The Global Knowledge Society is a large-scale research project that investigates the historical roots of knowledge societies. The innovative capability of the present-day knowledge society depends upon the large-scale collection and distribution of information on the basis of which knowledge is produced and multiplied. The process of production and distribution happens at a global level. Facilitating knowledge and information exchange is almost invariably accompanied by regulation of its distribution. This project investigates the historical roots of the global knowledge society. Its long-term ambition is to contribute to our understanding of the knowledge society in a global context and to gain insights in its development up to today. Researchers are hosted at the NIAS and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. The project aims to be highly innovative, not only in its approach and method, but also in its output. It will not only result in a number of studies and volumes, but will also develop tools for the study of knowledge societies in general, as well as a handbook on knowledge societies that can be used by students and senior academics alike. 

• prof. dr. Sven Dupré
• dr. Feike Dietz

Dit project behelst een vierdelige beschrijving (ca. 1400 pp) van de geschiedenis van Zeeland van prehistorie tot nu. Dat is gebeurd volgens een geheel nieuw en origineel concept: de Matrix van de Geschiedenis van Zeeland (zie publicaties). Die matrix wordt gevormd door zes thema's en zes invalshoeken, die de vier delen samenhang en wetenschappelijke diepgang geven, terwijl met de matrix ook de toegankelijkheid van de boeken, die bestemd zijn voor een breed publiek, is vergroot. Er hebben ongeveer twintig auteurs aan dit project meegewerkt. 

• dr. Joost Dankers
• dr. Paul Brusse
• dr. Bram Bouwens

How did the Netherlands change when its cities began to decline in the eighteenth century? That is the central question addressed in this project, that started by focusing on the province of Zeeland, analyzing the de-urbanization process from three perspectives: economic, political and cultural. The project has resulted in three books about these three themes and a synthese presenting a new de-urbanization model and a new vision on Dutch history emphasizing the rural face of the Dutch past in the formative period around 1800.

• dr. Paul Brusse

• prof. dr. Wiljan van den Akker