The Tongues of Seismology in Nineteenth-Century Switzerland

Deborah R. Coen

doi:10.1017/S0269889711000305

The Tongues of Seismology in Nineteenth-Century Switzerland

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2012

Deborah R. Coen

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Deborah R. Coen*: Affiliation:
Barnard College, Columbia University E-mail: dcoen@barnard.edu

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Argument

Between 1878 and 1880, Switzerland, Italy, and Japan initiated the world's first national earthquake commissions, but only the Swiss made ordinary citizens a vital part of this undertaking. This paper examines the texture of communication between Swiss scientists and lay observers and traces the development of a language for seismology that was simultaneously scientific and vernacular. This is the story of an aborted dialogue between scientists and citizens about living with environmental risk, an alternative abandoned on the way to the increasingly technical science of the twentieth century.

Type: Research Article
Information: Science in Context , Volume 25 , Issue 1: Witness to Disaster: Earthquakes and Expertise in Comparative Perspective , March 2012 , pp. 73 - 102

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0269889711000305 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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