Basic and Applied Research

The distinction between basic and applied research was central to twentieth-century science and policymaking, and if this framework has been contested in recent years, it nonetheless remains ubiquitous in both scientific and public discourse. Employing a transnational, diachronic perspective informed by historical semantics, this volume traces the conceptual history of the basic–applied distinction from the nineteenth century to today, taking stock of European developments alongside comparative case studies from the United States and China. It shows how an older dichotomy of pure and applied science was reconceived in response to rapid scientific progress and then further transformed by the geopolitical circumstances of the postwar era.

List of Figures
Preface
List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Why Do Concepts Matter in Science Policy?
Désirée Schauz and David Kaldewey

PART I: GENEALOGIES OF SCIENCE POLICY DISCOURSES

Chapter 1. Categorizing Science in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Britain
Robert Bud

Chapter 2. Professional Devotion, National Needs, Fascist Claims, and Democratic Virtues: The Language of Science Policy in Germany
Désirée Schauz and Gregor Lax

Chapter 3. Transforming Pure Science into Basic Research: The Language of Science Policy in the United States
David Kaldewey and Désirée Schauz

PART II: CONCEPTUAL SYNCHRONIZATION AND CULTURAL VARIATION

Chapter 4. Fundamental Research and New Scientific Arrangements for the Development of Britain’s Colonies after 1940
Sabine Clarke

Chapter 5. Basic Research in the Max Planck Society: Science Policy in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1945–1970
Carola Sachse

Chapter 6. Beyond the Basic/Applied Distinction?: The Scientific-Technological Revolution in the German Democratic Republic, 1945–1989
Manuel Schramm

Chapter 7. Applied Science in Stalin’s Time: Hungary, 1945–1953
György Péteri

Chapter 8. Theory Attached to Practice: Chinese Debates over Basic Research from Thought Remolding to the Bomb, 1949–1966
Zuoyue Wang

PART III: OUTLOOK

Chapter 9. The Language of Science Policy in the Twenty-First Century: What Comes after Basic and Applied Research?
Tim Flink and David Kaldewey

Indexes