ABSTRACT
The figure of the cultural broker or mediator has gained remarkable prominence in transregional studies as well as in transnational and global history over the last decades. This chapter gives an overview of research on brokerage and mediation in different transregional and transnational constellations. It turns toward a more general discussion of the different aspects of mediation as a complex field of activity that should not be narrowed down to connection and transmission. Cultural brokers and mediators have also started to play a larger role in transnational and transregional history. Cultural brokers are thus not representations of the other but are figures of interaction in a globally connected modern world as a 'brokered world'. Mediation has been described as a transitory phase in the entangled development of societies or as a fundamental aspect of cultural relations that is constantly changing its form and function. The different meanings of the term ‘mediation’ stem from varying historical usages and philosophical traditions.
