This book studies the early history of field stations and the role these played in the rise of zoological place-based research in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. It explores the material and social context in which field stations arose, the actual research that was produced in these places, the epistemic claims that were developed there, and the rhetoric strategies that were deployed to convince others these claims made sense. In short, it analyses the intricate activities that enabled the zoologist to perform science in the animal’s natural habitat. The case studies of th ... More

This book studies the early history of field stations and the role these played in the rise of zoological place-based research in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. It explores the material and social context in which field stations arose, the actual research that was produced in these places, the epistemic claims that were developed there, and the rhetoric strategies that were deployed to convince others these claims made sense. In short, it analyses the intricate activities that enabled the zoologist to perform science in the animal’s natural habitat. The case studies of the book bring a heterogeneous (and understudied) scientific landscape to light that included university professors, science entrepreneurs, journalists, schoolteachers and even pastors. These researchers turned field stations into instruments to understand, amongst others, the life of parasitic invertebrates in northern France, freshwater plankton in Schleswig-Holstein, migratory birds in East-Prussia and pest insects in Belgium. The comparative and long-term studies necessary to appreciate the ways in which these animals interacted with their environment necessitated the zoologists to become residents in the field. It is the consequences of the choice to study nature in nature that are explored in this book.