TL2 – Mobilities and exchanges: global circulation of knowledge

Coordination: Paula Carreira

The circulation of knowledge is an aspect that cuts across all historical periods and social contexts. From the oral tradition, which contemplates different levels of proficiency (e.g. from the telling of small stories in a restricted or family context to the monumental epic tradition, of which the Homeric poems are a prime example), to the materialization of written testimonies, the transmission of knowledge occupies a central place in Global Studies. The relevance of bequeathing a thought allows us to guarantee not only the duration of memory, but above all the construction and debate of ideas in the long term, realizing Bernardo de Chartres’ famous and widely revisited adage that we are (successively) dwarfs on the shoulders of giants.

We understand the exchange of ideas in a global context as one of the core pillars for understanding current challenges, starting from a more or less remote past. If we can understand globalization as a process intrinsically linked to the evolution of Humanity, we cannot fail to highlight the impulse that the circulation of knowledge in a global context received with Modernity, largely due to technological advances that allowed achievements as relevant as the maritime exploration of new worlds, following the improvement of maneuvering and naval construction techniques, or the invention of the Gutenberg press and the subsequent proliferation of books. Similarly, the improvement in mobility conditions between different regions of the globe stimulated not only the emergence of associations of men and women of culture, who came together to debate topics of interest, as the emergence of academies from the 17th century onwards can attest to, but also the organization of international scientific expeditions that aimed to discover and explore the world.

Today, we can safely say that the transmission of knowledge is of unique relevance, being simultaneously an object of study and a strategic necessity. In this sense, taking into account the scientific and action ideas of CEG-UAb, this thematic line aims to encourage collaboration among researchers from different groups on three essential topics:

1) The development of interdisciplinary and cross-group scientific projects that allow for understanding, problematizing and systematizing of the themes and challenges arising from the circulation of knowledge over the centuries.

2) The creation of spaces of sharing that foster the constructive debate of ideas and strategies for the center, namely with the organization of forums and discussion sessions.

3) The implementation of a coherent knowledge dissemination strategy, based on three lines of action: a) the development of an open science policy, through the publication of project results in free repositories and platforms; b) the decentralization of knowledge, with the organization of scientific events open to the community; c) the provision of multimedia resources, namely seminars and conferences, on wide-reaching national and international platforms (such as the “Globalogia” YouTube channel).