Isis; an international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences 

About: Isis; an international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Historiography & History of science. Over the lifetime, 327 publications have been published receiving 4888 citations.

The Industrialization of Invention: A Case Study from the German Chemical Industry

Abstract: IN THE LAST DECADES of the nineteenth century the relationship between science and industry changed in a decisive way. Invention was industrialized. Large company laboratories were set up. The consulting scientist and the scientific entrepreneur were replaced by the salaried industrial research worker. Applied science became a driving force for technical development and economic growth.' The German chemical industry has often served as the outstanding example of an early science-based enterprise. In particular, it has become commonplace to stress the importance of research for the rise to world supremacy of German dye manufacturers. But while this truism has been readily accepted, the manner in which science was turned into a productive force has not been subject to detailed investigation. "Because it turns out, ex post," Paul M. Hohenberg wrote in 1967, "that the gamble was a good one for the chemical industry in 19th-century Europe, identifying the sources of the industry's growth reduces largely to finding the factors affecting the decisions to take the gamble." The prevalence of this attitude has meant that apart from the work of John J. Beer, little is known about industrial research in the German chemical industry up to 1914.2 The first small dyestuffs firms were founded in several western European countries in the late 1850s and early 1860s. Although the number of workers employed and the amount of capital invested always remained small as compared with older ventures such as textiles, coal, or iron, the rise of the dye industry was remarkable in at least two ways. First, dye manufacturing was the prototype of a new type of industry based on science. Second, Germany dominated the manufacture of dye-

Sciences and the Global: On Methods, Questions, and Theory

Abstract: 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

Dikes and Dams, Thick with Politics

Abstract: Things are thick with politics. This essay illustrates the point by focusing on a variety of technologies that help to manage water: anicuts and tanks in India, dikes and a storm surge barrier in the Netherlands, and levees in New Orleans. Technologies are not only shaped by political forces; they also exert political force themselves: on social stratification in Indian villages or on government stability in the Netherlands. We should recognize, then, that the functioning of technologies and the functioning of societies are intricately linked. The essay traces this interlinking by using the concept of “technological culture.” It argues that the different styles of coastal engineering in the United States and in the Netherlands can be explained by differences in their technological cultures, particularly the different styles of risk handling. This conclusion is then applied to the Indian case and to issues of development, democracy, and innovation.