Editorial

Christian Ersche (1) , Ercüment Çelik (1) , Wiebke Keim (2, 1) , Veronika Wöhrer (1)

1 Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
2 SAGE - Sociétés, Acteurs, Gouvernement en Europe

This special issue of Transcience contributes to the current debates about the circulation of knowledgein the social sciences. The circulation of practically applicable knowledge, as well as abstract theoreticalknowledge; of worldviews, ideologies, and epistemologies, is not at all a new phenomenon. In recentdecades several critical studies of such circulation processes have focused especially on the historical aswell as the contemporary asymmetry of knowledge transfers. As social sciences were institutionalizedduring the historically short period of European world domination, it was easy for European scholars todeclare non-European forms of knowledge irrelevant. Observing global trends in the social sciences oftoday, we can therefore find an interestingly ambivalent phenomenon: On the one hand, the Europeanresearch area and its achievements still enjoy a high standing outside of Europe. On the other hand,the worldwide influence of the European theoretical tradition with its inherent claim to universality isincreasingly being perceived as overbearing and presumptuous.

Mots clés: circulation of knowledge; international social sciences

Domaines: Sociologie; Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Christian Ersche, Ercüment Çelik, Wiebke Keim, Veronika Wöhrer. Editorial. Transcience. A Journal of Global Studies, 2013, 4 (2), pp.1-2. ⟨halshs-01077341⟩