Introduction: Scientific Authority and the Politics of Science and History in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe

0549379 - MÚA 2022 DE eng J - Journal Article
Cain, F. - Hüchtker, D. - Kleeberg, B. - Reichenbach, K. - Surman, Jan
Introduction: Scientific Authority and the Politics of Science and History in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe.
Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Roč. 44, č. 4 (2021), s. 339-351. ISSN 0170-6233. E-ISSN 1522-2365
Institutional support: RVO:67985921
Keywords : scientific authority * political epistemology * trust in science
OECD category: History (history of science and technology to be 6.3, history of specific sciences to be under the respective headings)
Impact factor: 0.500, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Open access
https://doi.org/10.1002/bewi.202100035

What sounds like a laborious set up for a shallow joke actually hits the core of the problem this issue covers: What do the leading archaeologist of the former German Democratic Republic in re-unifying Germany, Bulgarian scientists in the late 1960s and some recent discussions about representations of Polish ancient history have in common? They all operate along fractures in the crust of scientific authority, they mark moments in time when classical figures of knowledge reach or breach authoritative status. They serve to study how authoritative speech bridged and manifested these relations and help identify areas where scientific authority is contested. This volume transcends this topological rhetoric with a praxeological take on scientific authority. Concentrating on authority figures, it brings specific margins and contestations into sight. The papers in this volume study cases from former socialist countries of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, and thus examples that present us with the complexity of agonal relations within state socialism and post-socialist transformations that complicate matters of scientific authority in many ways, yet also offer illustrative examples of shifting constellations of (scientific) authority.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0325388