Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Poles and People (Poles and People: Geographical Societies, Statehood, and Civil Society in Transnational Perspective (1870-1925))
Période du rapport: 2022-07-01 au 2025-04-30
The MSCA-funded project "Poles and People" investigates the interconnections between scientific institutions, statehood, and civil society by examining geographical societies in Brussels, Edinburgh, Kristiania (Oslo), and Vienna during a period of profound political, scientific, and social transformation between 1870 and 1925. In contrast to dominant narratives that focus on metropolitan centres such as London or Paris, the project deliberately explores scientific life in cities at the margins of European power hierarchies in order to reassess the role of scientific societies in shaping imperial visions and transnational cooperation.
The project centres on two types of geographical space that gained extraordinary epistemic and symbolic significance in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the Polar Regions and so-called “inner Africa.” These territories—portrayed as hostile, unmapped, and culturally distant—were seen as "epistemic frontiers": contested zones where scientific knowledge was produced under extreme conditions, and where political, cultural, and environmental imaginaries intersected. Far from being peripheral, these spaces functioned as laboratories for experimentation, legitimising new forms of scientific practice and state intervention.
Geographical societies served as institutional bridges between civic curiosity, imperial ambition, and scholarly innovation. As platforms of exploration and popularisation, they mobilised resources, established new standards for geographical knowledge, and framed public perceptions of unfamiliar environments. Poles and People aims to understand how these societies helped consolidate geography as a discipline and how they negotiated tensions between national loyalty and international cooperation in the sciences.
The project centres on two types of geographical space that gained extraordinary epistemic and symbolic significance in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the Polar Regions and so-called “inner Africa.” These territories—portrayed as hostile, unmapped, and culturally distant—were seen as "epistemic frontiers": contested zones where scientific knowledge was produced under extreme conditions, and where political, cultural, and environmental imaginaries intersected. Far from being peripheral, these spaces functioned as laboratories for experimentation, legitimising new forms of scientific practice and state intervention.
Geographical societies served as institutional bridges between civic curiosity, imperial ambition, and scholarly innovation. As platforms of exploration and popularisation, they mobilised resources, established new standards for geographical knowledge, and framed public perceptions of unfamiliar environments. Poles and People aims to understand how these societies helped consolidate geography as a discipline and how they negotiated tensions between national loyalty and international cooperation in the sciences.
The project has combined in-depth archival research with digital tools to examine the discursive, institutional, and material infrastructures of geographical societies in four different national and imperial contexts. Major achievements to date include:
• Extensive archival work in Vienna, Edinburgh, Oslo, and London, uncovering key correspondence, expedition reports, and meeting protocols—many of which had not previously been studied.
• A comprehensive comparative analysis of scientific agendas, epistemic priorities, and organisational practices across four geographical societies.
• The identification of shared structural characteristics in the exploration of the High Arctic and Central Africa, despite their different political, colonial and environmental settings.
• A detailed reconstruction of scientific-public interactions in public lectures, educational activities, and exhibitions, showing how scientific knowledge was adapted to and shaped by civic audiences.
• The specific involvement of the Vienna society in promoting geographical knowledge production tied to Habsburg state-building efforts in Southeast Europe and Africa.
A major contribution of the project has been the critical development of the concept of the “epistemic frontier.” It shows how regions such as the Arctic and Africa were not simply discovered but actively constructed—primarily from European perspectives—as frontiers: spaces where dominant knowledge systems claimed to encounter the limits of the known and sought to impose order on what was framed as absence or uncertainty. These regions, though portrayed as peripheral, became central sites for the making of scientific authority and the projection of imperial power. Epistemic frontiers thus emerged not naturally, but through the interplay of exploration, political ambition, and cultural imagination.
• Extensive archival work in Vienna, Edinburgh, Oslo, and London, uncovering key correspondence, expedition reports, and meeting protocols—many of which had not previously been studied.
• A comprehensive comparative analysis of scientific agendas, epistemic priorities, and organisational practices across four geographical societies.
• The identification of shared structural characteristics in the exploration of the High Arctic and Central Africa, despite their different political, colonial and environmental settings.
• A detailed reconstruction of scientific-public interactions in public lectures, educational activities, and exhibitions, showing how scientific knowledge was adapted to and shaped by civic audiences.
• The specific involvement of the Vienna society in promoting geographical knowledge production tied to Habsburg state-building efforts in Southeast Europe and Africa.
A major contribution of the project has been the critical development of the concept of the “epistemic frontier.” It shows how regions such as the Arctic and Africa were not simply discovered but actively constructed—primarily from European perspectives—as frontiers: spaces where dominant knowledge systems claimed to encounter the limits of the known and sought to impose order on what was framed as absence or uncertainty. These regions, though portrayed as peripheral, became central sites for the making of scientific authority and the projection of imperial power. Epistemic frontiers thus emerged not naturally, but through the interplay of exploration, political ambition, and cultural imagination.
The project offers new conceptual and methodological perspectives. While the historiography of science has often approached scientific societies primarily as national institutions, “Poles and People” examines their transimperial entanglements and their role in shaping shared epistemic orders across borders. In contrast to many institutional histories that rely heavily on commemorative publications or biographical narratives of individual explorers, this project draws on previously underexamined correspondence and journal series to analyse how geographical societies operated as arenas of negotiation between knowledge production, governance, and public engagement.
Through its comparative approach, the project offers new typologies of scientific institutions operating in imperial and post-imperial settings. It contributes to current debates in the history of science, geography, and decolonisation by demonstrating that peripheral societies were not passive recipients of knowledge, but active participants in shaping global epistemologies.
Key innovations include:
A historical source database on the geographical societies studied (to be openly shared for further research via Zenodo);
The development of multilingual teaching modules on imperial science and geographical exploration.
A forthcoming edited volume on “epistemic frontiers,” expanding the conversation across Arctic and African contexts.
Through its comparative approach, the project offers new typologies of scientific institutions operating in imperial and post-imperial settings. It contributes to current debates in the history of science, geography, and decolonisation by demonstrating that peripheral societies were not passive recipients of knowledge, but active participants in shaping global epistemologies.
Key innovations include:
A historical source database on the geographical societies studied (to be openly shared for further research via Zenodo);
The development of multilingual teaching modules on imperial science and geographical exploration.
A forthcoming edited volume on “epistemic frontiers,” expanding the conversation across Arctic and African contexts.