A geohistorical study of ‘The Rise of Modern Science’: mapping scientific practice through urban networks, 1500–1900

Taylor, Peter, Hoyler, Michael and Evans, David M. (2008) A geohistorical study of ‘The Rise of Modern Science’: mapping scientific practice through urban networks, 1500–1900. Minerva, 46 (4). pp. 391-410. ISSN 0026-4695

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

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 worldsystem; 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.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	L700 Human and Social Geography V300 History by topic
Department:	Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Geography and Environmental Sciences
Depositing User:	Helen Pattison
Date Deposited:	23 Apr 2012 08:57
Last Modified:	13 Oct 2019 00:24
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/6380

Downloads