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(New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe
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(New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe

A special issue of Histories (ISSN 2409-9252).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 43526

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Volker Remmert

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Guest Editor
Interdisciplinary Center for Science and Technology Studies, Wuppertal University, Wuppertal, Germany
Interests: history of early modern science; history of mathematics; history of science during the Nazi period and in postwar Germany
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Dania Achermann

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Interdisciplinary Center for Science and Technology Studies, Wuppertal University, Wuppertal, Germany
Interests: history of science and technology 19th and 20th century; history of cold war science; history of geosciences
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Cécile Stephanie Stehrenberger

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Interdisciplinary Center for Science and Technology Studies, Wuppertal University, Wuppertal, Germany
Interests: history of disaster science; history of the social sciences and humanities; cold war; colonialialism; gender studies; discard studies
PD Dr. Fabian Link

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Interdisciplinary Center for Science and Technology Studies, Wuppertal University, Wuppertal, Germany
Interests: history of the humanities and the social sciences in the 19th and 20th centuries; national socialism; cold war; methods and theories in historiography

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past few decades, a wide array of research has been categorized as “history of science”, rendering it an extremely dynamic and diversified field. Scholars have explored a wide range of topics beyond the classical fields of the histories of the natural sciences and mathematics, including the human and social sciences as well as the humanities. They have developed and applied various methods and theoretical approaches that have emerged from a great variety of institutional settings and disciplinary contexts across the globe. In what follows, we refer to this gamut of historical approaches as histories of science. Histories of science have become a global interest and are also largely characterized by inter- and multidisciplinary practices.

The goal of this Special Issue is not to provide an all-encompassing overview of the research areas of histories of science; it rather aims to present them by assembling contributions on a broad spectrum of current research topics and (new) approaches that highlight their ramifications and illustrate their ties to neighboring disciplines and (interdisciplinary) areas of research, both historical studies and approaches from other disciplines and research areas—e.g., philosophy of science, science and technology studies, history of knowledge, economic history, gender studies, or intellectual history. Moreover, the contributions shall exemplify how histories of science can be written in ways that not only move across but also challenge temporal and spatial categories and categorizations, including hegemonic understandings of “modernity”, Eurocentric views of the development of science and the humanities, or certain notions of center-periphery. They shall deal with histories of specific disciplines, specific research objects and phenomena, and with various disciplinary/academic/scientific practices, thereby also exploring the historicity of certain ideals of scientificity (in the sense of the German “Wissenschaftlichkeit”) and the demarcation of science from other forms of knowledge. Moreover, some papers will be dedicated to selected methods and perspectives of current approaches in the histories of science.

The audience that the Special Issue will address consists of general historians who are not necessarily already familiar with the field. The Special Issue seeks to provide an accessible, reliable but also substantive introduction to this field. In order to achieve these goals, the Special Issue features 25 short essays (max. 24,000 characters each) that, comparable to handbook entries, discuss in a concise and compelling as well as readable fashion the historical development and state of the art with respect to:

  1. The history of a specific discipline or interdisciplinary field, its institutionalization, characterization and transformation, such as:
    • ecology;
    • economics;
    • historiography of science;
    • humanities;  
    • life and human sciences;
    • mathematics;
    • social sciences;
    • …
  2. The history of the scientific study of certain phenomena, how they became research/epistemic objects, how they were studied and how the produced knowledge has been used, such as:
    • anthropocene;
    • disaster science;
    • natural phenomena (weather, fossils, water, volcanoes…)
    • natural ressources;
    • pandemics;
    • religion;
    • toxicity;
    • violence and war;
    • the scientific study of waste;
    • …
  3. The role of specific actors/actants, practices, media, forms of representation, and places/spaces of knowledge production in the history of different fields, such as:
    • circulation of scientific knowledge;
    • discourses;
    • domestic spaces;
    • nonhumans;
    • printing/history of the book;  
    • research technologies/scientific instruments;
    • scientific illustration/visualization; scientific languages;
    • …
  4. Specific perspectives and methods that are employed in the history of science, such as:
    • digital history of science;
    • gender studies and feminist history of science;
    • global history of science;
    • history of art and science;
    • post/decolonial history of science;
    • STS;
    • …
  5. Outlooks on:
    • the history of (scientific and nonscientific) knowledge;
    • the history of medicine;
    • the history of technology;
    • …

Please submit abstracts of possible contributions (3.000 characters) to one of the editors by April 30, 2021.

Prof. Dr. Volker Remmert
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Dania Achermann
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Cécile Stephanie Stehrenberger
PD Dr. Fabian Link
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Histories is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication within this special issue is waived. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • History of Science
  • History of Scientific Disciplines
  • History of Scientific Practices
  • History of Scientific Objects
  • Perspectives in the History of Science

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (13 papers)

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Editorial

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4 pages, 175 KiB  
Editorial
(New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe: Introduction
by Dania Achermann, Fabian Link, Volker Remmert and Cécile Stephanie Stehrenberger
Histories 2024, 4(1), 62-65; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories4010005 - 27 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1116
Abstract
Over the past few decades, history of science has changed enormously and developed into a very dynamic and diversified field of historical research [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Other

11 pages, 261 KiB  
Article
Beyond Innovation and Use, or Why We Must Follow Technologies through Time
by Heike Weber
Histories 2024, 4(1), 51-61; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories4010004 - 25 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1772
Abstract
Synthesizing various studies that follow technology beyond innovation and use, this article aims to continue widening the scope of history of technology toward this perspective. It argues that we must follow technology through time and—in addition to its use—its maintenance and repair, while [...] Read more.
Synthesizing various studies that follow technology beyond innovation and use, this article aims to continue widening the scope of history of technology toward this perspective. It argues that we must follow technology through time and—in addition to its use—its maintenance and repair, while also addressing its so-called afterlife, encompassing topics such as reuse, reconfiguration and/or restoration, decline or deliberate ruination, abandonment, and removal and/or remains. Recent studies of these issues underscore that the temporality of technology does not end with the end of its use, suggesting instead multilayered temporalities. History of technology is thus challenged to rethink some of its established and largely unquestioned approaches, such as the “innovation timeline”, the model of “technology diffusion and substitution”, and “lifecycle” metaphors borrowed from twentieth-century theories of economic growth and innovation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe)
9 pages, 233 KiB  
Article
The History of Fieldwork
by Jeremy Vetter
Histories 2022, 2(4), 457-465; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2040032 - 26 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4176
Abstract
Since the history of fieldwork emerged as a self-conscious area of study within the history of science, especially during the last quarter century, it has expanded its focus on place and practice into an ever wider range of disciplines, social and environmental settings, [...] Read more.
Since the history of fieldwork emerged as a self-conscious area of study within the history of science, especially during the last quarter century, it has expanded its focus on place and practice into an ever wider range of disciplines, social and environmental settings, scales, analytical frameworks, and connections with adjacent disciplines and sub-disciplines. After reviewing some of the foundational scholarly works on the history of scientific fieldwork, this essay identifies and discusses some important recent patterns in scholarship. Historians of fieldwork have increasingly attempted to connect their work to other disciplines such as geography, and to other historical subfields such as environmental history, agricultural history, and the history of capitalism, with increasing success at cross-fertilization despite ongoing tensions arising from significant methodological differences. At the same time, scholars have not only linked their work to a wider variety of social and environmental places, including colonial and postcolonial settings, as well as extreme environments, but have also striven more deliberately to understand the emergence of knowledge through fieldwork at larger scales beyond the local, such as regional, continental, oceanic, and global environments. Scholars have also sought to understand more about the intersection of fieldwork with indigenous, folk, vernacular, and experiential knowledge. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe)
10 pages, 457 KiB  
Article
Imperial Science in Central and Eastern Europe
by Jan Surman
Histories 2022, 2(3), 352-361; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2030026 - 14 Sep 2022
Viewed by 2227
Abstract
The history of imperial science has been a growing topic over recent decades. Overviews of the imperial history of science have rarely included the Russian, Habsburg, and German empires. The history of Central and Eastern Europe has embraced empire as an analytical and [...] Read more.
The history of imperial science has been a growing topic over recent decades. Overviews of the imperial history of science have rarely included the Russian, Habsburg, and German empires. The history of Central and Eastern Europe has embraced empire as an analytical and critical category only recently, having previously pursued national historiographies and romanticised versions of imperial pasts. This article highlights several key narratives of imperial sciences in Central and Eastern Europe that have appeared over the past twenty years, especially in anglophone literature. Interdependence between national and imperial institutions and biographies, the history of nature as an interplay of scales, and finally, the histories of imagining a path between imperialism and nationalism, demonstrate how the history of imperial science can become an important part of the discussion of Central European history from a global perspective, as well as how the history of science can be factored into the general history of this region. Finally, I argue that the imperial history of science can play an important role in re-thinking the post/decolonial history of Central and Eastern Europe, an issue that, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has become the centre of intellectual attention. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe)
11 pages, 262 KiB  
Article
New Objects, Questions, and Methods in the History of Mathematics
by Jenny Boucard and Thomas Morel
Histories 2022, 2(3), 341-351; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2030025 - 10 Sep 2022
Viewed by 3020
Abstract
This article sums up recent developments in the history of mathematics. The range of mathematics considered has considerably broadened, expanding well beyond the traditional field of original research. As new topics have been brought under consideration, methodologies borrowed from neighboring academic fields have [...] Read more.
This article sums up recent developments in the history of mathematics. The range of mathematics considered has considerably broadened, expanding well beyond the traditional field of original research. As new topics have been brought under consideration, methodologies borrowed from neighboring academic fields have been fruitfully put into use. In the first section, we describe how well-known questions—about the concept of proof and the nature of algebra—have been reconsidered with new questions and analytical concepts. We then sketch up some of the new research topics, among others the history of mathematical education, the inclusion of actors previously neglected, and the prominent role of bureaucracies in the cultural development of mathematics. The last section briefly retraces the development of the Zilsel thesis as a case study illustrating the previous points. Introduced in the mid-20th century, the theory that early modern craftsmen once played a decisive role in the mathematization of nature has recently led to very diverse fruitful studies about the nature and development of mathematical knowledge. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe)
18 pages, 5069 KiB  
Article
Research Foci in the History of Science in Past Islamicate Societies
by Sonja Brentjes
Histories 2022, 2(3), 270-287; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2030021 - 4 Aug 2022
Viewed by 3079
Abstract
In recent years, numerous changes have emerged in the History of Science of what has traditionally been called the Islamic world. By now, it has become usual to speak of the Islamicate world, albeit more so in Islamic Studies and related historical disciplines. [...] Read more.
In recent years, numerous changes have emerged in the History of Science of what has traditionally been called the Islamic world. By now, it has become usual to speak of the Islamicate world, albeit more so in Islamic Studies and related historical disciplines. The notion Islamicate wishes to express that the societies rule by Muslim dynasties were multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-confessional and plurilingual. Different Muslim denominations could form majority but also minority groups. The processes of change in the study of the sciences in those societies can be summarized as efforts to pluralize research approaches and to historicize objects, themes, people, institutions and practices. The pluralization of approaches includes the multiplication of (1) modern disciplinary homes for studies of scientific topics dealt with in Islamicate societies, (2) the languages acknowledged as languages of scientific texts such as New Persian, Ottoman Turkish or Urdu worthwhile to analyze, (3) the number of historical disciplines accepted under the umbrella of history of science, (4) the centuries or periods as well as the regions that have been incorporated into the investigation of past scientific knowledge and (5) the recognition that more than a single history can and should be told about the sciences in past Islamicate societies. The process of historicization means, first and foremost, to turn away from macro-units of research (Islam, medieval or Arabic science) to medium- or micro-level units. Historicization indicates, secondly, the turn toward contextualization beyond the analysis of individual texts or instruments. And thirdly, it signifies the integration of features or aspects of scholarly practices that are not limited to the content of a discipline or a text but include layouts, the organization of text production, types of visualizations of knowledge or rhetorical strategies and paratextual elements. My paper reports on trends that I consider relevant for understanding how the field changed over the last decades and how it ticks today. But it does not try to be comprehensive. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe)
11 pages, 1652 KiB  
Article
Domesticities and the Sciences
by Donald L. Opitz
Histories 2022, 2(3), 259-269; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2030020 - 2 Aug 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3168
Abstract
The ubiquity and yet distinctiveness of domestic sites for scientific research have attracted an unprecedented focus in recent years, especially in studies concerned with the gendering of science and the rise of citizen science movements of the late twentieth century. It is fair [...] Read more.
The ubiquity and yet distinctiveness of domestic sites for scientific research have attracted an unprecedented focus in recent years, especially in studies concerned with the gendering of science and the rise of citizen science movements of the late twentieth century. It is fair to say this “new” subfield has now entered a stage of maturity, even as it continues to grow and adopt new theoretical perspectives. Following an historiographical shift we might call the “domestic turn” in histories of science, “domesticities” emerges as a critical, analytical lens through which to view scientific developments in a range of historical contexts globally. The emphasis in the literature has moved from one on the “house of experiment” to one on the “laboratory of domesticity”, attending particularly to the permeability, plasticity, portability, and plurality of instances of entanglement between domesticities and science. In view of the emergence of new empirical cases and theoretical perspectives, this paper revisits the status of domesticities within histories of science to consider the current status of the historiography and to suggest even further directions for new research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe)
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10 pages, 261 KiB  
Article
Histories of Recent Social Science
by Philippe Fontaine
Histories 2022, 2(3), 197-206; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2030016 - 6 Jul 2022
Viewed by 2009
Abstract
In the past thirty years or so, the history of the social sciences since 1945 has become a more diverse research area. In addition to social scientists who write the histories of individual disciplines, a number of historians are now interested in the [...] Read more.
In the past thirty years or so, the history of the social sciences since 1945 has become a more diverse research area. In addition to social scientists who write the histories of individual disciplines, a number of historians are now interested in the recent past of the social sciences, whose efforts emphasize extradisciplinary concerns. The time is gone, however, when this distinction could be summarized by the different approaches of disciplinary histories on the one hand and intellectual history on the other. Disciplinary historians have gone beyond disciplinary concerns and intellectual historians have paid more attention to the latter. More generally, a variety of historians have pointed out the role of social scientific ideas in the transformations of Western societies after World War II and noted the impact of these transformations on social science disciplines themselves. Finally, in the past twenty years, histories of recent social science have experienced a transnational turn. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe)
7 pages, 218 KiB  
Article
History of the Humanities
by Rens Bod
Histories 2022, 2(2), 178-184; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2020014 - 17 Jun 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3141
Abstract
This paper provides an introduction to the burgeoning field of the “history of the humanities”. It discusses the scope, goals, and challenges of this new discipline. While histories of separate humanities disciplines have been written since the early twentieth century, it is only [...] Read more.
This paper provides an introduction to the burgeoning field of the “history of the humanities”. It discusses the scope, goals, and challenges of this new discipline. While histories of separate humanities disciplines have been written since the early twentieth century, it is only over the last decade or so that we have witnessed works that ask the question: how do these separate histories fit together to form the history of the humanities? After an introduction to the origins and the development of the new discipline, we question why the history of the humanities emerged so late, especially compared to the history of science. We make a case for a comprehensive history of the humanities, and we discuss several problems and challenges for the field, i.e., the problems of eurocentrism and triumphalism, and the challenges of the global, comparative, polycentric, and multidisciplinary histories of the humanities. The paper concludes with a discussion about the future of the field, arguing that it should be opened up to the history of the non-academic humanities as well as the colonial humanities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe)
8 pages, 234 KiB  
Article
Digital Perspectives in History
by Anna Siebold and Matteo Valleriani
Histories 2022, 2(2), 170-177; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2020013 - 4 Jun 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3555
Abstract
This article outlines the state of digital perspectives in historical research, some of the methods and tools in use by digital historians, and the possible or even necessary steps in the future development of the digital approach. We begin by describing three main [...] Read more.
This article outlines the state of digital perspectives in historical research, some of the methods and tools in use by digital historians, and the possible or even necessary steps in the future development of the digital approach. We begin by describing three main computational approaches: digital databases and repositories, network analysis, and Machine Learning. We also address data models and ontologies in the larger context of the demand for sustainability and linked research data. The section is followed by a discussion of the (much needed) standards and policies concerning data quality and transparency. We conclude with a consideration of future scenarios and challenges for computational research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe)
11 pages, 297 KiB  
Article
Towards a Negative History of Science: The Unknown, Errors, Ignorance, and the “Pseudosciences”
by Lukas Rathjen and Jonas Stähelin
Histories 2022, 2(2), 146-156; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2020011 - 20 May 2022
Viewed by 4295
Abstract
This article outlines elements of a negative history of science. For historians wishing to get a fuller picture of scientific practice both internally and externally, there is a lot to be gained by considering the dialectical constitution of scientific knowledge. To fully comprehend [...] Read more.
This article outlines elements of a negative history of science. For historians wishing to get a fuller picture of scientific practice both internally and externally, there is a lot to be gained by considering the dialectical constitution of scientific knowledge. To fully comprehend this relationality, historians should, therefore, trace the negative relations science maintains. Through oppositions, such as known/unknown; success/error; consideration/ignorance; and inclusion/exclusion, scientific knowledge emerges and disappears, and the social position of scientific practice is both established and contested. To exemplify our argument, we present four areas: the unknown, errors, ignorance, and the “pseudosciences”. Taken together, this approach allows us to understand how science constitutes itself epistemically and socially across different locations and historical periods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe)

Other

Jump to: Editorial, Research

26 pages, 640 KiB  
Essay
Scientific Publishing: Agents, Genres, Technique and the Making of Knowledge
by Josep Simon
Histories 2022, 2(4), 516-541; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2040035 - 11 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4414
Abstract
The history of scientific publishing has been one of the most topical research subjects in the history of science during the last few decades. It has furthered scholarly communication with other disciplines, such as book history, the history of education and communication studies. [...] Read more.
The history of scientific publishing has been one of the most topical research subjects in the history of science during the last few decades. It has furthered scholarly communication with other disciplines, such as book history, the history of education and communication studies. It has contributed to the development of new conceptual and methodological tools for the study of the material culture of print, the replication of scientific knowledge in various media and the social appropriation of knowledge through reading. This field of research offers exemplary results on sources such as journals, encyclopedias and textbooks, and on configurations such as disciplines, specialization and the practices associated with our contemporary knowledge system and communication environment, which cut across academic departments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe)
7 pages, 256 KiB  
Brief Report
Histories of Science Communication
by Kristian H. Nielsen
Histories 2022, 2(3), 334-340; https://doi.org/10.3390/histories2030024 - 30 Aug 2022
Viewed by 3861
Abstract
Science communication has been central to our understanding of Modern Europe, and it also plays an important role in other parts of the world. The aim of this article is to present key narratives—histories—about the development of science communication in Modern Europe and [...] Read more.
Science communication has been central to our understanding of Modern Europe, and it also plays an important role in other parts of the world. The aim of this article is to present key narratives—histories—about the development of science communication in Modern Europe and beyond. Surveying key contributions, the article identifies two main narratives about science communication in Modern Europe: one about widening gaps between science and the public (informational, epistemological, and moral gaps) and one about building bridges through dialogue, engagement, and participation. Beyond Modern Europe, the same narratives appear but often with important twists. The discussion about science communication in Latin America, for example, includes colonial and postcolonial dimensions, whereas the narrative about science communication (science popularization) in China emphasizes the embeddedness of science communication in national politics. Together, the histories show that science communication is not the diminutive or distorted form of science but rather the sum of social conversations around science. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe)
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