Jan Surman gives a working paper on 'Conceptual Transformation, Scientific Progress and Societal Stability: Image and idea of Ukrainian science 1918-1939'

Sciences in the interwar period are viewed mostly through the lens of growing nationalism and militarization, although recently researchers paid more attention to transnationalism. Looking at the Ukrainian scientific community, scatted across three European countries, this paper ask the question how science was conceptualized in different states with different regimes. Was it so serve the nation, state, international community? How was its relation to people defined and practices? Which  epistemisc model of science emerged amidst post-1918 re-thinking (Ukrainian) science?

With these questions in mind I discuss the “images of knowledge” idea by Yehuda Elkana and the way I want deploy it to analyse Ukrainian interwar science. Finally, I presents short examples, focusing mostly on the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.