Material knowledge—the understanding of resources, skills, technologies and social values necessary to create and maintain the material world around us—is endangered.
The diversity of material knowledge is being lost at an unprecedented rate as mass-produced goods and industrial technologies subsume or replace local practices. Changes to the environment and habitat loss—through industrialisation, deforestation, green grabbing, and other factors—jeopardise local ecologies and raw-material sustainability. Meanwhile, shifting socio-political dynamics, such as large-scale urbanisation, migration, displacement and rural depopulation, imperil long-practised forms of learning, apprenticeship, and knowledge transfer.
Through international partnerships, grants, training and infrastructure, the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme (EMKP) supports knowledge holders, practitioners, and scholars to conduct new research on critically threatened material knowledge globally, especially in understudied areas and where local funding opportunities are limited. By fostering international partnerships, the programme centres on community epistemologies, close collaborative work and celebration of the diverse knowledge networks that affect the material world.
The knowledge collated and recorded as part of EMKP-funded projects is made available under Creative Commons licences in an open access digital repository hosted by the British Museum. To date, the collection holds over 30 thousand records, including images, videos, maps, fieldnotes, 3D models and more, and is accessed by users across the world.
EMKP offers small and large grants annually, which are managed by the EMKP Team at the British Museum and awarded based on the recommendations of the EMKP Expert Panel.
OUR SUPPORT
We are generously supported by Arcadia, a charitable fund that supports charities and scholarly institutions to preserve cultural heritage, protect the environment, and promote open access.
