Sciences and the Global: On Methods, Questions, and Theory
Sciences and the Global: On Methods, Questions, and Theory
复制标题
科学与全球：论方法、问题和理论
作者：
S. Sivasundaram
本文探讨了研究和撰写全球科学史的机制。考虑如何获取资料是至关重要的，特别是考虑到科学史学家经常以缺乏资料为借口，将他们的项目限制在欧洲主题上。第一部分提出了一种跨语境化的方法，即在更丰富和传统的资源中阅读稀缺和非正统的资源。下一节将讨论历史编纂，批评在当前渴望更加全球化的工作中继续使用“殖民地”和“民族”术语。最后一节考虑实践和网络理论，询问我们使用这些工具的方式是否实际上本能地使我们回到欧洲和欧洲中心主义的方式来构思科学如何运作。
This essay explores the mechanics of researching and writing globally oriented histories of science. Thinking about how to approach sources is vital, especially given how often historians of science use the excuse of a lack of sources for constraining their projects to European topics. The first section suggests a method of cross-contextualization, where scarce and unorthodox sources are read within and alongside more plentiful and traditional ones. The next section considers historiography, critiquing the continuing hold of the terms “colonial” and “national” in current work that aspires to be more global. The final section considers practice and network theory, asking whether the way we utilize these tools in fact returns us, instinctively, to European and Eurocentric ways of conceiving how science works.