Shaping the Transnational Sphere: Experts, Networks and Issues from the 1840s to the 1930s

In the second half of the nineteenth century a new kind of social and cultural actor came to the fore: the expert. During this period complex processes of modernization, industrialization, urbanization, and nation-building gained pace, particularly in Western Europe and North America. These processes created new forms of specialized expertise that grew in demand and became indispensible in fields like sanitation, incarceration, urban planning, and education. Often the expertise needed stemmed from problems at a local or regional level, but many transcended nation-state borders. Experts helped shape a new transnational sphere by creating communities that crossed borders and languages, sharing knowledge and resources through those new communities, and by participating in special events such as congresses and world fairs.

Davide Rodogno is Professor of International History at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. His publications include Fascism’s European Empire (2005) and Against Massacre (2011).

Bernhard Struck is Reader in Modern History and Director of the Centre for Transnational History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He is the author of Nicht West – nicht Ost. Frankreich und Polen in der Wahrnehmung deutscher Reisender, 1750–1850 (2006) and, with Claire Gantet, of Revolution, Krieg und Verflechtung. Deutsch-Französische Geschichte 1789-1815 (2008).

Jakob Vogel is Professor of European History at the Centre d’Histoire, Sciences Po, Paris. His publications include Ein schillerndes Kristall. Das Salz im Wissenswandel zwischen Frühneuzeit und Moderne (2008) and he edited, with Ralph Jessen, Wissenschaft und Nation in der europäischen Geschichte (2002); and, with Pascale Laborier, Frédéric Audren and Paolo Napoli, Les sciences camérales. Activités pratiques et histoire des dispositifs publics (2011).