Tiago Saraiva and Marta Macedo (eds.), Capital Científica. Práticas da Ciência em Lisboa e a História Contemporânea de Portugal, Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2019
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17469
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Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Tiago Saraiva and Marta Macedo (eds.), Science Capital. Science Practices in Lisbon and Contemporary History of Portugal, Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2019
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Book Reviews
2020-11-12
2023-06-27
2020-11-12
2023-10-12
98-101
TS
Ana Delicado
2020/11/12
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17469
98
Instituto de Ciencias Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa
2038-3460
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Tiago Saraiva and Marta Macedo (eds.), Science Capital. Science Practices in Lisbon and Contemporary History of Portugal, Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2019
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17469/16318
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98                                                                Tecnoscienza – 11 (1)

tives. After all, one of the orientations informing critical fabulations is
precisely making alliances in order to cultivate transformative collective
actions by standing with the groups with which we inquire.
    Critical fabulations is a compelling reading for STS scholars interested
to find their distinctive way into design as much as for designers to re-
think and retool their practice from a critical point of view. It is a tool
that can help building fruitful bridges between design and STS, fostering
promising alliances and possibilities.

References
Balsamo, A. (2011) Designing culture: The technological imagination at work,
      Durham, NC, Duke University Press.
Boeva, Y. (2018) The Confluence of Design and STS: Reflecting Disciplinary Po-
       sitions and/or Situatedness, Place, Publisher, in “EASST Review”, 37 (4).
Escobar, A. (2018) Designs for the pluriverse: Radical interdependence, autono-
      my, and the making of worlds, Durham, NC, Duke University Press.
Farias, I. (2016) A collaborative turn in STS?, in “EASST Review”, 35 (3), pp. 4-5.
Manzini, E. (2015) Design, when everybody designs: An introduction to design
      for social innovation, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.



                                        ***
   Tiago Saraiva and Marta Macedo (eds.)
Capital Científica. Práticas da Ciência em Lisboa e a História
Contemporânea de Portugal [Science Capital. Science Practices in Lisbon
and Contemporary History of Portugal], Lisbon, Imprensa de Ciências
Sociais, 2019, pp. 410

Ana Delicado Instituto de Ciencias Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa

    Capital Científica [Science Capital] examines how Lisbon became not
just the official (political) capital of Portugal but also the capital of its sci-
entific system and how scientific knowledge helped build the contempo-
rary city outlook.
    This book is an edited volume that brings together ten chapters au-
thored by some of the leading scholars in History of Science in Portugal,
from the main universities and research centers dedicated to this disci-
pline, such as Tiago Saraiva (University of Drexel), Ana Carneiro and
Maria Paulo Diogo (New University of Lisbon), Ana Cardoso de Matos
(University of Évora), Ana Simões (University of Lisbon, current presi-
Book Review                                                                99
dent of the European Society for the History of Science). It stems from
two research projects funded by the national agency (Portuguese Founda-
tion for Science and Technology) focusing on the development of science
and technology between the mid-19th and the mid-20th century. Alt-
hough each chapter focuses on a particular subject, they are structured
around a few crosscutting issues, such as the importance of place in the
production of knowledge, the construction of new urban landscapes, or
the role of scientific research and some professional groups (scientists,
engineers, doctors) in policy making and policy implementation. As the
editors state, science is a lens through which to understand the historical
dynamics of contemporary Portugal. At the same time, the book shows
how urban problems in Lisbon inspired the work of scientists and engi-
neers and, conversely, how their work changed the city in material, social,
and symbolic terms.
     The connections between science and the political regimes are made
clear. The book is divided into three sections that pertain to different
chronological and political periods in Portugal: the later stages of the
monarchy (mid-19th century to early 20th century), the First Republic
(1910-1926), the Dictatorship (from 1926 until 1974). The first section
addresses the role of scientific institutions in modernizing the nation, by
mapping the territory, standardizing time and providing expert support
to public services such as street illumination, water, and sewage systems,
the design of parks, gardens and streets. The second section shows how
the Republican project of education and health for all had repercussions
on the creation of new hospitals and biomedical research institutes and
also of ‘people universities’, institutions devoted to the education of
adults with low formal education. The third section illustrates how the
Fascist regime concentrated its efforts on research institutions under its
direct supervision, namely State Laboratories and hospitals, and on ap-
plied scientific disciplines (namely medicine and engineering), while ne-
glecting universities and persecuting academics.
     Some chapters focus on specific research institutions (Chapters 2, 3, 6
and 10), others on teaching institutions (Chapters 1, 4 and 7), or on the
intersection between research, teaching, and professional practice (Chap-
ters 5, 8 and 9). A few chapters (1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and 9) examine how the ar-
chitecture of purpose built scientific institutions, such as the Polytechnic
School, the Astronomical Observatory, the office of the Geological Ser-
vice, the Faculty of Medicine, the Institute of Engineering or the Oncolo-
gy Hospital, serve both practical and symbolic functions. Some of them
(Chapter 1, 5, 8, 9) show how the neighborhoods in the vicinity of scien-
tific institutions suffered significant transformations, in terms of hygiene,
rationalization, and civic architecture. Only the chapter on Industrial In-
stitutes and public illumination (Chapter 4) explores the connections be-
tween art (literature, theatre, opera) and technoscience.
     The chapters cover a fairly wide array of scientific disciplines (astron-
100                                                         Tecnoscienza – 11 (1)

omy, geology, physics, microbiology, engineering, and medicine), though
the social sciences are entirely absent. Omissions in terms of institutions
and scientific disciplines are acknowledged by the editors in the Intro-
duction. Some chapters pay particular attention to the training of new
professionals, such as engineers (Chapters 1 and 8) or physicians (Chap-
ters 5 and 6), whereas others focus on the promotion of science and tech-
nology education for factory workers and adults with lower educational
backgrounds (Chapters 4 and 7). Most chapters also include some bio-
graphical detail of historical figures of particular relevance, such as doc-
tors (Chapters 5, 6, and 9), architects (Chapter 1 and 8), astronomers
(Chapter 2), geologists (Chapter 3), industrialists (Chapter 4), or universi-
ty professors (Chapters 7 and 8). It is notorious the absence of women in
these narratives, with the exception of the wives of doctors in the Oncol-
ogy Hospital that conducted philanthropic work (Chapter 9) and one fe-
male researcher who worked in a biomedical laboratory (Chapter 6).
    The book follows in the footsteps of other works on the relations be-
tween science and territorial or urban contexts (see, for instance, Agan
and Smith 1998 or Nieto-Galan and Hochadel 2019) and the relevance of
the architecture of spaces in knowledge production (see, for instance, Ga-
linson and Thompson 1999). It is closely connected to the previous work
of the editors, namely their PhD theses: Saraiva’s (2005) take on science
and the city with regard to Madrid and Lisbon and Macedo’s (2012)
analysis of the role of engineers in producing science and territory in the
19th century.
    The chapters seek to establish an extensive dialogue with the interna-
tional literature on the topic, in particular by drawing parallels with stud-
ies on other European or American cities, on architects and urbanists
from other countries, on research and education institutions in France,
Russia, or USA, and on the history of particular scientific disciplines or
technological innovations. Some chapters also draw on research on con-
temporary science and technology issues, going beyond the time limits of
their scope.
    As in any edited volume, the quality of chapters is slightly uneven.
Some chapters are mainly descriptive, whereas others show more con-
cerns with interpretation and contextualization. Some chapters draw
from previous published books and articles, so the innovative nature of
these texts is to some extent doubtful. The title of the book is somewhat
misleading, since scientific practices, in the sense of the everyday life of
laboratories, offices or lecture halls or how science was actually pro-
duced, taught, applied or disseminated, are mostly absent. Rather, the
chapters mostly focus on institutions, spaces, and agents of science, medi-
cine, and engineering. The absence of an index at the end does not afford
the reader an opportunity to browse for particular topics.
    Nevertheless, the book is profusely illustrated, with maps, photo-
graphs, plans, and portraits. The writing style is clear and accessible to a
Book Review                                                                  101
wide audience. Given the dearth of publications in History of Science
(and STS) in Portugal, this book provides a much-needed contribution to
the field. Also, the book brings to the light the “invisible” scientific en-
deavors carried out in a southern European country during the 19th and
early 20th century, putting into question the dominant narrative that Por-
tugal had barely any scientific activity until the accession to the European
Community in the 1980s.

References
Agar, J., and C. Smith (eds.) (1998) Making Space for Science. Territorial Themes
        in the Shaping of Knowledge, London, Palgrave Macmillan.
Galison, P. and E. Thompson (eds.) (1999) The Architecture of Science, Cam-
       bridge, MIT Press.
Macedo, M. (2012) Projectar e Construir a Nação: Engenheiros, ciência e territó-
      rio em Portugal no século XIX, Lisbon, Imprensa de Ciências Sociais.
Nieto-Galan, A. and O. Hochadel (eds.) (2019), Urban Histories of Science,
       London, Routledge.
Saraiva, T. (2005) Ciencia y Ciudad: Madrid y Lisboa (1851–1900), Madrid,
        Ayuntamiento de Madrid.



                                      ***
  Howard Shrobe, David L. Shrier and Alex Pentland (eds.)
New Solutions for Cybersecurity, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 2018, pp.491

Stefano De Paoli Abertay University

    Cybersecurity and cybercrime are fast becoming two of the most im-
portant issues of our digital society and, as such, they deserve attention
from Science and Technology Studies (STS). We can define cybersecurity
as the theory and practice of preventing or detecting attacks on digital
systems. We can define cybercrime as the unauthorised access to digital
systems for a variety of purposes, which can include disruption, manipu-
lation, deception and crime more generally, among others. Much of what
exists in social sciences research especially around cybercrime comes
from criminological studies. However, criminologists are debating on the
problem of using traditional criminological approaches (that focus on the
study of human criminals and social structures) to the study of phenome-
na deeply ingrained with digital technologies. Thus, criminologists speak
about the problem of the “Novelty of Cybercrime” (e.g. Yar 2005). Few
authors in criminology have started to look at STS approaches as poten-
