The idea behind this book grew out of a research project launched by the
international group STEP (Science and Technology in the European
Peripheries), established in 1999 by historians of science from Spain,
Portugal, Belgium, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Russia, Sweden and Denmark.
The aim has been to re-examine the historical, and we might also add,
the geographical character of science and technology and their
institutions in regions and societies within Europe, usually outside
mainstream historical analysis. The intended activities of the group
have been framed by the following issues: reconsidering the
"centre-periphery" model which has been the dominant model in studies on
the transfer of scientific knowledge; bringing to the fore the concept
of scientific appropriation and attempting to study the construction of
various local discourses; systematically examining the relationship
between science, politics and the rhetoric of modernisation in societies
in the European periphery; joining forces to find out more about
scientific travels; using networks to further understand the dynamics
and role of scholars on societies in the periphery of Europe;
intensifying efforts to catalogue and make available to the
international community the archival material in the peripheral
countries (http: //www. cc. uoa. gr/step, on page 2). As a result of
these programmatic guidelines, a meeting was held in Lisbon in September
2000 in which the topic of scientific travels was used as a particularly
good unifying theme on which to base a discussion of case studies
involving the European peripheries.
