Transfaires d’ailleurs

Knowledge Transaction and State Making from Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic

“…In this vein, we present and discuss public policies aimed at cross-border knowledge production and transfer, or rather "transfaire". Elaborated within the framework of research on the connections and interdependencies in (post-)ottoman spaces, the French term "transfaire" (translated by the authors as "trans-acting") refers to the (re)production of symbolic and technical instruments, practices, norms, and forms of knowledge "by circulation" (Aymes, Bouquet 2016). Hence, contrary to the term "transfer" which assumes a diffusion stage subsequent to isolated local productions, "transfaire" underlines a connected history paying "attention to processes of translation and co-production of normative vehicles and of the fabric out of which politics is made" (Bouquet 2016, TRANSFAIRE).…”