ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Small-Scale Research as a Resurgent Way to Approach Diversity in the Physical Sciences

• In Event: Shifting Perspectives: Diversity, Geographies, and Possibilities in the Physical Sciences (no 2)

English Abstract

Histories of physical science in the 20th century have been framed by a narrative of growth articulated on the co-produced categories of big science and little science. The historiographical attention paid to both categories has been very uneven, with big science attracting much interest and research, while little science was relegated to the background.
At the beginning of the 21st century, as indefinite growth came increasingly under question, little science experienced a kind of resurgence. In a recent contribution to the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Physics I have outlined the construction and development of the categories of big science and little science in physics. In this paper I should like to delve deeper into the implications of this historiographical debate for our understanding of contemporary physics, paying particular attention to the possibilities opened by a close consideration of small-scale research practices in relation to the theme of the symposium.

Author

• Xavier Roqué, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona