Abstract
The chapter focuses on scientific communication by addressing the question: how international was the eighteenth International Geographical Congress (IGC) held in Rio de Janeiro in August 1956. The question is addressed, firstly, considering the location politics of the unique case of an international geographical congress of the International Geographical Union (IGU) held in South America, focusing on some practical, theoretical, and political impacts. Secondly, the focus is on language aspects, once the Rio IGC can be seen as a turning point in language diversity in IGU toward the consolidation of English as the main, and almost exclusive, language of international scientific communication. Considering the present challenge of critically discussing the crescent hegemony of English as the only possible language of scientific communication, the chapter concludes stressing how the study of some experiences of multilingualism in past can help us in proposing other possibilities of scientific communication in a more symmetric power position and condition.
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