Brian Balmer – författare

Making a fresh contribution to the political history of science, this book explores the connections between the science policies of three countries that each experienced considerable political upheaval in the twentieth century: Spain, Italy and Argentina. By focussing on these three countries, the contributors are able to present case studies that highlight the characteristics and specificities of the democratic and dictatorial political processes involved in the production of science and technology. The focus on dictatorship presents the opportunity to expand our knowledge -beyond the more extensive literature about science in Nazi Germany and Stalinist USSR -about the level of political involvement of scientists in non-democratic contexts and to what extent they act as politicians in different contexts. Key topics covered include the new forms of organization and institutionalization of science in the twentieth century; the involvement of scientific communities in the governance of science and its institutions; the role of ideology in scientific development; the scientific practices adopted by scientific communities in different contexts; and the characteristics of science and technology produced in these contexts.

This book explores the absent and missing in debates about science and security. Through varied case studies, including biological and chemical weapons control, science journalism, nanotechnology research and neuroethics, the contributors explore how matters become absent, ignored or forgotten and the implications for ethics, policy and society.The chapter 'Sensing Absence: How to See What Isn't There in the Study of Science and Security' is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

It is no secret that twentieth-century Britain was governed through a culture of secrecy, and secrecy was particularly endemic in military research and defence policy surrounding biological and chemical warfare. More generally, it is hard to exaggerate the role of secrecy in all past biological and chemical warfare programmes and several recent historical surveys of biological and chemical warfare research have emphasised that all state sponsored programmes, together with sub-state organised activities, were cloaked in utmost secrecy. Of these research programmes, Britain carried out one of the most significant in scale and scope in the twentieth century. Yet, partly because of the secrecy surrounding the programme, there is still little academic literature on its historical development. Equally, and despite secrecy being a pervasive feature of past and contemporary societies, social scientists and historians have paid relatively little scholarly attention to the nature, mechanics and effects of secrecy, particularly with regard to secrecy in relation to the production and governance of science and technology. Drawing on classical sociological writing on secrecy by Simmel, Merton and Shils this groundbreaking book by Brian Balmer draws on recently declassified documents to investigate significant episodes in the history of biological and chemical warfare. At the same time, it draws on more contemporary perspectives in science and technology studies that understand knowledge and social order as co-produced within heterogeneous networks of 'things and people' in order to develop a theoretical set of arguments about how the relationship between secrecy and science might be understood.

It is no secret that twentieth-century Britain was governed through a culture of secrecy, and secrecy was particularly endemic in military research and defence policy surrounding biological and chemical warfare. More generally, it is hard to exaggerate the role of secrecy in all past biological and chemical warfare programmes and several recent historical surveys of biological and chemical warfare research have emphasised that all state sponsored programmes, together with sub-state organised activities, were cloaked in utmost secrecy. Of these research programmes, Britain carried out one of the most significant in scale and scope in the twentieth century. Yet, partly because of the secrecy surrounding the programme, there is still little academic literature on its historical development. Equally, and despite secrecy being a pervasive feature of past and contemporary societies, social scientists and historians have paid relatively little scholarly attention to the nature, mechanics and effects of secrecy, particularly with regard to secrecy in relation to the production and governance of science and technology. Drawing on classical sociological writing on secrecy by Simmel, Merton and Shils this groundbreaking book by Brian Balmer draws on recently declassified documents to investigate significant episodes in the history of biological and chemical warfare. At the same time, it draws on more contemporary perspectives in science and technology studies that understand knowledge and social order as co-produced within heterogeneous networks of 'things and people' in order to develop a theoretical set of arguments about how the relationship between secrecy and science might be understood.

Making a fresh contribution to the political history of science, this book explores the connections between the science policies of three countries that each experienced considerable political upheaval in the twentieth century: Spain, Italy and Argentina. By focussing on these three countries, the contributors are able to present case studies that highlight the characteristics and specificities of the democratic and dictatorial political processes involved in the production of science and technology. The focus on dictatorship presents the opportunity to expand our knowledge -beyond the more extensive literature about science in Nazi Germany and Stalinist USSR -about the level of political involvement of scientists in non-democratic contexts and to what extent they act as politicians in different contexts. Key topics covered include the new forms of organization and institutionalization of science in the twentieth century; the involvement of scientific communities in the governance of science and its institutions; the role of ideology in scientific development; the scientific practices adopted by scientific communities in different contexts; and the characteristics of science and technology produced in these contexts.