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2. The rise and fall of the Belgian Forestry Museum and Geographic Arboretum (1900–1980): A political origin and a winning opportunity for science?
- Author
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Diagre‐Vanderpelen, Denis
- Subjects
- *
BOTANICAL gardens , *ARBORETUMS , *FORESTS & forestry , *NATURAL history museums , *SCIENCE & state , *HISTORY ,BELGIAN politics & government, 1830-1914 - Abstract
This paper recounts the genesis and further developments of two devices that were created in Brussels and nearby around 1900: the Forestry Museum and the Geographic Arboretum in Tervuren. Both the Museum and the Arboretum were designed to serve botanical science, national industry, and agriculture, but also became instrumental in carrying philosophical and political messages and even in achieving down‐to‐earth political aims. The Museum, imposed upon the State Botanic Garden by a Catholic ministry, carried out messages for social pacification, while also taking to the battlefield in the fight between what were then called pure science and applied science. For its part, the Geographic Arboretum had long broken its ties with the State Botanic Garden and even with its own scientific claims by the time the Forestry Museum disappeared in the early 1980s. However, the Forestry Museum had increasingly lost its vocation as a research tool, eventually and solely becoming a tool of communication toward an ever‐widening public, following Belgian society's expanding democratization in the late 19th Century. The lives and fortunes of both devices reveal most of the tensions that rhythmed the history of museums and the political history of a European country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
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3. Long Way to the Anthropological Exhibition: The Institutionalization of Physical Anthropology in Russia.
- Author
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Krivosheina, Galina
- Subjects
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ETHNOLOGY , *NATURAL history societies , *PHYSICAL anthropology , *SCIENCE & state , *HISTORY , *EXHIBITIONS ,RUSSIAN intellectual life, 1801-1917 - Abstract
The years between 1864 and 1879 have a particular resonance for the history of physical anthropology in Russia. In 1864, Professor of Zoology at Moscow University Anatolii Petrovich Bogdanov (1834-1896) conceived the idea for an anthropological exhibition in Moscow. But it was not until 1879 that his idea became a reality. The years between Boganov's conception of the idea and the realization of the exhibition form the focus of this paper, which discusses this formative period for Russian physical anthropology. During this period Bogdanov established the first association of physical anthropologists and the first chair in anthropology at Moscow University. Also around this time the activities of Bogdanov's Society of Friends of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography made the term anthropology widely popular not only among educated people but also among the lay public. Despite the significance of Bogdanov's contributions to the field of Russian physical anthropology, his name is often ignored and his achievements underestimated by the Russian language literature. The reasons for this oversight are outlined in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. Early Research on Insect Pests in the Russian Empire: Bureaucracy, Academic Community and Local Knowledge in the 1830s-1840s.
- Author
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Loskutova, Marina
- Subjects
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SCIENCE & state , *AGRICULTURAL pests , *ENTOMOLOGY , *AMATEUR scientists , *CITIZEN science , *HISTORY of natural history , *HISTORY of scientific communication , *NINETEENTH century , *HISTORY ,RUSSIAN Empire, 1613-1917 - Abstract
This paper examines the early history of agricultural entomology in the Russian empire in the decades before Russian universities and learned societies occupied centre stage in the intellectual life of the country. It aims to contribute to the ongoing discussions of historically contingent relations between 'amateurs' and 'professionals' in scientific research. It explores the social identities of those people who took part in the production and circulation of scientific knowledge, and argues that in this period Russian officialdom played a major role in these processes. The state officials' engagement with natural history originated out of a broader information gathering agenda, which was characteristic of the early- to mid-19th century. At the same time, the paper highlights the importance of provincial observers who were indispensable for providing field data for bureaucratic 'inventorying' of imperial resources. This dependency on local observers had far reaching implications, including the dissemination of the language and practices of natural history among wider audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. New Observations on a Geological Hotspot Track: Excursions in Madeira and Porto Santo (1825) by Mrs T. Edward Bowdich.
- Author
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Orr, Mary
- Subjects
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GEOLOGIC hot spots , *GEOLOGICAL research , *NINETEENTH century , *HISTORY ,HISTORY of the theory of knowledge - Abstract
This paper works with the modern concept of the geological hotspot track - the building processes and movements of volcanic island chains - applied strategically to one of its illustrative formations, the Madeira Archipelago. By analogy, however, the concept works equally well to describe the important early 19th-century scientific knowledge-building activity that produced Charles Lyell's On the Geology of Some Parts of Madeira (1854). A central section of the paper uncovers the contributions to knowledge of this geology before Lyell's, and in particular, Excursions of Madeira and Porto Santo (1825) by Mr [sic] T. Edward Bowdich. A thorough examination of this text then constitutes an important case study for literal and figurative investigation of geological hotspot tracks. The main argument proposed is that current specialist research forgets its submerged and longer histories to its detriment. Insights contained in older information often supply reminders of the key questions and contributions from the past that provide checks and balances for further developments of a field. By promoting multi-level, multi-stranded and multi-lingual investigation of the history of 19th-century geology in Madeira before Lyell () as central to hotspot track research, this paper marks nodal conditions that constitute advancement in critical knowledge-building within and outside the discipline of geology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
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6. Survival Science: Crisis Disciplines and the Shock of the Environment in the 1970s.
- Author
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Egan, Michael
- Subjects
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HISTORY of science , *HISTORY of environmentalism , *HISTORY of environmental protection , *SCIENCE & politics , *SCIENCE & society , *NINETEEN seventies , *TWENTIETH century , *HISTORY ,20TH century - Abstract
Abstract: The 1970s mark a critical departure point in the history of science. The rise of the environmental crisis prompted not just new avenues of scientific inquiry but also the integration of scientific expertise into complex interactions with politics and society. This paper investigates the history of the new ‘crisis disciplines’ that emerged in response to explicit fears that the world was on the verge of ecological collapse. Crisis disciplines – a term coined by the conservation biologist Michael Soulé – engage in the urgent and reactionary pursuit of solutions to pressing environmental problems and the evidence scientists bring to bear on their work. Crisis disciplines involve acting ‘before knowing all the facts’, and therefore constitute ‘a mixture of science and art, and their pursuit requires intuition as well as information’. Combined, diverse crisis disciplines constitute a new kind of ‘survival science’, which emerged in the 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
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7. Globalized Science. The 1970s Futures Field.
- Author
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Seefried, Elke
- Subjects
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HISTORY of science , *HISTORY of globalization , *CYBERNETICS , *SYSTEM analysis , *HISTORY of international economic relations , *HISTORY of environmentalism , *SUSTAINABLE development , *NINETEEN seventies , *TWENTIETH century , *HISTORY ,20TH century - Abstract
Abstract: In the 1970s, the futures field became globalized. This paper shows how perceptions of globality shaped interdisciplinary approaches towards forecasting, planning and thinking about the future. Futures studies were reconceptualized, shifting its perspective from a West‐East, technology‐driven slant towards a global and human‐centred one around 1970. The perceptions and conceptions of globality came out of notions of global interdependence, which emerged from three root sources. The first was the epistemic context of cybernetics and systems analysis, which had shaped the 1950s and 1960s futures studies and had led researchers to aspirations of being able to model the world system. The second, affecting significant sections of the field, was the web of new ecological ideas and their focus on interrelations within the global ecosystem. Third, futures studies took up dependency theories, responding to the rising voice of the global South and new ideas of a New International Economic Order. The futures field was not only influenced by 1970s events, it itself contributed to cultural and social change by enhancing the crisis perceptions and environmentalism of the early years of the decade and by stimulating notions of ‘One World’ solidarity. Through their insistence on the interdependence of environment and development, ‘futurists’ then laid the basis for conceptions of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
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8. A Mammoth in the Park: Palaeontology, Press and Popular Culture in Barcelona (1870-1910).
- Author
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Valls Plana, Laura
- Subjects
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MAMMOTHS , *FOSSIL animals , *POPULAR culture , *NATURAL history , *PALEONTOLOGY , *HISTORY - Abstract
This paper focuses on the role of newspapers and journals in constructing the public images of the mammoth in Catalonia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, paying special attention to the visual power of descriptions, pictures and cartoons of this and other ancient species that increasingly appeared in the press. As palaeontology became a 'public science,' the extinct species gained status not least because it could be imbued with multiple meanings that moved between the scientific and public spheres. The visualizations of the animal contributed to metaphorically reinforcing and confronting ideas of political and social scope, like the notions of modernity and national identity, which were of great relevance in Barcelona at the turn of the century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
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9. From the History of Science to the History of Knowledge - and Back.
- Author
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Renn, Jürgen
- Subjects
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HISTORY of science , *THEORY of knowledge , *SOCIAL evolution , *HISTORY of writing , *HISTORICAL linguistics , *MECHANICS (Physics) , *HISTORY - Abstract
The history of science can be better understood against the background of a history of knowledge comprising not only theoretical but also intuitive and practical knowledge. This widening of scope necessitates a more concise definition of the concept of knowledge, relating its cognitive to its material and social dimensions. The history of knowledge comprises the history of institutions in which knowledge is produced and transmitted. This is an essential but hitherto neglected aspect of cultural evolution. Taking this aspect into account one is led to the concept of extended evolution, which integrates the perspectives of niche construction and complex regulative networks. The paper illustrates this concept using four examples: the emergence of language, the Neolithic revolution, the invention of writing and the origin of mechanics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
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10. Nikolai Vavilov in the years of Stalin's 'Revolution from Above' (1929-1932).
- Author
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Kolchinsky, Eduard I.
- Subjects
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SCIENCE & state , *STALINISM , *PLANT breeding , *COMMUNISM & science , *TWENTIETH century , *HISTORY ,RUSSIAN Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Moscow, Russia) - Abstract
This paper examines new evidence from Russian archives to argue that Soviet geneticist and plant breeder, Nikolai I. Vavilov's fate was sealed during the ' Cultural Revolution' (' Revolution from Above') (1929-1932). This was several years before Trofim D. Lysenko, the Soviet agronomist and widely portrayed archenemy and destroyer of Vavilov, became a major force in Soviet science. During the ' Cultural Revolution' the Soviet leadership wanted to subordinate science and research to the task of socialist reconstruction. Vavilov, who was head of the Institute of Plant Breeding ( VIR) and the All- Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences ( VASKhNIL), came under attack from the younger generation of researchers who were keen to transform biology into a proletarian science. The new evidence shows that it was during this period that Vavilov lost his independence to determine research strategies and manage personnel within his own institute. These changes meant that Lysenko, who had won Stalin's support, was able to gain influence and eventually exert authority over Vavilov. Based on the new evidence, Vavilov's arrest in 1940 after he criticized Lysenko's conception of Non-Mendelian genetics was just the final challenge to his authority. He had already experienced years of harassment that began before Lysenko gained a position of influence. Vavilov died in prison in 1943. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
11. History of Science in Russia: The IIET in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
- Author
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Bayuk, Dimitri A.
- Subjects
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SCIENCE historiography , *HISTORIANS of science , *HISTORY of science , *HISTORY & politics , *HISTORY , *EDUCATION , *INTELLECTUAL life - Abstract
The Institute for the History of Science and Technology (in transliterated Russian Institut Istorii Estestavoznaniya I Tekhniki, or IIET in abbreviation) in Moscow, along with its branch in St. Petersburg, is the largest research centre for history of science and technology in Russia. Its story encompasses a period of great change for Russia and as such includes tales of infighting and intrigue as well as many instances of academic achievement. This paper will focus on two peculiar characteristics of the institute's story in order to clarify the typical political contexts in which it had to operate and the way it succeeded to adapt itself to the varying situations. The first is the 2012 celebration of its 80th anniversary, which took place only 4 years after the institute had celebrated its 55th anniversary. Why did the different celebrators apparently have a different history in mind? Secondly, on several occasions the institute employed people for political rather than academic reasons: for these people the institute was a good, interesting or inconspicuous place to work during that time. This policy served the institute well on the whole. Even though in different political constellations the institute had to produce scholarship with different aims - sometimes the output had to contribute to the glory of the nation, in other times to analyse the role of science in a socialist society - the IIET produced excellent research. Today, once again, the institute stands on the threshold of change as it faces new threats to its existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
12. Between Local Practices and Global Knowledge: Public Initiatives in the Development of Agricultural Science in Russia in the 19th Century and Early 20th Century.
- Author
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Elina, Olga
- Subjects
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AGRICULTURAL research , *AGRICULTURE , *AGRICULTURAL experiment stations , *AGRICULTURAL policy , *RESEARCH funding , *LOCAL knowledge , *HISTORY ,RUSSIAN Empire, 1613-1917 ,AGRICULTURAL associations - Abstract
State patronage and the role of central government in modernization are often cited as the key factors that underpin the development of science in Russia. This paper argues that the development of Russian agricultural science had predominantly local and non-governmental sources of support. Historically Russian agricultural research was funded and promoted through private patronage, but from the middle of the 19th century agricultural societies and community administrations began to sponsor research and promotion of new ideas in the agricultural sector. At the end of the 19th century the majority of initiatives to set up agricultural experiment stations were undertaken on behalf of provincial agricultural societies, supported by local community administrations independent of the state bureaucratic apparatus (zemstvos). During the last two decades of the Russian Empire, agricultural societies and zemstvos became leaders in the modernization of Russian agriculture. Establishing regional experiment stations, and thus promoting development of local knowledge, they provided models for the subsequent governmental activity in this field. In the case of supporting agricultural research and institutionalizing the new discipline of scientific plant breeding, the Russian public led the state, rather than the reverse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
13. Playing with Geometrical Tools: Johannes Stabius's Astrolabium imperatorium (1515) and Its Successors.
- Author
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Kremer, Richard L.
- Subjects
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ASTRONOMICAL instruments , *HISTORY of astronomy , *ASTROLABES , *SIXTEENTH century , *INTERNATIONAL cooperation , *HISTORY - Abstract
This article suggests that 16th-century sources describing astronomical instruments may be analyzed in terms of 'geometrical tools', that is discrete arrangements of lines and curves that solve particular problems. Geometrical tools provided a means for innovation. By playing, literally, with such tools, mathematicians could invent new instruments or add new functions to existing instruments. For a case study of this process, I shall consider the rectangular astrolabe, first proposed in 1515 by Johannes Stabius and reconfigured in several other versions over the course of the 16th century. Geometrical tools, I conclude, are revealed in diagrams found in the sources, not in the accompanying texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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