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Apr 20 2011

Social dynamics of 18th century academia

Published in Blog, academia by Mirva Peltoniemi  

Frederick V (1723-1766), King of Denmark, financed the first Western expedition to Arabia in 1761-1767. This is what Thorkild Hansen's (1962) account of the project taught me about the social dynamics of the 18th century academia.

 

1. If people in high places dislike you, you will never get published.

 

2. Zeitgeist determines the value of scientific results. There are no universal criteria.

 

3. Professorships are granted in complex networks of favors and political actions. A person is first chosen for a task, he is given a professorship, and his selection is then justified by him being a professor.

 

4. People from different fields do not get along. But this is relative. In a group of biologists, a zoologist and a botanist are too different to work together, but in a group of natural and social scientists they get along just fine.

 

5. Research projects take twice as long to complete than originally planned. Very little of the initial enthusiasm and interest are left at the time of completion.

 

How much have things changed since the 18th century? One of the members of the Danish expedition planned to poison the others with arsenic. That one at least is a bit passé, I would say.



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