The twentieth century will be remembered for the struggle between branches of knowledge. The twenty-first century should be an age of reconciliation. The time has come to put an end to the dogmatic definition of disciplines, to break with academic rigidity and pigeon-holing, to create an area where knowledge can be freely exchanged and where its implications on social and political history can be examined.
This is the aim of Connaître, a thematic quarterly magazine, drawing on experiences gleaned from ten years of interdisciplinary studies at the Institut Universitaire de France, which embraces many French academics representing a myriad of different disciplines.
Each issue of the magazine will be divided into three parts: in the first, a chosen theme will be treated in the light of several different subjects; the second will offer a debate on a subject that goes beyond the concerns of each discipline; the third will include a list of books, some of which have not yet been published in French.