Within the STEP research agenda there has never been an explicit focus on the city as a central place for knowledge production. Scholars of the urban history of science tend to concentrate on the metropolis and have not looked in any systematic way at the scientific culture in "peripheral" urban contexts. To fill this gap, this essay proposes to focus on: (1) the role of science, technology and medicine in everyday life and the experiences of the citizens; (2) the plurality of the often conflicting notions of urban modernity; (3) the complex networks of interurban connections between the "peripheries."