49. Fieldstations in periphery territories. Bubble of science.
David DUMOULIN KERVRAN, Sorbonne Nouvelle University - IHEAL; JAN VERLIN, ENS; Jérôme LAMY, CNRS
Posted: February 28, 2022 Accepted Languages: English/Inglés/Inglês, Spanish/Español/Espanhol, Portuguese/Portugués
Since the 1970s, the social sciences have analysed the production of science as a historically and geographically situated social practice. Thus far, empirical studies have mostly been carried out in industrialised countries with a focus on major metropoles. Very few analyses rely on case studies from non-industrialised countries or scientific “places” that are neither urban (laboratories, museums, hospitals, etc.) nor temporary field practices designed to collect data for those institutions (expeditions, field work, etc.).
In contrast, this panel sheds light on permanent scientific places at the margins of colonial or post-colonial territories. Measured by the distance from political centres in the metropole and the alterisation of their location, these scientific places are isolated in three ways: one, as overseas postcolonial territories in “tropical regions” or desertic, polar regions; two, as outbacks or hinterlands within (former) colonial territories; three, as locations with difficult access and exclusive membership. Papers may explore how limited relations with “local populations”, often transforms these fieldstations into extraterritorial “bubble-places.”
We hope to bring together very different case studies in order to enable a comparative perspective, beyond disciplinary and national features of each scientific infrastructures. This pannel aims to contributes to the literature that explores how the power of world metropoles and their modes of governability are often rooted in remote (post)colonial experiments, especially the production of science. Conversely, we hope that the propositions will show how the localisation and production of major scientific disciplines were and are discreetly shaped by local postcolonial frictions.
