Putting Science in Its Place
Subtitle: Geographies of Scientific Knowledge
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; University of Chicago Press
Published: October 1, 2003
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 244
ISBN-13: 9780226487229
Subjects: Interdisciplinary Studies; Science: General Issues; Science; Science/Mathematics; Historical Geography; History; Science / History; General; Science and civilization; Social aspects
First sentence: Scientific knowledge is made in a lot of different places.
Description: "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 made - 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 concludes by by examining the remarkable mobility of science and the seemingly effortless way it moves around the globe."--Jacket.