Exploring Traditions: Sources for a Global History of Science

科学在全球范围内的长期历史发展已经引起了公众的关注，文化间谍和保密问题，创新和发明的平行和不同历史，知识在战争、帝国主义、海军力量和政治优势中的作用，以及跨文化交流和易货的动态，都在公众意识中占据了一席之地。如果我们要更本能地理解当今地球面临的一些关键问题，包括欠发达、教育、医疗保健、流行病、信息交流、“土著”知识和权利以及技术差距等挑战，质疑全球科学的地位也具有极其重要的意义。这个项目试图通过鼓励学者、学生和政策制定者超越他们通常的出发点，以一种新的方式来解释自1750年以来科学的全球化。它要求他们首先使用新的资料来源，特别是要避免仅仅依赖欧洲图书馆和博物馆的藏品，特别是欧洲语言和生产和展示传统的藏品，以便了解科学是如何全球化的，以及不同的文化是如何利用科学的。这一直是我们理解科学中的全球的关键限制之一。其次，它鼓励所有参与该网络的人与世界各地的其他学者、学生和政策制定者建立持续的交流，特别是在非洲和南亚。这是由这样一种信念驱动的，即如果我们要在科学上理解全球，我们就需要在全球范围内参与智力方面的工作。第三，它力求将从事完全不同领域并采用不同方法工作的学者联系起来；在博物馆和档案馆工作；在世界和欧洲的特定领域研究；以及历史学家、社会学家、哲学家和人类学家等。该项目的遗产将在于它将为新一代研究生和博士后学生提供培训，以及它将为研究科学全球化开发培训资源。它将通过视频演示、定位文件和简报文件将其调查结果带给广大受众。它还将帮助那些在博物馆和图书馆工作的人考虑如何在英国解释和展示他们的材料。该项目将设在剑桥大学，该大学已经证明自己是全球科学史研究的领先中心，其多个部门和研究所的学者在这一领域进行研究和写作。它将包括四位对非洲和南亚感兴趣的学者访问剑桥，还将包括在德里举行的一系列研讨会和一次会议。从本质上讲，这是一项关于科学全球化的全球合作事业，这将产生全球影响。

The long-term historical development of the sciences in global context has already attracted public attention, and questions of cultural espionage and secrecy, the parallel and divergent histories of innovation and invention, the role of knowledge in warfare, imperialism, naval power and political ascendancy, as well as the dynamics of intercultural exchange and barter, have all occupied a place in public consciousness. Questioning the status of the global in the sciences is also of immense importance if we are to come to a more reflexive understanding of some of the key issues facing our planet today, including the challenges of underdevelopment, education, healthcare, epidemics, information exchange, 'indigenous' knowledge and rights, and the technological gap. This project seeks to interpret the globalization of the sciences since 1750 in a new way, by encouraging scholars, students and policymakers to think beyond their usual starting points. It asks them, firstly, to use new sources, and in particular to avoid a tendency to rely solely on the deposits in European libararies and museums, and in particular those in European languages and traditions of production and representation, in order to understand how science was globalized and also how it was used by different cultures. This has been one of the key limitations to our understanding of the global in science. Secondly, it encourages all those involved in the network to establish sustained exchanges with other scholars, students and policymakers elesewhere, and in particular in Africa and South Asia. This is driven by the belief that if we are to understand the global in science, we need to be globally engaged in intellectual terms. Thirdly, it seeks to link scholars working on quite different areas and in line with different methods; in the world of museums as well archives; in the study of particular areas of the world as well as Europe; and as historians, sociologists, philosophers, and anthropologists amongst others. The legacy of the project will lie in the training it will provide to a new generation of postgraduate and postdoctoral students, as well as the training resources it will develop for the study of the globalization of the sciences. It will bring its findings to a wide audience by use of video presentations, poisition papers and briefing documents. It will also help those working in museums and libaries to consider how to interpret and display their materials in the UK.The project will be based at the University of Cambridge, which has already proven itself to be a leading centre for the study of global histories of science, with scholars based at a number of its departments and institutes studying and writing in this field. It will involve visits by four scholars with African and South Asian intersts to Cambridge and will also involve a series of workshops and a conference in Delhi. At heart this is a globally collaborative enterprise about the globalization of the sciences, which will have global impact.