TY - JOUR
TI - Natural Sciences in Academic Vienna in the 1990s: From “[Peripheral] Outpost Near the Iron Curtain” to “Central Hub”
AU - Kastenhofer, Karen
TI - Natural Sciences in Academic Vienna in the 1990s: From “[Peripheral] Outpost Near the Iron Curtain” to “Central Hub”
AB - 
	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.

	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”.

	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.

	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.
VL - 2022
IS - 21 (2022)
PY - 2022
SN - 2451-3202
C1 - 2543-702X
SP - 515
EP - 552
DO - 10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.016.15982
UR - https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/studia-historiae-scientiarum/artykul/natural-sciences-in-academic-vienna-in-the-1990s-from-peripheral-outpost-near-the-iron-curtain-to-central-hub
KW - history of biology
KW - University of Vienna
KW - scientific persona
KW - generations in academia
KW - contemporary history of science
KW - molecular revolution
KW - techno-epistemic culture