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The Second Transcultura Conference
on "Reciprocal Knowledge"
Cultures of Knowledge

Goa, Pondicherry, New Delhi, 17-24 October 2005

What is the place of culture in knowledge production, how does culture shape the creation of knowledge? How far apart lie knowledge stemming from different cultures and universal knowledge and science?

Transcultural methodology, as developed within the past ten years by Transcultura, offers a means to cope with difficulties stemming from these differences in a constructive way.

After the first Conference organised by Transcultura at the European Parliament, les Premières Assises de la Connaissance Réciproque (Brussels, Nov. 2001), about reciprocal knowledge and transcultural methodologies, this International Conference “Cultures of Knowledge”, presented and prepared by the IIT Bombay, the University of Bombay, the Jawarlahal Nerhu University (Delhi), the French Institute of Pondicherry and the Transcultura International Institute will focus on the concept of knowledge itself, using the same approach as in the previous Conference.

The topic of the conference, “Cultures of Knowledge”, invites us to reconsider the global field of knowledge from a long term and territorially extended perspective and an equally extended spatial perspective, using a transcultural and reciprocal approach, rather than the usual and repetitive re-assessment of the few centuries of Western knowledge cultural domination.

Can we talk of it in terms of different “epistemic cultures”, at a time when English language has become the quasi universal language of communication in the world of science and technology, whereas a global market culture is progressively erasing cultural identities, differences, and knowledge systems?

Does it make sense, then, to raise the question of different perceptions and conceptions of knowledge, of different concepts and possible patterns of knowledge, of different epistemological approaches, anchored in different cultures of knowledge? Having posed this question concerning the historical and cultural situated ness of knowledge, are we returning to a debate now considered passé?

Nevertheless there at least three reasons, among others, having considered the ethical urgency of the issues involved, to revisit these concerns:

• the dramatic emergence of India and China as economic, technological and scientific players in the international realm,
• the growing presence of Indian, Asian, African and East Asian, scholars, in the crucial areas of scientific and social-scientific knowledge production,
• which has led to a reassessment of the place and significance of non western cultures, from the human and political sciences to the epistemological aspects of science and technology, in the global process of knowledge production.

Consequently, the debate concerning the role of different cultural sources in the process of knowledge production, and the relation between culture, knowledge and science, is more relevant than ever, and not only from an academic historical point of view.

However, to effectively communicate, we need first to clarify the use and meaning of the proper key-words related to the questions just posed in the respective languages and cultures. Thus, what we intend to embark upon is an approach that draws upon the reciprocal research information of those key-concepts related to knowledge.

Previous research

Transcultura International Institute is an international network of scholars from at least 10 countries, spanning the continents of Europe, Africa and Asia, for developing Transcultural methodologies based on the principle of Reciprocal Knowledge between European and non European Cultures.

The first “Congrès des Assises de la Connaissance Réciproque” was held in Bruxelles, at the European Parliament, on November 2001, under the scientific presidency of Umberto Eco, with the prospect of considering the possible trans-cultural methodologies, or meta-methodologies, likely to be developed in a reciprocal knowledge approach.

One of the main concerns which have been stressed through this international debate was, as a precondition for any possible further progress in reciprocal knowledge, to try first and apply this reciprocal transcultural semantic analysis, to the main key-words and key-concepts, in different languages and cultures, launching a progressive Transcultural Encyclopaedia of Key-words and key-concepts.

On the basis of this research, focusing on key-words, key-concepts and key images, and providing transcultural methodologies as a means to deal with these differences through reciprocal knowledge, the aim is to implement in India a base of International Transcultural Observatory, using multi media communication and publication, as well as an eTraining platform, for enabling European and Indian citizens, to transcend cultural differences in order to communicate between themselves, as well as with citizens from other cultures.

The Transcultura Observatory that was conceived at CNAM in May 2004 is a network of scholars from at least ten countries, spanning the continents of Europe, Africa and Asia. These scholars are anchored in a variety of disciplines and each of them brings a specific disciplinary perspective to examine the issue of reciprocal knowledge. In addition to reframing the central questions of the social sciences in dealing with the encounter between Europe and non-Europe, the Transcultura takes a proactive approach and integrates the tasks of disseminating the research output of the Transcultura network through a multimedia distance education network. Thus, in addition to the disciplinary research concerns of the Transcultura network, there are the equally important issues of distance education and the preparation of reports. These reports are generated not merely through research but they are a reflection on the efforts of journalists reporting on the changing terrain of international relations and politics.

Topic of the conference

Two principal objectives guide the coming meetings in Goa, Pondicherry and Delhi, in October 2005, within the terms of reference of Transcultura Observatory:

• the first objective is to address the meta-theoretic consequences of the reversal of the anthropological gaze in social science theory and policy in general.
• the second objective is complemented by the task of putting together a lexicon central to the social sciences, but this time viewed through the prism of non-European knowledge traditions.

The first keyword chosen was that of “empire”. We now have an elaborate commentary of the concept of “empire” in Chinese political thought, with an elaborate contextualisation of what it means for political theory as realised within the Western social theoretic project.

Similarly, another keyword that has been taken up is that of the notion of “law”.

The next keyword chosen, and to be debated in this Conference, is that of “knowledge”, in all the senses of the term, including social and political patterns of knowledge as well as epistemological and philosophical, and how the Cartesian tradition looks through the gaze of other traditions of knowledge seeking.

In addition to this, and on the basis of this research, focusing on key-words, key-concepts and key images, the aim of this conference is to implement a base of International Transcultural Observatory in India, enabling European and Indian citizens to transcend cultural differences in order to communicate with each other, as well as with citizens from other cultures.

Organisation of the conference

The Conference will be developed in three different sessions: The first session (Oct. 17th to 19th), in Goa, on behalf of IIT Bombay, the University of Goa and the University of Bombay, will stress the concepts of otherness, of reciprocity and reciprocal knowledge in multicultural societies, and their possible applications to Transcultural communication methodologies.

The second session (Oct. 20th to 22nd), at the French Institute of Pondicherry, will concern the central topic of knowledge, and scientific knowledge, in an epistemological approach of possible different patterns of knowledge, in the fields of Ethics and Aesthetics, Epistemology, and Anthropology, through the words and related concepts used in Asian, European and African cultures and languages. The third session, and conclusion of the Congress (Oct. 24th), in Dehli, will be held at Jawaharlal Nehru University, on the 24th of October, in two parts: a conclusive internal debate, followed by a Panel discussion, open to a public of students.

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