The Floracrats: State-Sponsored Science and the Failure of the Enlightenment in Indonesia

Author:   Andrew Goss
Publisher:   University of Wisconsin Press
ISBN:  

9786613077554


Publication Date:   01 February 2011
Format:   Electronic book text
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
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The Floracrats: State-Sponsored Science and the Failure of the Enlightenment in Indonesia


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Overview

Situated along the line that divides the rich ecologies of Asia and Australia, the Indonesian archipelago is a hotbed for scientific exploration, and scientists from around the world have made key discoveries there. But why do the names of Indonesias own scientists rarely appear in the annals of scientific history? In The Floracrats Andrew Goss examines the professional lives of Indonesian naturalists and biologists, to show what happens to science when a powerful state becomes its greatest, and indeed only, patron. With only one purse to pay for research, Indonesias scientists followed a state agenda focused mainly on exploiting the countrys most valuable natural resources--above all its major export crops: quinine, sugar, coffee, tea, rubber, and indigo. The result was a class of botanic bureaucrats that Goss dubs the floracrats. Drawing on archives and oral histories, he shows how these scientists strove for the Enlightenment ideal of objective, universal, and useful knowledge, even as they betrayed that ideal by failing to share scientific knowledge with the general public. With each chapter, Goss details the phases of power and the personalities in Indonesia that have struggled with this dilemma, from the early colonial era, through independence, to the modern Indonesian state. Goss shows just how limiting dependence on an all-powerful state can be for a scientific community, no matter how idealistic its individual scientists may be.

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Author:   Andrew Goss
Publisher:   University of Wisconsin Press
Imprint:   University of Wisconsin Press
ISBN:  

9786613077554


ISBN 10:   6613077550
Publication Date:   01 February 2011
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Electronic book text
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

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