Power and dominance relations in the knowledge of physics using the example of William Gilbert’s research on frictional electricity
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Abstract
Scientific knowledge develops in concrete situations that are shaped by gender orders and gender relations. Transdisciplinary gender research examines people and cultures in the natural sciences but largely ignores the exciting level that analyses the knowledge of physics. However, more recent approaches in gender studies can also be used to examine social power and dominance relations in physics. In this article I show how this can be achieved based on a historical case study of research into frictional electricity. Using the transdisciplinary methodological pluralism of gender-historical case analysis, situation analysis and discourse analysis, a hidden gender order of electricity can be made visible in three areas. Gender plays a role in the choice of the term “electron”, in drawing a distinction between electricity and magnetism and in the concept of aqueous electrical effluvium.
Keywords: case study, frictional electricity, knowledge of physics, gender orders, power relations
Bibliography: Götschel, Helene: Macht- und Dominanzverhältnisse in physikalischem Wissen am Beispiel der Forschungen zur Reibungselektrizität von William Gilbert, GENDER – Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 3-2025, pp. 26-40.
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