Popularization of Science and Technology: Centres and Peripheries

Coordinated by Agustí Nieto Galan & Faidra Papanelopoulou

Members: Jordi Ferran, Agustí Nieto Galan, Faidra Papanelopoulou, Enrique Perdiguero, Jaume Sastre, Ana Simões

Description:

This STEP research group invites a critical assessment on the work done on science popularization during the last decade both in the ‘centres’ and the ‘peripheries’ of Europe, as well as fresh and historiographically minded case studies that will enrich our understanding of the particularities of ‘science popularization’ in countries that have not been in the forefront of scientific production. Apart from taking into consideration the obvious questions of who, what, why and for whom, we would particularly encourage members of this group to consider the transnational networks of translation and re-publication on which so much popularisation depended, as well as the advantages of the ‘periphery standpoint’ when dealing with the circulation of a body of knowledge that has been primarily formed in the so-called scientific centres. Our aim is to stimulate a fertile dialogue between STEP’s historiographical agenda and the historiography developed in the Anglo-American context.

Activities:

* HoST 5th Annual Workshop (2010). Ciência e Tecnologia para o Povo

* Symposium “Science in the public sphere: Barcelona 1888-1936” at the . 4th European Society for the History of Science conference (Barcelona, 18-20 November, 2010)

* Session Popularizing Science and Technology 8th STEP Meeting (Corfu, 21-14 June 2012)

* Ana Simões, Isabel Zilhão, Maria Paula Diogo, and Ana Carneiro, “Halley turns Republican. How the Portuguese daily press perceived the return of Halley’s comet in 1910” Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society, Cleveland, Ohio, 3-6 November 2011.

* Maria Paula Diogo, Ana Carneiro, Ana Simões, Isabel Zilhão, “Science and Technology for the People. Building modernity through the popularization of scientific and technical knowledge (Portugal, 1900-1925)”. SHOT Annual Meeting, Cleveland, 3-6 November, 2011.

* Ana Simões, Luís Miguel Carolino, “A Republican astronomer, Melo e Simas (1870-1934) between cannon-balls, planets and comets,” Workshop Time, Science and Society. 150 Years of the Astronomical Observatory of Lisbon, OAL, 6 Out 2011.

* Ana Simões, Isabel Zilhão, “Halley turns Republican. How the Portuguese press perceived the 1910 return of Halley’s Comet”, International Workshop for the Historiography of Science in the European Periphery. Work in progress. Athens, 15-17 September 2011.

* Ana Carneiro, Maria Paula Diogo, Ana Simões, Isabel Zilhão, Eirini Mergoupi-Savaidou, Faidra Papanelopoulou, Spyros Tzokas, “Comparing the public perceptions of science and technology in the Greek and the Portuguese daily press, 1908-1910,” Session Representations of Science and Technology in the European Daily Press,” 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science – The Circulation of Science and Technology, Barcelona, 18-20 November 2010.

* Ana Simões, Ana Carneiro, Maria Paula Diogo, “Riding the wave to reach the masses: natural events in early twentieth century Portuguese daily press”, 5th HoST 5th Annual Workshop (2010), Science and Technology for the People, Lisbon, 20-21 September 2010.

Publications

* Agustí Nieto-Galan, "Los públicos de la ciencia. Expertos y profanos a través de la historia". Marcial Pons. Madrid 2011

* Agustí Nieto-Galan, “Antonio Gramsci Revisited: Historians of Science, Intellectuals, and the Struggle for Hegemony”, History of Science, xlix (2011) 453-478.

* Agustí Nieto-Galan, "A Republican Natural History in Spain around 1900: Odón de Buen (1863-1945) and his audiences", Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 42 (3), 2012, 159-189

* Agustí Nieto-Galan, “From papers to newspapers: Miguel Masriera (1901-1981) and the role of science popularisation under Franco regime”, [to appear in 2012 in Science in Context].

* Ana Simões, Isabel Zilhão, Maria Paula Diogo, and Ana Carneiro, “Halley turns Republican. How the Portuguese press perceived the 1910 return of Halley’s comet”, accepted for publication in History of Science.

* Ana Simões, Luís Miguel Carolino, “The Portuguese astronomer Melo e Simas (1870-1934). Republican ideals and the popularization of science”, submitted for publication in Science in Context

Projects

Faidra Papanelopoulou and Agustí Nieto-Galan are preparing a historiographical paper to respond to the reviews of the book Popularizing Science and Technology in the European Periphery, 1800-2000 (Ashgate, 2009).

STEP members interested in joining the science popularization research group, please contact Faidra Papanelopoulou and Agustí Nieto-Galan .