Inventions and Discoveries

In the global age, the application of physical sciences to technical inventions and discoveries threads its way through every aspect of culture, be it genetic engineering, cloning and fertilization techniques, or the fights against cancer, heart disease, AIDS, and crime. In the contemporary period, the “sciences” and the “arts/social sciences” appear to be evolving in unrelated spheres, and yet they have considerable impact on each other. Therefore, when we consider inventions and discoveries from the perspective of global studies, we are not just looking at the long list of noteworthy inventions and discoveries but need to appreciate the variety of ways in which these concepts and the associated processes are understood by this multidisciplinary field.

As with all other terms in the social sciences, the literal meanings and historical evolution of inventions and discoveries are as important as the social constructions associated with them. Here the emphasis is on the processes associated and not on scientific inquiry itself, which leads to inventions and discoveries. The social construction of reality is an ongoing, dynamic process that is reproduced by people acting on their interpretations and their knowledge of it. The focus on social constructions uncovers the ways in which individuals and groups participate in the construction of their perceived social reality. It also explains the ways social phenomena are created, institutionalized, known, and made into tradition by humans. Because inventions and discoveries are important tools and agents of social change, they occupy a special place in understanding our global heritage.

The news media's interest in scientific matters waned after the coverage of Sputnik and the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong (Hartz & Chappell, 1997). Principally as the Cold War rivalries crumbled away, the spin-off benefits from the space race flowed into consumer products such as fiber [Page 959]optics, fax machines, home computers, and mobile devices, which may be why we have begun to take these scientific advances for granted. Nevertheless, at a time when there are complex legal, moral, and constitutional debates surrounding so many scientific breakthroughs, such as weapons of mass destruction, genetics, and Internet technologies, we need to take a new look at science and technology, so as to be better equipped to understand the relationship of inventions and discoveries with global studies and to participate in the growing debates.

Therefore, this entry starts with a historical overview of the evolution of the processes associated with inventions and discoveries. It then considers how these lend themselves to social analysis and how social sciences and the spheres of inventions and discoveries have intellectually intersected in the past few decades. Finally, it suggests the relevance of inventions and discoveries for global studies and ways in which students of global studies can engage with these.