Overview

Using a transdisciplinary approach, this book examines how scientific understanding of the Earth has been created, transformed, and shared across time - combining perspectives from the history of science, sociology of knowledge, and cultural studies to explore the evolution of Earth sciences. Focusing on the practices, actors, and socio-cultural contexts that have shaped knowledge production, this volume offers fresh methodological insights and highlights the contributions of scientists, local experts, and non-specialist collaborators. Case studies range from Johann Reinhold Forster’s eighteenth-century mineralogical research to Cold War impact geology and interdisciplinary developments in ice core paleoclimatology. Targeted at scholars, students, and general readers, this book provides an innovative lens for understanding the historical dimensions of Earth sciences, bridging disciplinary boundaries and uncovering new perspectives on the production and exchange of knowledge.

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9781041009320

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Norman Henniges (Humboldt University of Berlin) is a geographer and historian of knowledge and science (nineteenth to twentieth centuries). His research fields include historical geographies of global knowledge and the social and cultural history of geography, geology, and cartography. His key publication is “Die Spur des Eises” (2017). Johannes Mattes (Austrian Academy of Sciences) is a historian of knowledge and science focusing on Central and Eastern Europe from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries (geosciences, life sciences, physics, and medicine), with an emphasis on global entanglements. His key publications include “Collaborative Research in Imperial Vienna” (2024) and “Reisen ins Unterirdische” (2015). Marianne Klemun (University of Vienna) is a historian of science (sixteenth to nineteenth centuries). Her research fields include cultures and political contexts of the history of natural history (geology, botany, gardens, travel, collecting; communication and documentation of sciences). Her key publication is with Spring (Eds.), “Scientific Expeditions as Experiments” (2016).

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