Abstract

GUERRERO MCMANUS, Siobhan. The missions of science: territories, expertise and governmentality. Inter disciplina [online]. 2021, vol.9, n.24, pp.13-27.  Epub June 25, 2021. ISSN 2448-5705.  https://doi.org/10.22201/ceiich.24485705e.2021.24.78456.

This text offers an historiographic reflection that has been developed in dialogue with the rest of comparative histories presented in this issue. Its main objective is to show the fecundity of the methodological choices that underlie this collective enterprise. To do this, I will show how the works that make up this dossier allow us to overcome the opposition between conceptual history and social history. Likewise, these texts allow us to reflect on how terms such as “mission” evolve in such a way that their semantic changes do not necessarily imply absolute ruptures in the social logics or dynamics that they name. Finally, a reflection is offered that help us to see the connections between a history of science conceived as a missionary or colonizing tool, on the one hand, and the creation of expertise that at the same time territorialize knowledge and physical space, on the other.

Keywords : Mission; historiography; conceptual history; deconstruction; governmentality.

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