Events
Cosponsors
- The Blinken European Institute
- East Central European Center
- Global Studies Institute of the University of Geneva
The economic aftermath of World War II in Europe is normally studied through the lens of reconstruction. However, many contemporaries saw “backwardness” as the main social and economic issue in several European regions. For these scholars, practitioners and policy-makers, reconstructing those economies not only would not have solved their structural problems; it might have even exacerbated their chronic underdevelopment and increased the gap with the more advanced regions. The history of postwar Europe is thus also the story of the attempts to overcome the structural backwardness of depressed regions through a conscious development effort, designed to bring radical changes to their economic and social structure in the long run.
While the history of postwar development ideas and institutions is mostly told as an extra-European history, this workshop will study the European roots of postwar development policies, and how they influenced development policies in the rest of the world. Far from remaining confined within European borders, this experience was in fact considered by the international development community as an incubator of lessons and ideas to be applied in underdeveloped areas worldwide.
Event is free and open to the public. Seating is first come, first served.
Program
time8:50am - 9:00am EDT
Welcome and Introduction
time9:00am - 11:00am EDT
The Problem of Backwardness in Postwar Europe
Chair and Commentator
Mark Mazower
Ira D. Wallach Professor of World Order Studies
Department of History, Columbia University
Backwardness in Interwar Europe
Thomas David
Professor of International History
Planning Peace: Development Policies in Postwar Europe
Michele Alacevich
Assistant Professor of History and Director of Global Studies
Loyola University, Maryland
From Reconstruction to Development: International Organizations Policies Toward Central European countries 1947-1970
Sandrine Kott
Professor of European Contemporary History
University of Geneva
time11:00am - 11:15am EDT
Break I
time11:15am - 1:15pm EDT
Visions of Development in Europe
Chair and Commentator
Yanni Kotsonis
Associate Professor of History, Russian & Slavic Studies
New York University
A Question of Timing? Why the European Recovery Program Became a Global Template for Development
Daniel Speich
Assistant Professor for History
University of Lucerne, Switzerland
Development Ideas in Postwar Greece
Andreas Kakridis
Adjunct Lecturer in Economics
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Thinking about Development in Late Socialist Hungary
James Mark
Professor of History
University of Exeter
time1:15pm - 2:30pm EDT
Break II
time2:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
Backwardness and Development in Eastern Europe
Chair and Commentator
Victoria de Grazia
Moore Collegiate Professor of History
Columbia University
Eastern European Economists and the Notion of Backwardness in the 1950s
Johanna Bockman
Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
George Mason University
Backwardness and Development in Soviet Central Asia & Afghanistan?
Timothy Nunan
Harvard Academy Scholar
Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies
Framing the Discourse on ‘Backwardness’: Tensions on the Development Issue Considered within the Bloc or on a Global Scale
Simon Godard
Teaching and Research Assistant
Global Studies Institute of the University of Geneva
time4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT
Final Discussion and Concluding Remarks
Adam Tooze
Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History
Columbia University
Participants
- Michele Alacevich Assistant Professor of History and Director of Global Studies Loyola University, Maryland
- Johanna Bockman Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology George Mason University
- Thomas David Professor of International History
- Simon Godard Teaching and Research Assistant Global Studies Institute of the University of Geneva
- Andreas Kakridis Adjunct Lecturer in Economics National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
- Yanni Kotsonis Associate Professor of History, Russian & Slavic Studies New York University
- Sandrine Kott Professor of European Contemporary History University of Geneva
- James Mark Professor of History University of Exeter
- Timothy Nunan Harvard Academy Scholar Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies
- Daniel Speich Assistant Professor for History University of Lucerne, Switzerland
- Adam Tooze Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History Columbia University