Geographies of Science and Public Understanding? Exploring the Reception of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Britain and in Ireland, c.1845–1939

Abstract

Much recent work on the nature, making, and reception of scientific knowledge and its variant disciplines—including geography—has drawn attention to the importance of the spatial setting (for summaries, see Finnegan, 2008; Livingstone, 1995, 2003; Naylor, 2005; Powell, 2007; Shapin, 1998; Smith & Agar, 1998; Withers, 2001, pp. 1–28; Withers, 2002). Some of this research investigates the diverse sites of science’s production, such as the ship (Sorrenson, 1996), the botanic garden (Spary, 2000), or the laboratory (Kohler, 2002). Some of it concentrates on the sites of science’s reception, including the different social spaces of scientific reading and translation (Rupke, 1999; Secord, 2000). Still other studies tackle questions to do with the mobility of science (Secord, 2004) and the performance of science, including its oratorical cultures and speech sites (Livingstone, 2007; Secord, 2007).