Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T10:36:27.626Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The creation of the International Astronomical Union as a result of scientific diplomacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2011

Arnaud Saint-Martin*
Affiliation:
Centre Alexandre Koyré, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 57, rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris cedex 05, France email: arsaint-martin@orange.fr
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

After World War I, the foundation of the International Astronomical Union delimited a space for a new form of internationality, which led to a rapid change in the way astronomical research had previously been pursued. This structure was to be a sort of parliament of astronomical nations which planned to supervise scientific programs and to rationalise inter-observatory cooperation. In this article, I will discuss the sociological aspects of this institutional process and introduce the idea of ‘scientific diplomacy’.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

Blaauw, A. 1994, History of the IAU: The Birth and First Half-Century of the International Astronomical Union (Dordrecht: Kluwer)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cahan, D. 2003, in Natural Philosophy to the Sciences. Writing the History of Nineteenth-Century Science Cahan, D. (ed) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), p. 291Google Scholar
Collins, R. 1998, The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change (Cambridge: Harvard University Press)Google Scholar
Crawford, E. 1992, Nationalism and Internationalism in Science, 1880-1939: Four Studies of the Nobel Population (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, E., Shinn, T., & Sörlin, S. (eds) 1992, Denationalizing Science: The Contexts of International Scientific Practice (Dordrecht: Kluwer)Google Scholar
DiMaggio, P. & Powell, W. 1991, in The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, Powell, W. and DiMaggio, P. (eds), (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), p. 1Google Scholar
Drori, G., Meyer, J., Ramirez, F., & Schofer, E. (eds) 2003, Science in the Modern World Polity: Institutionalization and Globalization (Stanford: Stanford University Press)Google Scholar
Forman, P. 1973, Isis, 64, 150Google Scholar
Greenway, F. 1996, Science International: A History of the International Council of Scientific Institutions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Lamy, J. 2008, La Carte du Ciel (Les Ulis: EDP Sciences)Google Scholar
Moulin, A. M. 2004, in Transnational Intellectual Networks: Forms of Academic Knowledge and the Search for Cultural Identities, Charle, C., Schriewer, J., Wagner, P. (eds), (Frankfurt: Verlag Campus), p. 135Google Scholar
Polanco, X. 1990, Naissance et développement de la science-monde (Paris: La Découverte)Google Scholar
Saint-Martin, A. 2008a, L'office et le télescope. Une sociologie historique de l'astronomie française, 1900-1940, Doctoral dissertation (Paris: Université Paris-Sorbonne)Google Scholar
Saint-Martin, A. 2008b, Nuncius. Journal of the History of Science, 23, 91CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schroeder-Gudehus, B. 1978, La communauté scientifique internationale au cours des années 20 (Montréal: Presses de l'Université de Montréal)Google Scholar
Shapin, S. & Schaffer, S. 1985, Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Expe-rimental Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press)Google Scholar