Geschichtswissenschaft - Wissenschaftsgeschichte: Koexistenz oder Konvergenz?

Until recently, in Germany general history lived with the history of science in a peaceful coexistence which was the result of their mutual ignorance. The debates on the integration of social and cultural theories and methods into both disciplines have offered opportunities for a new convergence of general history and history of science. The basic assumption of social constructionism that science does not produce knowledge independant from time and space, has offered new possibilities to link history of science with the discourse of general history. This article will argue that the biographical method, the theory of national innovation systems, institutional history and cultural history are among the most promising approaches to ensure that scholarly coexistence will be replaced by convergence.     

Die Entwicklung der Sozialgeschichte der modernen Mathematik und Naturwissenschaft und die Frage nach dem sozialen Raum zwischen Disziplin und Wissenschaftler

The use of the concept of social history of science is sketched in the Anglo‐American and the German discussions from the mid 1970s up to recent work. By presenting a ‘social map’ of a selected scientific community it is argued that between the categories of discipline and single scientist there exists a wide ‘social space’ of groups within which science is pursued. In adopting a milieu theoretic approach an ecology of science is proposed as a suitable extension of the social history of science.