English
FrançaisHistory of Science
History of Science
The History of Science programme of the Maison Française is directed by a Franco-British committee bringing together specialists and representatives of French and British research in the history of science, technology and innovation. In Oxford, the project works in conjunction with the Faculty of History, the Wellcome Unit of History of Medicine, the Museum of History of Science, the Centre for Health, Medicine and Society: Past and Present of Oxford Brookes University.
Environmental History
History of chemistry
Sites of Chemistry (Learn more on the dedicated website)
History of Innovation
The globalization of exchanges and the growth of international competition have brought innovation, and indeed research, into an increasingly central position within our societies. These phenomena increasingly concern political figures at every level as well as entrepreneurs, the world of business as well as the academic sphere. We are thus witnessing a rearrangement of the organisation and institutional forms in which they develop.
This project aims at understanding the mechanisms at work, to place them in a global context and to examine their consequences in order to move beyond clichés and commonly accepted ideas. It is conceived as an interdisciplinary approach covering historical, sociological, anthropological and management-based frames of analysis. Only this type of approach can enable us to identify the constants and the upheavals in organisational issues faced by those involved in research and innovation.
Two hypotheses will be explored: the novelty and originality of horizontal structures on the one hand, and the role of those structures in the orientation of scientific and technological production on the other. The eventual ambition of the project is eventually to build up and publish an intellectual corpus distinct from previous scholarship on the subject, which, in spite of its undoubted qualities, has been too heavily influenced by American models that are often of little relevance to European cases.
The first part of the project will consist of reviewing existing interdisciplinary works based on empirical research, on specific locations, and analysing various case studies (British and French).
The second component is the organisation of seminar series and/or colloquia, with the aim of consolidating a network of academics in the humanities and social sciences investigating the ideas of innovation and of research in all their forms. This will at the same time work to feed and enrich French thought, both theoretical and methodological, on these questions, and to make French work known in the English-speaking world.
Our aim is to be able to draw on practice from many disciplines in order to provide structures of analysis that move outside dominant influences, and to advance hypotheses for the conditions that favour the creation of a fruitful environment by and for the research profession; we will also try to put forward to suggest explanations for the significant differences between our two countries, that are geographically so close.
The third facet of the project consists of making the content of debates accessible via the website of the Maison Française and/or of the Académie des Technologies. So this collaboration ca be thought of as a way in which exchange may become embodied in this website as an academic and multi-disciplinary forum.
If you would like to join the group or the seminar series or send proposal please contact Muriel Le Roux, muriel.le.roux@ens.fr
Workshops, Conferences, Lectures
Communicating Science and Technology: France and the United Kingdom, Historical Perspectives
Part 1, 14 January 2011 - See the programme and listen to the podcasts
Part 2, 9 March 2012 - See the programme
PPF (Multiannual Professional Training Program) : The History of Managerial Thought and Practice
> Access to the interactive book presenting its works
Jim Bennett, Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
jim.bennett@mhs.ox.ac.uk
Pietro Corsi, Linacre College, Oxford
pietro.corsi@history.ox.ac.uk
David Edgerton, Imperial College LondonÂ
d.edgerton@imperial.ac.uk
Robert Fox, Modern History Faculty, OxfordÂ
robert.fox@history.ox.ac.uk
Muriel Le Roux, Institut d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, CNRS/ENS
muriel.le.roux@ens.fr
Ian Maclean, All Souls College, Oxford
ian.maclean@all-souls.ox.ac.uk
Jeanne Peiffer, Directrice, Centre Alexandre Koyré
peiffer@damesme.cnrs.fr
John Perkins, Oxford Brookes University
jperkins@brookes.ac.uk
Viviane Quirke, Oxford Brookes University
vquirke@brookes.ac.uk
Antonella Romano, European University Institute, Florence
antonella.romano@iue.it
Stéphane Van Damme, Sciences Po, Paris
stephane.vandamme@sciences-po.fr
Paul Weindling, Oxford Brookes University
pjweindling@brookes.ac.uk
