STEP - Science and Technology in the European Periphery

Coordinated by Eirini Mergoupi-Savaidou

Members: Ana Carneiro, Jesús M. Galech, Polyxeni Giannakopoulou, Néstor Herran, Antoni Malet, Eirini Mergoupi-Savaidou, Faidra Papanelopoulou, Spyros Tzokas

Description:

The periodical press has always been an important source for historians of science. However, it is only in the last three decades that specialized studies on the relationships between science/technology/medicine and periodicals have emerged. Historians of science have focused on issues such as: the role of periodicals as organs for the institutionalization of the scientific community and as tools for the professionalization and specialization of scientific disciplines; the function of periodicals in relation to the circulation of scientific knowledge in the public sphere as well as for the formation or construction of public images of science and scientists; periodicals as commodities and the strategies of publishers, editors and contributors to appeal to wide readerships or defining distinct audiences for science; periodicals as ideological and political tools of science; science periodicals as part of popular culture, etc.

From the viewpoint of the European periphery, there are many historical and historiographical issues that can be explored in respect to science/technology/medicine and the press, including both periodicals and newspapers. Some of them concern the contributing role of periodicals in shaping professional scientific communities in local contexts. Others relate to the function of the periodical and daily press as forum for the interaction of scientific knowledge, ideas and practices with social, cultural, political and ideological aspects of each locality. Since periodicals and newspapers developed, both in centres and the peripheries, as major tools of communication, information, education and entertainment between the 18th and 20th centuries, it is also a question how these practices connected to the appropriation of science in local contexts. Furthermore, a discussion on the criteria and tools employed for categorizing periodicals in “scientific”, “technical”, “medical”, “popular” etc., can enrich our view on the multiple aspects of the scientific enterprise in the countries of the European periphery, since both science and the periodical press developed in different ways in each local context.

The aim of this research group is to develop a network of scholars interested in exploring the various relations between science and the press in countries of the European periphery between the 18th and 20th centuries, possibly collaborating with other STEP research groups such as that on popularization of science and technology. It also aims at developing interdisciplinary approaches through the employment of bibliography and methodological tools from other connected disciplines such as book history, science communication, media studies, and literature. The relationship between science and technology and the press is a research area to explore within STEP not only in case studies from various localities but also in comparative studies that will open further historiographical questions.

Activities:

Forthcoming: Several articles in Science and Education.

2012: Symposiun Science and the Press 8th STEP Meeting (Corfu, 21-14 June 2012)

2011: 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.

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.

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.

2010: 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.

2010: 4th International Conference of the ESHS. Symposium: “Representations of Science and Technology in the European Daily Press”, coordinated by Ana Simões & Faidra Papanelopoulou and including a comparative study on the public perceptions of science and technology in the Greek and the Portuguese daily press in late 1900s.

2009: Several articles in Schirrmacher, A. (ed.), Communicating science in 20th century Europe: A survey on research and comparative perspectives, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Preprint 385.

2009: Special issue in Centaurus 51:2 on science and technology in Spanish, Greek and Danish newspapers around 1900.

2008: 6th STEP Meeting. Session: “Science in the press”.

2006: 5th STEP Meeting. Session: “Spaces of popularisation (periodicals and the media”. Comparative session: “Science and technology in the press. Some impressions at the beginning of the 20th century”.

Projects:

A comparative study on public perceptions of science and technology in the Greek, Portuguese and Spanish daily press in early 20th century, to be presented at the 8th STEP meeting (2012).

Indicative Bibliography

Andersen C. & Hjermitslev H.H., “Directing public interest: Danish newspaper science 1900-1903”, Centaurus 51:2 (2009), 143-167.

Barton, R. “Just before Nature: The purposes of science and the purposes of popularization in some English popular science journals of the 1860s”. Annals of Science 55 (1998): 1-33.

Broks, P. “Science, media and culture: British magazines, 1890-1914”. Public Understanding of Science 2 (1993): 123-139.

Cantor, G. et al. (eds.). Science in the nineteenth-century periodical. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Cantor, G., Shuttleworth S. (eds). Science serialized: Representation of the sciences in the nineteenth-century periodicals. Cambridge Mass.: The MIT Press, 2004.

González-Silva M., “With or without scientists: Reporting on human genetics in the Spanish newspaper El Pais (1976-2006)”. In Papanelopoulou F., Nieto-Galan A. & Perdiguero E. (eds.), Popularizing science and technology in the European Periphery, 1800-2000. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009.

González-Silva M. & Herran N., “Ideology, elitism and social commitment: Alternative images of science in two fin de siècle Barcelona Newspapers”, Centaurus 51:2 (2009), 97-115.

Hjermitslev, H.H., “Danes commemorating Darwin: Apes and evolution at the 1909 anniversary”, Annals of Science 67:4 (2010), 485-525.

Henson, L. et al. (eds). Culture and science in the nineteenth-century media. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.

Herran, N., “’Science to the glory of God’: The popular science magazine Ibérica and its coverage of radioactivity, 1914-1936”. Science and Education. Online first: 28 August 2010. DOI 10.1007/s11191-010-9291-6.

Papanelopoulou F. & Kjærgaard P.C., “Making the paper: Science and technology in Spanish, Greek and Danish newspapers around 1900”, Centaurus 51:2 (2009), 89-96.

Mergoupi-Savaidou E., Papanelopoulou F. & Tzokas S., “Public image(s) of science and technology in the Greek daily press, 1908-1910”, Centaurus 51:2 (2009), 116-142.

Mergoupi-Savaidou, Faidra Papanelopoulou, Spyros Tzokas, “Science and technology in Greek newspapers, 1900-1910. Historiographical reflections and the role of journalists for the public images of science and technology”, Science and Education. Online first: 7 September 2010. DOI 10.1007/s11191-010-9292-5.

Sheets-Pyenson, S. “Popular science periodicals in Paris and London: The emergence of a low scientific culture, 1820-1875”. Annals of Science 42 (1985): 549-572.

Simões, A., Carneiro, A., Diogo, M.P., “Riding the wave to reach the masses: Natural events in early twentieth century Portuguese daily press”, Science and Education. Online first: 12 September 2010. DOI 10.1007/s 11191-010-9299-J.

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.