‘Those knights in shining armor’: Public intervention on behalf of geology and geologists in Portugal during the dictatorship (1940–1960)

Abstract

This paper addresses the public intervention on behalf of geology and geologists made by members of the geological community in Portugal, from the 1940s through the 1960s, when the country was living under a dictatorship known as the Estado Novo. Three men stood out during this intervention: Mendes Correia (1888–1960), Carrington da Costa (1891–1982) and Carlos Teixeira (1910–1982). The content and form of their oral and written discourses, their intended audiences, and their scientific and institutional career paths are analyzed. One of the main themes of the discourses was the vindication of a professional space for geology in Portuguese society, a circumstance that led to a confrontation with a widely acknowledged techno-scientific professional group: engineers. This paper demonstrates that the public intervention in favor of geology and geologists was part of a broader process of the Portuguese geological community asserting its scientific and social importance.