Introduction. Socialist Science Cities: from Utopia to Urban Life
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.25.003.21841Keywords:
socialist science cities, technopoles, urban history, socialism, science and technology, AkademgorodokAbstract
This article serves as an introduction to the journal’s section entitled “Focal Point,” which in this issue is devoted to the topic of science cities in socialist societies.
Science cities, also known as technopoles, emerged in both capitalist and socialist societies after World War II. This phenomenon resulted in futuristic images of Silicon Valley and Novosibirsk’s Akademgorodok that spread worldwide.
This topic is addressed in more detail in the following three articles of this section focused on models of science cities in state socialist systems, particularly in the Soviet Union and Hungary.
The introduction discusses historiographical patterns in the science cities/technopoles field and contextualizes the three papers of this issue. The authors assume that the scholarly interest in science cities and science spaces has shifted from viewing them as extraordinary to recognizing them as part of modern urban life. The purpose of the articles in this section is to inspire researchers to conduct additional analyses of the transnational history of science.
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