VERFAHRENSTECHNIK (CHEMICAL-ENGINEERING) - ITS DEVELOPMENT, PRESENT STATE AND STRUCTURE

Application-oriented scientific disciplines have not, to date, been of much interest to those studying scientific development. However, their investigation seems attractive, since such disciplines demonstrate the close interaction of ‘external’ social factors and ‘innerscientific’ dynamics. Verfahrenstechnik, as a new application-oriented scientific discipline, was initiated from industry, in response to its needs for science-based production methods. It succeeded in the formulation of theories, and in explaining complex technical phenomena m such a way as to make significant progress in the understanding of natural laws. These theories were accepted as a ‘paradigm’, governing, to a great extent, the dynamics of the discipline: they were, in part, uncoupled from external needs, thus establishing for Verfahrenstechnik an innerscientific research front of its own. © 1979, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.