A History of Displaced Knowledge

This book follows ideas and knowledge that migrated in the cultural baggage of Austrian refugees, who fled to Australia in 1938 and 1939 because of National Socialism. By telling and comparing the stories of twenty-six different lives, it highlights the processes of acquisition, transportation, translation, and adaption of ideas, knowledge, and cultural capital. This provides a unique and colourful insight into the impact of a group of refugees on their host society over several decades.

As the book shows, there were many different ways in which displaced people relied upon their social and cultural capital to first escape their oppressive homeland and then build new lives. Once they had arrived in Australia, they used very different approaches to negotiate and promote their knowledge and to exercise agency.