Globalization of Knowledge (Forschungsperspektiven 2010+)

Today much knowledge – scientific, technological, and cultural – is shared worldwide. The extent to which globalized knowledge existed also in the past is an open question and moreover a question that is important for understanding present processes of globalization. Considering for instance the rapid spread in pre-history of the wheel throughout Eurasia, the spreading of Roman law to such diverse areas as the Byzantine empire and Ethiopia, and the global spread of paradigmatic solutions in architecture such as the gothic arch, one is led to conclude that a lively exchange existed between cultures in all periods of human development.