230155 SE Science Dynamics: How New Research Fields Develop (2013S)

How do new research fields come into being and what are the constituting factors of this process? During the last decade this traditional theme of STS has raised new attention in the context of a public debate concerning the governance of novel techno-scientific fields such as nanotechnology. For STS scholars the debate raises important questions. For example: In which respect is the birth of scientific disciplines shaped by events within the realm of science (e.g. advances of knowledge, instrumentation)? In how far do extra-scientific factors (related to politics, economy, education, etc.) affect the establishment of novel areas of research and teaching? The course will provide an in-depth understanding of the constituting processes of novel research fields. It addresses this issue with a special interest in regional and national variation. Research fields are typically conceived as being internationally constituted. This is especially the case for today’s natural and technical sciences with English as their lingua franca and the strong mobility of researchers across countries. At the same time the configuration of research fields varies across regions and countries. Such variation is particularly noticeable in the case of emerging research fields, such as current nano- and neurosciences or molecular biology from the 1950s onwards. This course, then, inquires into how regional and national characteristics are played out in the dynamics of emerging research fields and to what effect. In addition, it analyzes the mechanisms through which novel research fields become globalized in case they do.