Engaging with new knowledge in Low Countries' Chronicles (1500-1850)

Abstract

Historical research on the acceptance of new knowledge and technology has focussed primarily on 'experts'. Although these scholars, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and engineers developed better or more accurate knowledge or technology, this does not mean that it was willingly appropriated by the rest of society. The success of new knowledge and technology also depends on socio-cultural factors, which change over time, and differ between cultures and groups within them. This dissertation aims to better understand how such processes of cultural change worked in the Low Countries between 1500 and 1850.