discourse according to which Spaniards are reluctant to assimilate science and technology, and indeed seem to lack the skills to do so. Although the core of the main debate dates from the second half of the nineteenth century, these texts are quite representative of multiple episodes throughout Spanish intellectual history, in which, for a variety of reasons, the country’s scientific capacity was questioned in public discourses. The vision presented of the country’s scientific talent and ability tended to be negative, although this pessimism was countered at times by an exaggerated apologetic and passionate defense of the nation’s endeavours.

Centers and Peripheries Revisited: STEP and the Mainstream Historiography of Science

This chapter describes the history of the international research group “Science and Technology in the European Periphery” (STEP). It analyses STEP’s genuine academic culture, its complex relation with the mainstream historiography of science and the crucial role that Professor Kostas Gavroglu has played in the making of the whole project, from its foundation in Barcelona in 1999 to its further intellectual, academic growth. It also describes in detail STEP’s main achievements through conferences and publications on subjects such as scientific travels, scientific textbooks and their circulation, national historiographies of science, science popularization in the periphery, scientific controversies, with the most recent meetings covering different topics organized into thematic sessions. Taking “centers” and “peripheries” as flexible and dynamic categories, the STEP research agenda has enriched the study of circulation of knowledge in the past and shall also contribute to a new multicultural approach to a truly European history of science in the future.

Under the Banner of Catalan Industry

In 1851, in the official report on dyeing and calico-printing for the Great Exhibition, the French chemist Jean-Francois Persoz explicitly referred to Catalonia as an “interessante contree industrielle.” He noted that the Catalans had developed their own methods of spreading technological knowledge and had acquired a reputation as “imitateurs des impressions.”1 This contemporary view is not far removed from the assessments of recent economic historians on the process of nineteenth-century industrialization in this peripheral Mediterranean area. Ramon Garrabou’s study of the Catalan industrial engineers of that period underlines the fact that it was the ability to absorb and appropriate foreign technology, more than local technological creativity that was decisive in the region’s industrial development.2 In the same vein, referring to the first half of the nineteenth century at least, Jordi Maluquer sees Catalonia as a milieu innovateur, eager to receive new technology from abroad.3

How to Write an Urban History of STM on the "Periphery"

Within the STEP research agenda there has never been an explicit focus on the city as a central place for knowledge production. Scholars of the urban history of science tend to concentrate on the metropolis and have not looked in any systematic way at the scientific culture in “peripheral” urban contexts. To fill this gap, this essay proposes to focus on: (1) the role of science, technology and medicine in everyday life and the experiences of the citizens; (2) the plurality of the often conflicting notions of urban modernity; (3) the complex networks of interurban connections between the “peripheries.”

Science in Wonderland: The Scientific Fairy Tales of Victorian Britain

the long history of creating imitation gemstones from glass with a view to defraud. The final chapter deals with the well-known engraving of a cloaked figure leaving a starry-skied Garden of Eden, passing through the vault of the heavens to a different world. The author of this chapter, Stefano Gattei, explains that it was created only in 1888 by Nicolas Camille Flammarion. It has been used numerous times by those falsely believing it to be a medieval representation of the world system in which the figure moves towards early modernism. It was not an intentional deception, though undoubtedly many authors in future will continue to be misled into using the engraving to illustrate their early modern work. This is an excellent series of closely defined case studies. It is not the intention of Fakes!? to consider the overall picture of scientific deception, so some important general aspects, including the psychology of fraud, are not covered. The fact is that some people need to believe the unbelievable and through the ages this has provided a good living for many who are only too happy to supply them with their needs.