Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-06T02:29:11.394Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction: Communicating Science: National Approaches in Twentieth-Century Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2013

Arne Schirrmacher*
Affiliation:
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin E-mail: arne.schirrmacher@hu-berlin.de

Extract

In a recent book on The Publics of Science; Experts and Laymen Through History, Agustí Nieto-Galan introduced his subject of a (mostly Western) history of public science, covering the times from the Scientific Revolution to the twenty-first century, with reference to Sigmund Freud. In one of his essays of cultural critique, Freud had, so to speak, put culture itself on his couch, and this session also featured talk about science and technological application. Civilization and Its Discontents identified a factor of disillusionment in the progress of science and technology, which gave rise to “The Uneasiness in Culture” (the literal translation of the title of Freud's German essay Das Unbehagen in der Kultur), and this uneasiness tainted a great deal of the happiness science and technology were intended to cultivate (Nieto-Galán 2011; Freud 1930). New technology and inventions like telephones, ocean liners, or drugs, Freud argued, were mostly remedies for negative developments technology had just created; for instance, without modern transportation people would stay close to each other and not need any telephone. (However, he did not address the issue of whether scientific knowledge itself may have provided some satisfaction.) The modern individual, as analyzed by Freud, was therefore constantly ill at ease with modern scientific and technological culture.

Type
Introduction
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ash, Mitchell. 2001. “Wissenschaft und Politik als Ressourcen füreinander. Programmatische Überlegungen am Beispiel Deutschlands.” In Wissenschaftsgeschichte heute: Festschrift für Peter Lundgreen, edited by Büschenfeld, Jürgen, 117134. Bielefeld: Verlag für Regionalgeschichte.Google Scholar
Bachelard, Gaston. 1938. La formation de l'esprit scientifique. Paris: Vrin.Google Scholar
Bauer, Martin W., and Bucchi, Massimiano, eds. 2007. Journalism, Science and Society. Science Communication between News and Public Relations. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette, and Rasmussen, Anne, eds. 1997. La science populaire dans la presse et l'édition. XIXe et XXe siècles. Paris: CRNS éditions.Google Scholar
Bergeron, Andrée. 2000. La culture des savoirs: culture scientifique et technique et universités. Paris: Palais de la découverte.Google Scholar
Boon, Timothy. 2008. Films of Fact. A History of Science in Documentary Films and Television. London: Wallflower Press.Google Scholar
Bowler, Peter. 2006. “Experts and Publishers: Writing Popular Science in Early Twentieth-Century Britain, Writing Popular History of Science Now.” British Journal in the History of Science 39:169187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowler, Peter. 2009. Science for All: Scientists and Popular Science Writing in Early Twentieth-Century Britain. Chicago: Chicago University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broks, Peter. 2006. Understanding Popular Science. Maidenhead: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Burnham, John C. 1987. How Superstition Won and Science Lost: Popularizing Science and Health in the United States. Rutgers: University Press.Google Scholar
Carson, Cathryn, Kojevnikov, Alexei, and Trischler, Helmuth, eds. 2011. Quantum Mechanics and Weimar Culture: Revisiting the Forman Thesis, with Selected Papers by Paul Forman. London: World Scientific.Google Scholar
Cooter, Roger, and Pumfrey, Stephen. 1994. “Separate Spheres and Public Places. Reflections on the History of Science Popularization and Science in Popular Culture.” History of Science 32:237267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crozon, Michel, and Maitte, Bernard. 2001. “La Culture Scientifique en France: institutions, enjeux.” Esprit (n° 278) 10:105119.Google Scholar
Daum, Andreas. 2008. “Geschichte des Wissenschaftsjournalismus.” In WissensWelten. Wissenschaftsjournalismus in Theorie und Praxis, edited by Hettwer, Holger, Lehmkuhl, Markus, Wormer, Holger, and Zotta, Franco, 155175. Gütersloh: Bertelsmannstiftung.Google Scholar
Daum, Andreas. 2009. “Varieties of Popular Science and the Transformations of Public Knowledge: Some Historical Reflections.” Isis 100:319332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Felt, Ulrike. 2000. “Why Should the Public ‘Understand’ Science? A Historical Perspective on Aspects on the Public Understanding of Science.” In Between Understanding and Trust: The Public, Science and Technology, edited by Dierkes, Meinolf and von Grothe, Claudia, 738. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishing.Google Scholar
Felt, Ulrike. 2002. “Wissenschaft, Politik und Öffentlichkeit. Wechselwirkungen und Grenzverschiebungen.” In Wissenschaft, Politik und Öffentlichkeit. Von der Wiener Moderne bis zur Gegenwart, edited by Ash, Mitchell G. and Stifter, Christian, 4772. Vienna: WUV-Universitäts-Verlag.Google Scholar
Fleck, Ludwik. 1979. The Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Forman, Paul. 1971. “Weimar Culture, Causality and Quantum Theory, 1918–27: Adaption by German Physicists and Mathematicians to a Hostile Intellectual Environment.” Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 3:1115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Förster, Hans Christian. 2007. Am Anfang war die TELI. Journalismus für Wissenschaft und Technik. Berlin: TELI.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. 1930. Das Unbehagen in der Kultur. Vienna: Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag.Google Scholar
Gavroglu, Kostas, Patiniotis, Manolis, Papanelopoulou, Faidra, Simões, Ana, Carneiro, Ana, Diogo, Maria Paula, Sánchez, José Ramón Bertomeu, Belmar, Antonio García, and Nieto-Galan, Agustí. 2008. “Science and Technology in the European Periphery: Some Historiographical Reflections.” History of Science 46:153175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Govoni, Paola. 2008. “The Historiography of Science Popularisation: Reflections Inspired by the Italian Case.” In Popularizing Science and Technology in the European Periphery, 1800–2000, edited by Papanelopoupou, Faidra, Nieto-Galan, Agustí, and Perdriguero, Enrique, 2142. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Harrison, Carol E., and Johnson, Ann, eds. 2009. National Identity: The Role of Science and Technology (Osiris, new series, vol. 24). Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Herran, Néstor. 2012. “‘Science to the Glory of God’: The Popular Science Magazine Ibérica and its Coverage of Radioactivity, 1914–1936.” Science and Education 21:335353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilgartner, Stephen. 1990. “The Dominant View of Popularization: Conceptual Problems, Political Uses.” Social Studies of Science 20:519539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric J. 1994. The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914–1991. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Hochadel, Oliver. 2009. “Atapuerca - the Making of a Magic Mountain. Popular Science Books and Human-Origins Research in Contemporary Spain.” In Communicating Science in 20th Century Europe. A Survey on Research and Comparative Perspectives. (MPI Preprint 385), edited by Schirrmacher, Arne, 149163. Berlin: Max Planck Institute.Google Scholar
Hochadel, Oliver. 2013. “A Boom of Bones and Books: The ‘Popularization Industry’ of Atapuerca and Human-Origins Research in Contemporary Spain.” Public Understanding of Science, 22 (5):530537.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jessen, Ralph, and Vogel, Jakob, eds. 2002. Wissenschaft und Nation in der europäischen Geschichte. Frankfurt: Campus.Google Scholar
Katz-Kimchi, Merav. 2012. “Screening Science, Producing the Nation: Popular Science Programs on Israeli Television (1968–1988).” Media, Culture & Society 34:519536.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz-Kimchi, Merav. 2013. “‘Blue and White’ Science and Technology: Nationality and Popular Science on Israeli Television (1968–1988).” In Televising Modernity: International Case Studies in Television Programming, edited by Chakars, Melissa and Anderson, Stewart, forthcoming. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Knuth, Daniel. 1992. La place du chercheur dans la vulgarisation scientifique – Rapport demandé par la Délégation à l'information scientifique et technique. Paris: Ministère de la recherche et de l'espace.Google Scholar
LaFollette, Marcel C. 1989. Making Science Our Own: Public Images of Science 1910–1955. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
LaFollette, Marcel C. 2008. Science on the Air: Popularizers and Personalities on Radio and Early Television. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewenstein, Bruce V. 1987. “Public Understanding of Science in America, 1945–1965.” Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Lewenstein, Bruce V. 1992. “The Meaning of ‘Public Understanding of Science’ in the United States after World War II.” Public Understanding of Science 1:4568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Metzler, Gabriele. 2000. Internationale Wissenschaft und nationale Kultur. Deutsche Physiker in der internationalen Community 1900–1960. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Molvig, Ole. 2010. “Theaters of Science: On Stage and Behind the Scenes at the Berlin Urania.” In The Heavens on Earth: Observatories and Astronomy in Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture, edited by Aubin, David, Bigg, Charlotte, and Sibum, H. Otto, 325344. Durham: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nieto-Galan, Agustí. 2011. Los públicos de la ciencia. Expertos y profanos a travès de la historia. Madrid: Marcial Pons.Google Scholar
Nikolow, Sybilla, and Schirrmacher, Arne, eds. 2007. Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit als Ressourcen füreinander. Studien zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte im 20. Jahrhundert. Frankfurt am Main/New York: Campus.Google Scholar
Oreskes, Naomi, and Conway, Erik. 2010. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. New York: Bloomsbury Press.Google Scholar
Pallo, Garbor. 2009. “Genres of popular science. Urania and the scientific theater.” In Popularizing Science and Technology in the European Periphery, 1800–2000, edited by Papanelopoupou, Faidra, Nieto-Galan, Agustí, and Perdriguero, Enrique, 157174. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Papanelopoulou, Faidra, Nieto-Galan, Agustí, and Perdriguero, Enrique, eds. 2009. Popularizing Science and Technology in the European Periphery, 1800–2000. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Raichvarg, Daniel. 2009. “Science in the French Popular Media in the 1930s and 1940s: Radio, Songs and Cabaret.” In Communicating Science in 20th Century Europe: A Survey on Research and Comparative Perspectives. (MPI Preprint 385), edited by Schirrmacher, Arne, 187195. Berlin: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.Google Scholar
Reichert, Ramón. 2007. Im Kino der Humanwissenschaften. Studien zur Medialisierung wissenschaftlichen Wissens. Bielefeld: Transcript.Google Scholar
Schirrmacher, Arne. 2008. “Nach der Popularisierung. Zur Relation von Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit im 20. Jahrhundert.” Geschichte und Gesellschaft 34:7395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schirrmacher, Arne, ed. 2009. Communicating Science in 20th Century Europe: A Survey on Research and Comparative Perspectives. (MPI Preprint 385). Berlin: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.Google Scholar
Secord, James. 2004. “Knowledge in Transit.” Isis 95:654672.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simon, Josep, and Herran, Néstor, eds. 2008. Beyond Borders: Fresh Perspectives in History of Science. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Tobey, Ronald C. 1971. The American Ideology of National Science, 1919–1930. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Topham, Jonathan. 2009. “Rethinking the History of Science Popularization/Popular Science.” In Popularizing Science and Technology in the European Periphery, 1800–2000, edited by Papanelopoupou, Faidra, Nieto-Galan, Agustí, and Perdriguero, Enrique, 120. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Walker, Mark. 1989. German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power 1939–1949. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weingart, Peter. 2001. Die Stunde der Wahrheit? Vom Verhältnis der Wissenschaft zu Politik, Wirtschaft und Medien in der Wissensgesellschaft. Weilerswist: Velbrück.Google Scholar
Weiss, Sheila Faith. 2006. “Human Genetics and Politics as Mutually Beneficial Resources: The Case of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics during the Third Reich.” Journal of the History of Biology 39:4188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitley, Richard. 1985. “Knowledge Producers and Knowledge Acquirers: Popularization as a Relation Between Scientific Fields and Their Publics.” In Expository Science. Forms and Functions of Popularization, edited by Shinn, Terry and Whitley, Richard, 328. Dordrecht: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Włodarczyk, Jarosław. 2009. “Popularization of Science in Poland before and after the Collapse of the Soviet Bloc.” In Communicating Science in 20th Century Europe: A Survey on Research and Comparative Perspectives. (MPI Preprint 385), edited by Schirrmacher, Arne, 119126. Berlin: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.Google Scholar
Zasztowt, Leszek. 2009. “Science for the Masses: The Political Background of Polish and Soviet Science Popularization in the Post-War Period.” In Communicating Science in 20th Century Europe. A Survey on Research and Comparative Perspectives. (MPI Preprint 385), edited by Schirrmacher, Arne, 133145. Berlin: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.Google Scholar
Zasztowt, Leszek, Włodarczyk, Jarosław, and Jabłońska, Magdalena. 2012. “A Closer Look at the Popularization of Science in Poland during the Stalinist Period: The Magazine Problem, 1945–1956.” Organon (IHN PAN Warsaw) 44:131151.Google Scholar