The Nationalization and Denationalization of the Sciences: An Introductory Essay

The title of this volume is Denationalizing Science: The Contexts of International Scientific Practice. We have chosen it to indicate that we stand at the crossroads of two major currents that have affected the sciences in the past four hundred years: their nationalization and their denationalization. Both are on-going processes—with more new nation-states being born in the early 1990s than at any other time during the 20th century, the sciences are certainly still being nationalized — but as the title says, Denationalizing Science is to us now the prevailing trend. This means, first and foremost, that in the present growth of both national and transnational science, transnational science (1) (defined as activities involving persons, equipment or funds from more than one country) seems to be gaining the upper hand. The main purpose of this volume is to try to understand the reasons for the denationalization of science, its historical contexts and its social forms.