Different undertakings, common practices

some directions for the history of science

Ana Simoes

pp. 297-312

in: Theodore Arabatzis, Jürgen Renn, Ana Simoes (eds), Relocating the history of science, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstract

Having participated in collaborative projects with Kostas Gavroglu both in the realm of history of quantum chemistry and in the framework of the international group Science and Technology in the European Periphery (STEP), in this chapter I offer a brief assessment of STEP and the history of quantum chemistry undertakings to highlight ways in which the praxis informing both reveals common features. This comparative exercise is used to suggest a few directions the discipline of history of science might take into consideration in the future. These directions point to the importance of organizational and methodological pluralism and multi-perspectivity, and the promises of exploring the "in-between" character of subdisciplines or areas of studies in both the sciences and the history of science.

Cited authors

Gavroglu Kostas