Synopses & Reviews
We are accustomed to thinking of science and its findings as universal. After all, one atom of carbon plus two of oxygen yields carbon dioxide in Amazonia as well as in Alaska; a scientist in Bombay can use the same materials and techniques to challenge the work of a scientist in New York; and of course the laws of gravity apply worldwide. Why, then, should the spaces where science is done matter at all? David N. Livingstone here puts that question to the test with his fascinating study of how science bears the marks of its place of production.
Putting Science in Its Place establishes the fundamental importance of geography in both the generation and the consumption of scientific knowledge, using historical examples of the many places where science has been practiced. Livingstone first turns his attention to some of the specific sites where science has been madeand#8212;the laboratory, museum, and botanical garden, to name some of the more conventional locales, but also places like the coffeehouse and cathedral, ship's deck and asylum, even the human body itself. In each case, he reveals just how the space of inquiry has conditioned the investigations carried out there. He then describes how, on a regional scale, provincial cultures have shaped scientific endeavor and how, in turn, scientific practices have been instrumental in forming local identities. Widening his inquiry, Livingstone points gently to the fundamental instability of scientific meaning, based on case studies of how scientific theories have been received in different locales. Putting Science in Its Place powerfully concludes by examining the remarkable mobility of science and the seemingly effortless way it moves around the globe.
From the reception of Darwin in the land of the Maori to the giraffe that walked from Marseilles to Paris, Livingstone shows that place does matter, even in the world of science.
Review
"As David Livingstone explains in Putting Science in Its Place, geography has always had a profound influence on both the generation and acceptance of scientific ideas. We assume that physical constants are the same when measured in Indiana or India but it seems that more abstract concepts must adapt to local conditions. So from the 16th-century Catholic church's rejection of Copernican astronomy to the present day, there have been plenty of examples of scientific orthodoxy bending to religious, political or cultural pressures."
Review
and#8220;[Putting Science in Its Place] offers researchers and the public an informative perspective on how space shapes the development and reception of scientific knowledge. Livingstoneand#8217;s concise, eminently readable account unveils the politics of place and demonstrates how geography has made the scientific enterprise a moral undertaking based on trust.and#8221;
Review
"No one will begrudge the idea that 'places' are often important to the relevant science, or even that 'micro-geography' could be useful for discussing them.... David Livingstone's mission is to convert to the micro-geographical cause all who are guilty of treating place as a poor relation of time."
Review
and#8220;In putting science in its place in a metaphorical as well as a literal sense, Livingstone is not attempting to and#8216;unmaskand#8217; or debunk science as and#8216;nothing butand#8217; a social construct. He takes the enormous achievements of science for granted . . .and#160; but he insists that science is always grounded in particular times and places. It is a brilliant achievement.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Scientific knowledge and scientific work are inherently geographical. Its very claims to universality betray scienceand#8217;s inherently spatial nature. Surveying the places where science happens, the regional and territorial impress upon its constitution and reception, and the channels through which scientific materials and ideas travel, David Livingstone provides a coherent and convincing demonstration of scienceand#8217;s geographies, elegantly enriching our understanding of both endeavours.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A model of its kind, Putting Science in Its Place is accessible and well written, yet packed with information and carrying a coherent and important message--that space does indeed play an important role in the constitution of knowledge. Livingstone provides a survey of the actual ways in which it does so, using deft historical examples and masterfully tying them together. Nobody has worked through this claim with this consistency or coherence."
Review
and#8220;It might seem strange that an enterprise as obviously universal and successful as the natural sciences depends decisively on where it is pursued. But in this perceptively written and fascinatingly illustrated survey, David Livingstone shows conclusively just how the spaces and places of knowledge work and why they matter. An expert historian of science and thoughtful analyst of geographyand#8217;s relation with social change, Livingstone is superbly equipped to deliver this important lesson: He turns a mass of detailed studies into a moving story of laboratories and museums, hospitals and gardens, illuminates the range of sites at which science has been pursued and explains how these sites have affected the knowledge made there. The scope of this short book is remarkable. From now on, we will read maps, charts and floorplans with more understanding of their meanings for the way we know the world. Challenging and vital issues such as the variation of scientific styles between Europe and Asia, the dramas of the Scientific Revolution, the comparative reception of Darwinism, or the relation between theology and the sciences, are all given freshly compelling approaches in this clever work. A closing chapter offers exciting prospects for advances in the new field of historical geography of knowledgeand#8212;Livingstone restores scientistsand#8217; biographies and sciencesand#8217; rationality to their proper places. This highly accessible book will be indispensable for citizens concerned with the situation of the sciences in our society, and especially for those who care about the fate of local expertise in global knowledge economies."
Review
"In this highly readable and richly detailed study, Livingstone addresses familiar issues about the use and abuse of geographic tools and concepts, but his primary emphasis is on the sites of the production of scientific knowledge and the diffusion of ideas and practices from those sites. . . . It is also a reader-friendly book with ample and often intriguing illustrations and a carefully prepared and comprehensive bibliographic essay. . . . Livingstone's lively narrative and breadth of knowledge make it a book of interest for the expert and general reader alike."
Review
and#8220;This is an outstanding book. Impressively researched and compellingly written, it fills a major gap in the history of biology by showing us how place-based science developed in Europe during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its five case studies eloquently reveal varied reactions to the dominance of laboratory culture, different sorts of organisms studied (marine invertebrates, freshwater plankton, insects, and birds), and the national scientific cultures and community structures of Italy, France, Germany, and Belgium. We get a strong sense for what it meant to share a commitment to local specificities of place and problem, balanced by at least as strong a sense of how the commitment to specificity drove the station directors and their groups in unique directions.and#8221;
Review
andquot;Raf de Bontand#39;s Stations in the Field: A History of Place-Based Animal Research provides a fascinating look into the emergence of field stations. Replete with engrossing stories and insights into the history of science, casual readers and historians of scientists alike will be sure to find it delightful.andquot;
Review
andquot;Raf de Bontandrsquo;s study of European biological field stations transforms our understanding of the settings and strategies of late-nineteenth biological research. With a keen eye to their diverse ecological and socio-cultural contexts, he examines a variety of field stations, each committed to the study of animals in their natural setting. Immensely rich in comparative perspectives, equally insightful in what it adds to our historical understanding of lab work and field work, this book is an important contribution to the history of biology and to the growing literature on geographies of scientific knowledge.andquot;
Review
andquot;While museums, labs, and botanical gardens have been widely studied by historians of science, field stations have received comparatively little attention. Raf De Bontand#39;s new book rectifies this oversight, turning our attention to the importance of biological field stations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in generating new scientific practices, theories, and networks. . . . A fascinating study that offers readers a more robust and complex understanding of the spaces of modern science and their entangled histories.andquot;
Synopsis
When we think of sites of animal research that symbolize modernity, the first places that come to mind are grand research institutes in cities and near universities that house the latest in equipment and technologies, not the surroundings of the birdand#8217;s nest, the octopusand#8217;s garden in the sea, or the parts of inland lakes in which freshwater plankton reside. Yet during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a group of zoologists began establishing novel, indeed modern ways of studying nature, propagating what present-day ecologists describe as place-based research.and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Raf De Bontand#8217;s Stations in the Field focuses on the early history of biological field stations and the role these played in the rise of zoological place-based research. Beginning in the 1870s, a growing number of biological field stations were foundedand#151;first in Europe and later elsewhere around the worldand#151;and thousands of zoologists received their training and performed their research at these sites. Through case studies, De Bont examines the material and social context in which field stations arose, the actual research that was produced in these places, the scientific claims that were developed there, and the rhetorical strategies that were deployed to convince others that these claims made sense. From the life of parasitic invertebrates in northern France and freshwater plankton in Schleswig-Holstein, to migratory birds in East Prussia and pest insects in Belgium, De Bontand#8217;s book is fascinating tour through the history of studying nature in nature.
About the Author
David N. Livingstoneand#160;is a professor of geography and intellectual history at Queenandrsquo;s University, Belfast. A Fellow of the British Academy and a member of both the Academia Europaea and the Royal Irish Academy, he is the author of numerous books, includingand#160;
The Geographical Tradition: Episodes in the History of a Contested Enterprise and
Adamandrsquo;s Ancestors: Race, Religion and the Politics of Human Origins. Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1. Stations and Other Places
Chapter 2. Naples: Indoor Sea Creatures
Chapter 3. Wimereux: Tide Pool Science
Chapter 4. From Wimereux to the Republic: Individuals and Their Environment
Chapter 5. Pland#246;n: A Lake Microcosm
Chapter 6. Rossitten: Moving Birds
Chapter 7. Brussels: Fieldwork in a Metropolitan Museum
Conclusion: Residents in the Field
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index