Project description
The global journey of wild rubber
During the industrial era, rubber production connected factories, laboratories and rainforests, yet its full history remains unknown. The ERC-funded WILDHIST project will carry out the first comprehensive, multi-site historical study of the journey of wild rubber, from its extraction in the rainforests of Africa and Latin America to its international markets between the 1820s and 1940s. Specifically, it examines how the rubber industries influenced scientific research and industrialisation by extending global knowledge networks, thus challenging fragmented perspectives. The project maps production chains and reveals the actors, skills, technologies and expertise involved by fusing digital and spatial tools with written, visual and oral sources. Overall, WILDHIST will bring industries, laboratories and rainforests under one roof.
Objective
Rubber connected rainforests, factories and research laboratories during the industrial age. This entangled history has been widely acknowledged, yet its complex material background remains poorly understood. WILDHIST is the first multi-scale and multi-sited historical analysis of the exploration, extraction, processing, transport and manufacturing of wild rubber in a long-term frame. The project hypothesis is that wild rubber industries in the tropical rainforests of Africa and Latin America were key sites in the broader dynamics of industrialisation and scientific research from the 1820s to the 1940s, forming an integral part of the expanding global networks of knowledge exchange. While most studies offer a fragmentary perspective, this unique project brings rainforests, industries and laboratories into a single analytical focus, thereby shedding light on their historical entanglement.
WILDHIST combines an analysis of contrasting non-plantation histories of rubber production in the Amazon, Congo Basin and so-called Maya Forest with broader histories of transnational interaction. The project rethinks and rewrites the global history of wild rubber by systematically and critically exploring a rich array of written, visual and oral sources located throughout the world. Its trans-local, interdisciplinary, comparative, digital and visual methodology will provide a truly comprehensive and nuanced historical account of how rubber was transformed into commodities and then final goods for local, regional or global markets. The project has three objectives: 1) Studying the actors, techniques, skills, knowledge and relations of production at rainforests’ rubber frontiers; 2) Reconstructing, mapping and analysing the transnational chains of rubber production, including networks of science and expertise; 3) Exploring the visual representation of rubber production throughout the world using tools of digital and spatial humanities.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
28006 MADRID
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.