Motivation, Identity and Collaboration in the Scholarly Networks of the British Empire, 1830-1930

By focusing on the example of scholars working and travelling within the British Empire, this essay explores the relationship between the act of traversing networks and the identity construction of those who traverse them. Studies adopting a global history approach have tended to assume that scholarly collaboration between individuals within the Empire had the effect (and often also the aim) of strengthening both imperial ties and the idea of empire itself. An important factor in this argument is the alignment of the spatial domain of the British Empire with the idea or ideology of empire. Following the work of Lambert and Lester, this essay argues that when we consider the Empire in purely spatial terms, decoupled from a necessary connection with imperialism, a much wider variety of responses among British scholars networking within its bounds becomes apparent. In particular, it becomes clear that many examples of scholarly travel, exchange, and collaboration were undertaken with motivations and goals little, if at all, connected with furthering the imperial project. In particular, it argues for the continuing importance of an ideal of scientific internationalism, which stressed the benefits of scholarship for the whole of humanity and prioritized the needs and goals of individual academic and scientific disciplines. Some scholars even went on to develop nuanced critiques of the imperial project while using the structures of the British Empire to further their own individual, disciplinary and institutional goals.