TY - JOUR AU - Kastenhofer, Karen PY - 2022/08/26 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Natural Sciences in Academic Vienna in the 1990s: From “[Peripheral] Outpost Near the Iron Curtain” to “Central Hub” JF - Studia Historiae Scientiarum JA - Stud. Hist. Sci. VL - 21 IS - SE - SCIENCE IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE DO - 10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.016.15982 UR - https://ojs.ejournals.eu/SHS/article/view/8024 SP - 515-552 AB - <p>In 1999, four editorials in the journal Biological Chemistry commemorate how, since the 1980s, Vienna has transformed from a “[peripheral] outpost near the Iron Curtain” to a “central hub” for life science research.<br>A closer look at these texts reveals the explicit and implicit role of drawing maps for and within science, depicting centers, peripheries and ‒ in this case ‒ geopolitically real and allegorical “iron curtains”.<br>Based on this observation and the issues it raises, I re-examine the pertinent empirical material covering relevant times, places, (sub-) disciplines and institutions, as well as the period after 2000. I deal with “molecularization” in biology, (sub)disciplinary differentiation, internationalization, as well as changes in public-private relations and a pair of complementary concepts of innovation and tradition. Thus, I retrace the establishment of a techno-epistemic culture in a local, disciplinary context.</p><p>I conclude that guiding principles such as excellence and internationality are understood and implemented in academia in locally and historically bounded ways, and I argue that a critical re-examination of empirical material can substantially enrich our approach to such topics.</p> ER -