How to Analyse the Gap: Lost Knowledge and Migration – An Introduction

Abstract Knowledge is not only relevant to migrants themselves, who have acquired, moved, translated, or adapted bodies of knowledge throughout history. The spatial dimension of migrating knowledge has two sides, since knowledge always originates from specific local or regional settings, including practical or everyday-life knowledge. In many cases, such bodies of knowledge are transported by migrants with specific agency, depending on the context of migration. However, the history of migrant knowledge is mainly written and understood as a story of negotiation, adaptation or ignorance. Consequently, research on migrant knowledge and its application is usually limited to processes during, and especially after, migration, the places of arrival, the ‘import’ of knowledge through migrants and their adjustment, or the translation of old bodies of knowledge to a new social environment to prevent devaluation or ignorance. The origins of migrating knowledge, however, often remain unexamined. This oversight leaves crucial questions unanswered in understanding the complex processes of knowledge transfer. This special issue is particularly interested in ‘lost knowledge’ as a new field of historical migration studies. This introduction and the contributions ask what happened to the places of origin after the departure of local or regional knowledge agents? How did the outflow of knowledge and ideas affect the development of these places? What coping strategies can be observed to replace or substitute the knowledge lost through outward migration?