IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB001321058

Between the Local and the Global: History of Science in the European Periphery Meets Post-Colonial Studies (2013)

Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Volume: 55, no. 4
Issue: 4
Pages: 361-384

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Postcolonialism History of science, as a discipline Global history Historiography Diffusion of innovation; diffusion of knowledge; diffusion of technology Globalization; internationalization Periphery model (theory)

The aim of this paper is to discuss two historiographical issues pertaining to the history of science in the European periphery. The first issue concerns the wide use of the centre-periphery dichotomy in historical accounts discussing the diffusion and institutionalization of science across the world. The second issue concerns the use of appropriation (instead of transfer, or adaptation) as a means to overcome the diffusionist model in history of science. Recent work at the intersection of history of science with post-colonial studies will provide the framework for reassessing these matters. As it will be shown, theoretical discussions about the history of science in post-colonial context can help historians overcome the centre-periphery dichotomy and turn European periphery into a privileged standpoint for showing the actual diversity of `European science.' At the same time, the experience of post-colonial studies can also help sharpen the historiographical tool of appropriation. The assumption that will be made is that by focusing on appropriation rather than on discovery and innovation (the favourite categories of much of mainstream historiography), or on transfer and adaptation (the favourite categories of the diffusionist model), historians of science can not only set aside the artificial distinctions of the diffusionist model, but also bring forward the re-inventions, the conceptual shifts and the cultural adjustments, which are responsible for the emergence of science as a global phenomenon in the periphery. Especially concerning European periphery, the use of appropriation may bring forward the particular historical circumstances under which certain knowledge patterns gained universal epistemic authority as constitutive elements of an imagined European intellectual identity.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001321058/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra; (2017)
On Ignored Global “Scientific Revolutions” (/isis/citation/CBB557863061/)

Article Raj, Kapil; (2013)
Beyond Postcolonialism … and Postpositivism: Circulation and the Global History of Science (/isis/citation/CBB001320195/)

Article Espinosa, Mariola; (2013)
Globalizing the History of Disease, Medicine, and Public Health in Latin America (/isis/citation/CBB001321226/)

Book Johannes Feichtinger; Anil Bhatti; Cornelia Hülmbauer; (2020)
How to Write the Global History of Knowledge-Making: Interaction, Circulation and the Transgression of Cultural Difference (/isis/citation/CBB429978866/)

Article McCook, Stuart; (2013)
Introduction (/isis/citation/CBB001321223/)

Chapter Patiniotis, Manolis; Gavroglu, Kostas; (2012)
The Sciences in Europe: Transmitting Centers and the Appropriating Peripheries (/isis/citation/CBB001422692/)

Article Warwick Anderson; (December 2018)
Thickening Transregionalism: Historical Formations of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Southeast Asia (/isis/citation/CBB227919452/)

Article Tilley; (April 2019)
A Great (Scientific) Divergence: Synergies and Fault Lines in Global Histories of Science (/isis/citation/CBB084948556/)

Article Mei, Jianjun; (April 2019)
Some Reflections on Joseph Needham's Intellectual Heritage (/isis/citation/CBB572964856/)

Article Duarte, Regina Horta; (2013)
Between the National and the Universal: Natural History Networks in Latin America in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (/isis/citation/CBB001321224/)

Article Gerstenberger, Debora; (2014)
Gilberto Freyre: um teórico da globalização? (/isis/citation/CBB001420710/)

Book Jürgen Renn; (2020)
The Evolution of Knowledge: Rethinking Science for the Anthropocene (/isis/citation/CBB766931920/)

Article Kapil Raj; (2017)
Thinking Without the Scientific Revolution: Global Interactions and the Construction of Knowledge (/isis/citation/CBB276711198/)

Article Rodriguez, Julia; (2013)
Beyond Prejudice and Pride: The Human Sciences in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Latin America (/isis/citation/CBB001321227/)

Article Amir, Sulfikar; Nugroho, Yanuar; (2013)
Beyond the Triple Helix: Framing STS in the Developmental Context (/isis/citation/CBB001321154/)

Article Nappi, Carla; (2013)
The Global and Beyond: Adventures in the Local Historiographies of Science (/isis/citation/CBB001252695/)

Thesis Lee, Der-Shiuan; (2011)
Intermetropolitan Networks of Co-Invention in American Biotechnology (/isis/citation/CBB001567302/)

Article Raúl Velasco Morgado; (2019)
Scientists, Instruments, and Even Brains in Transfer: German-Spanish Postwar Networks and the Construction of the Neuroendocrine System (1952-1960) (/isis/citation/CBB815204772/)

Book M. W. Gahtan; E.M. Troelenberg; (2019)
Collecting and Empires: An Historical and Global Perspective (/isis/citation/CBB587165300/)

Article Martin Mulsow; (2015)
Vor Adam. Ideengeschichte jenseits der Eurozentrik (/isis/citation/CBB900215709/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}