The project behind this book was unique, even idealistic. We wanted to bridge academic cultures and traditions. Not only that, we wanted to make the voices of historians heard in the debate about global studies and globalization, a debate seen by many almost as a natural, market-driven process. Things were much more complicated historically than is reflected in most approaches to, and operationalizations of, globalization theory. We all knew that – but could European and Asian historians really join intellectual forces? And, on top of that, in the field of conceptual history, a field traditionally dominated by a national and monolingual approach? Could we not only create a global spirit of intellectual curiosity and equality among all participants, but also give it a theoretical and methodological foundation by probing into a new field of historiography – one that could be called global conceptual history, to be practised as a transnational and multilingual historiography?

Just how different academic cultures are, both nationally and discipline-wise, reveals itself to everyone concerned once work really moves beyond the initial stages and the writing begins. We embarked on the project with a truly open spirit, and while some of the participants kept a critical distance or remained sceptical about the chances of actually producing a valid research output, most of us felt challenged and inspired by it. For everyone involved, this was a unique opportunity to learn.