Throughout its history, the discipline of ecology has always been profoundly entangled with the history of space and place. On the one hand, ecology is a field science that has thrived on the study of concrete spatial entities, such as islands, forests or rivers. These spaces are the workplaces in which ecological phenomena are identified, observed and experimented on. They provide both epistemic opportunities and constraints that structure the agenda and the analytical sensibilities of ecological researchers. On the other hand, ecological knowledge and practices have become important resources through which spaces and places are classified, delineated, explained, experienced and managed. The impact of these activities reaches far beyond the realms of the ecological discipline. Many ecological concepts such as "biotopes," "ecosystems" and "the biosphere" have become entities that widely resonate in public life and policy making. This book explores the mutual entanglement between space and knowledge-making in the history of ecology. Its first goal is to explore to which extent a spatial perspective can shed new light on the history of ecological science. Second, it uses ecology as a critical site to gain broader insights into the history of the environment in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Via a series of case studies - discussing topics that range from ecological field stations in the early-twentieth century Caribbean over wisent breeding in Nazi Germany to computer modelling in North American deserts - the book offers a tour through the changing landscapes of modern ecology.

This book uses 'politics of urban knowledge' as a lens to understand how professionals, administrations, scholars, and social movements have surveyed, evaluated and theorized the city, identified problems, and shaped and legitimized practical interventions in planning and administration. Urbanization has been accompanied, and partly shaped by, the formation of the city as a distinct domain of knowledge. This volume uses 'politics of urban knowledge' as a lens to develop a new perspective on urban history and urban planning history. Through case studies of mainly 19th and 20th century examples, the book demonstrates that urban knowledge is not simply a neutral means to represent cities as pre-existing entities, but rather the outcome of historically contingent processes and practices of urban actors addressing urban issues and the power relations in which they are embedded. It shows how urban knowledge-making has reshaped the categories, rationales, and techniques through which urban spaces were produced, governed and contested, and how the knowledge concerned became performative of newly emerging urban orders. The volume will be of interest to scholars and students in the field of urban history and urban studies, as well as the history of technology, science and knowledge and of science studies.

Dieses Buch geht auf ein Forschungsprojekt zuruck, das an der Universitat Bielefeld angesiedelt war und von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft finanziert wurde. Thomas Rosemann war in der ersten Phase und Hanna Beneker in der darauffolgenden Zeit an der Projektarbeit beteiligt. Das Buch hat auch von vielen kritischen Anregungen und praktischen Hinweisen profi tiert, mit denen Kollegen und Freunde unsere Arbeit begleiteten. Eine erste Fassung des Manuskripts hat Gerd Gockenjan (Bremen) ausfuhrlich mit uns diskutiert. Ihnen allen sei an dieser Stelle herzlich gedankt. Jens LachmundlGunnar Stollberg 8 Einleitung Die Zeit zwischen dem ausgehenden 18. und dem fruhen 20. Jahrhundert war eine Schlusselperiode fur die Herausbildung der modernen Medizin. Zum einen befanden sich die Handlungsgrundlagen der Arzteschaft im Umbruch: Krankheitskonzepte und Behandlungsweisen, die sich zum Teil bis in die Antike zuruckverfolgen lassen, wurden durch ein zunehmend komplexeres Expertenwissen ersetzt, das aus der Forschung in Kliniken und Laboratorien hervorging. Zum anderen konnte sich die medizinische Profession als zentrale Instanz der Krankenversorgung etablieren: die Verdrangung bzw. Unterord nung konkurrierender Heilberufe (z. B. Wundarzte, Bader, Hebammen), die quantitative Expansion und der soziale Prestigegewinn der Arzteschaft, das Entstehen neuer Institutionen wie des Krankenhauses und des Kassenarzte- all dies trug dazu bei, dass immer grossere Bevolkerungskreise im Krankheits fall eine medizinische Versorgung in Anspruch nahmen."