A geohistorical study of 'the rise of modern science': mapping scientific practice through urban networks, 1500-1900
Peter J. Taylor
Michael Hoyler
David M. Evans
2134/4983
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/A_geohistorical_study_of_the_rise_of_modern_science_mapping_scientific_practice_through_urban_networks_1500-1900/9481838
Using data on the ‘career’ paths of one thousand ‘leading scientists’ from 1450 to 1900, what is conventionally called the ‘rise of modern science’ is mapped as a changing geography of scientific practice in urban networks. Four distinctive networks of scientific practice are identified. A primate network centred on Padua and central and northern Italy in the sixteenth century expands across the Alps to become a polycentric network in the seventeenth century, which in turn dissipates into a weak polycentric network in the eighteenth century. The nineteenth century marks a huge change of scale as a primate network centred on Berlin and dominated by German-speaking universities. These geographies are interpreted as core-producing processes in Wallerstein’s modern world-system; the rise of modern scientific practice is central to the development of structures of knowledge that relate to, but do not mirror, material changes in the system.
2009-07-13 14:13:36
Modern science
Space of flows
Scientists
Scientific centres
Scientific practice
Urban
Networks
Earth Sciences not elsewhere classified