Beyond the Lab and the Field : Infrastructures As Places of Knowledge Production Since the Late Nineteenth Century

Heine, Eike-christian (EDT); Meiske, Martin (EDT)

ISBN 10: 0822946378 / ISBN 13: 9780822946373

Published by University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Beyond the Lab and the Field : Infrastructures As Places of Knowledge Production Since the Late Nineteenth Century
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822946378
• ISBN 13: 9780822946373
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

Beyond the Lab and the Field analyzes infrastructures as intense sites of knowledge production in the Americas, Europe, and Asia since the late nineteenth century. Moving beyond classical places known for yielding scientific knowledge, chapters in this volume explore how the construction and maintenance of canals, highways, dams, irrigation schemes, the oil industry, and logistic networks intersected with the creation of know-how and expertise. Referred to by the authors as “scientific bonanzas,” such intersections reveal opportunities for great wealth, but also distress and misfortune.
This volume explores how innovative technologies provided research opportunities for scientists and engineers, as they relied on expertise to operate, which resulted in enormous profits for some. But, like the history of any gold rush, the history of infrastructure also reveals how technologies of modernity transformed nature, disrupting communities and destroying the local environment. Focusing not on the victory march of science and technology but on ambivalent change, contributors consider the role of infrastructures for ecology, geology, archaeology, soil science, engineering, ethnography, heritage, and polar exploration. Together, they also examine largely overlooked perspectives on modernity: the reliance of infrastructure on knowledge, and infrastructures as places and occasions that inspired a greater understanding of the natural world and the technologically made environment.

About the Author

Eike-Christian Heine (Editor)
Eike-Christian Heine is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department for the History of Science and Technology at the Historical Institute of the Technical University Braunschweig in Germany.

Martin Meiske (Editor)
Martin Meiske is a postdoctoral fellow at the Research Institute for the History of Science and Technology at the Deutsches Museum, Munich.