Researching the Scientific Networks between Germany and Southeastern Europe. Multiplex Scholarly Paths through Opportunity and Choice

Abstract

This article raises some conceptual questions concerning the research on scientific networks between Germany and Southeastern Europe, taking a historical perspective and drawing on current theoretical approaches to networks and science. The starting point is the suggestion that, rather than be considered from a bilateral perspective, such networks should be contextualized in the broader settings in which modern science arises and modern scientific knowledge is produced and transferred. When so conceived, researching scientific networks between Southeastern Europe and Germany means examining a series of phenomena related to the rise of modern science: the production of universal knowledge in a transnational space of interaction within which scholarly motion was also supported. Viewing it from this perspective, questions arise as to what were the specific characteristics of the scientific networks between Germany and Southeastern Europe within these very settings? In how far can the bilateral perspective sufficiently explain the scientific interconnections between scholars from Germany and Southeast European countries given that modern scientists maintain multifaceted affiliations in diverse contexts rather than forming state-centered scholarly elites? A further argument is that historical and political circumstances, including those concerning hegemonic relations associated with the regional discrepancy between the European center and the Southeastern periphery, can provide political opportunity for networking. However, opportunity is differently utilized by scholars who seek to draw on symbolic and material capital, so that, subjective choice emerges as a crucial aspect in the research of networks between Southeastern Europe and Germany. Furthermore, this article addresses the contribution of the social history of medicine to research on scientific networks between Germany and Southeastern Europe. In the last part, the article examines, by means a case study, the German ambitions of the Greek gynecologist Nikolaos Louros in the interwar period, articulating how through certain decisions networks can be built on the basis of the subjective choices for utilizing the given historical or socio-political opportunity.