Abstract

HERRAN, Néstor  and  SIMON, Josep. Communicating and Comparing: the Role of History of Science to Localism, Fragmentation and Cultural Hegemony. Mem. Soc. [online]. 2009, vol.13, n.27, pp.143-161. ISSN 0122-5197.

In the last decades an important revision and fragmentation of the history of science canonical narratives -based in the emergence of modern science in the West and its progress towards the establishment of industrial civilization - has taken place. In this paper we intend to analyze some of the most recent historiographical debates from the standing point of our experience as historians of the European "periphery". We will focus on three major questions: the -essentially Anglo-American- claims for the need of a new "big picture" able to connect with wide audiences and to avoid the centrifugal tendencies of specialization; the loss of internationalism in academic output and perspectives, and the current debates on the heyday and decline of the nation-state and its validity as a unit of analysis. As a result of this discussion we suggest a historiographical program based on the use of comparative history together with the analysis of communication processes at different levels - from the local to the transnational.

Keywords : Historiography; Comparative History; Communication; Internationalism; Science; History; Historiography; Hegemony.

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