Cutting knots ‘together–apart’: threads of Western and Southern European history of education research

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article presents a state of the art of the history of education in Western and Southern Europe by ‘cutting together–apart’ (Barad) ‘knotting-s’ (Ingold), in terms of both discipline formation and historiography across and beyond countries in these regions. It (dis)entangles national and regional particularities in terms of approaches, themes and constraints, and contributions to thriving international networks in the history of education. It sketches local trends and developments of the last 30 years and situates these within their differently evolving national and/or language-based disciplinary and institutional landscapes. Its snapshots of the history of education across the Benelux, Germany and Germanophone regions, the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and France highlight the contribution and interaction of national/linguistic intellectual traditions, institutional nodes of activity, (inter)disciplinary identities, methods and approaches, and vibrant scholarly communities.