Contextualizing Science and Technology from the Perspective of Conceptual History and Discourse Analysis
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Science and technology are generally associated with universal objectivity and functionality. Yet ideologies, cultural frameworks, and socio-political controversies regarding their means and ends shape science and technology just as much as any other sphere of modern society. Approaches based on discourse analysis and the history of concepts can bring these social, political, and cultural dimensions of science and technology to light.
The aim is to highlight the language-political dimension of science and technology within their social context, focusing on key terms such as basic and applied research, or the discourse on the marketization of science. On the one hand, the project seeks to demonstrate the fruitful contribution that approaches based on the history of concepts and discourse analysis can make to the interdisciplinary studies of science and technology. On the other hand, the aim is to establish science and technology as subject areas – hitherto neglected – within the history of concepts and discourse. To date, this long-term project has yielded both theoretical contributions and empirical case studies. Among other things, these contributions adopt transnational perspectives and combine qualitative with digital methods. In teaching, as part of research-oriented seminars, small-scale case studies in the history of concepts offer students the opportunity to make themselves familiar with methods of the ‘digital humanities’.
Publications:
David Kaldewey/Désirée Schauz (Hg.): Basic and Applied Research. The Language of Science Policy in the Twentieth Century (European Conceptual History, Bd. 4). New York/Oxford: berghahn books 2018 (open access).
Désirée Schauz: Contextualizing Science and Technology from the Perspective of Conceptual History. In: Pasi Ihalainen und Jani Marjanen (Hg.): Writing Conceptual Histories. London: Bloomsbury Publishing 2025, S. 93–117.
David Kaldewey/Désirée Schauz: Die Wissenschaft als Gegenstand von Wissenschaft. In: David Kaldewey (Hg.): Wissenschaftsforschung. Grundbegriffe, Forschungsfelder und Forschungsfragen (Sozialwissenschaftliche Einführungen, Bd. 4). Berlin: De Gruyter 2023, S. 3–30.
Désirée Schauz/David Kaldewey. Diskursanalyse und Historische Semantik in der Wissenschaftsforschung. In: David Kaldewey (Hg.): Wissenschaftsforschung. Grundbegriffe, Forschungsfelder und Forschungsfragen (Sozialwissenschaftliche Einführungen, Bd. 4). Berlin: De Gruyter 2023, S. 315–335.
Désirée Schauz: Technische Fortschrittserwartungen, internationale Konkurrenz und die Geburt der deutschen Wissenschaftspolitik. In: Galili Shahar, Sagi Schaefer, Shaul Katzir (Hg): Made in Germany. Technology, History and Literature (Tel Aviver Jahrbuch für Deutsche Geschichte). Göttingen: Wallstein 2020, S. 41–82.
Désirée Schauz: Umstrittene Analysekategorie – erfolgreicher Protestbegriff. Debatten über Ökonomisierung der Wissenschaft in der jüngsten Geschichte. In: Rüdiger Graf (Hg.) Ökonomisierung. Debatten und Praktiken in der Zeitgeschichte. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag 2019, S. 262–296.
Benoît Godin/Désirée Schauz: The Changing Identity of Research: A Cultural and Conceptual History. In: History of Science 54/3 (2016), S. 276–306.
Désirée Schauz: Wissenschaftspolitische Sprache als Gegenstand von Forschung und disziplinärer Selbstreflexion – Das Programm des Forschungsnetzwerks CASTI. In: Forum interdisziplinäre Begriffsgeschichte 3 (2014), Heft 2, S. 49–61.