Planning in Cold War Europe: Competition, Cooperation, Circulations (1950s-1970s)

by Michel Christian (Editor), Sandrine Kott (Editor), Ondrej Matejka (Editor)

Overview

The idea of planning economy and engineering social life has often been linked with Communist regimes’ will of control. However, the persuasion that social and economic processes could and should be regulated was by no means limited to them. Intense debates on these issues developed already during the First World War in Europe and became globalized during the World Economic crisis.

During the Cold War, such discussions fuelled competition between two models of economic and social organisation but they also revealed the convergences and complementarities between them. This ambiguity, so often overlooked in histories of the Cold War, represents the central issue of the book organized around three axes.

First, it highlights how know-how on planning circulated globally and were exchanged by looking at international platforms and organizations. The volume then closely examines specificities of planning ideas and projects in the Communist and Capitalist World. Finally, it explores East-West channels generated by exchanges around issues of planning which functioned irrespective of the Iron Curtain and were exported in developing countries.

The volume thus contributes to two fields undergoing a process of profound reassessment: the history of modernisation and of the Cold War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110526561
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	10/08/2018
Series:	Rethinking the Cold War , #2
Pages:	383
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.06(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michel Christian, University of Geneva; Sandrine Kott, University of Geneva; Ondrej Matejka, University of Geneva

Table of Contents

Planning in Cold War Europe: Introduction Michel Christian Sandrine Kott Ondrej Matejka 1

Part 1 Planning a New World after the War

Peace, Prosperity and Planning Postwar Trade, 1942-1948 Francine McKenzie 21

A Bridge between East and West? Gunnar Myrdal and the UN Economic Commission for Europe, 1947-1957 Daniel Stinsky 45

Part 2 High Modernism Planning

Mandatory Planning versus Indicative Planning? The Eastern Itinerary of French Planners (1960s-1970s) Isabelle Gouarné 71

International Research Planning across the Iron Curtain: East-Central European Social Scientists in the ISSC and Vienna Centre Katja Naumann 97

The Social Engineering Project. Exportation of Capitalist Management Culture to Eastern Europe (1950-1980) Sandrine Kott 123

Transferring Western Knowledge to a centrally planned Economy: Finland and the Scientific-Technical Cooperation with the Soviet Union Sari Autio-Sarasmo 143

Social Engineering and Alienation between East and West: Czech Christian-Marxist Dialogue in the 1960s from the National Level to the Global Arena Ondrej Matejka 165

The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the failed Coordination of Planning in the Socialist Bloc in the 1960s Simon Godard 187

Part 3 Alternatives to Planning

Learning from Yugoslavia? Western Europe and the Myth of Self-Management (1968-1975) Benedetto Zaccaria 213

Managing Socialist industrialism: Czechoslovak Management Studies in the 1960s and 1970s Vitezslav Sommer 237

Ecosystems Research and Policy Planning: Revisiting the Budworm Project (1972-1980) at the IIASA Michael Hutter 261

"It Is not a Question of rigidly Planning Trade" UNCTAD and the Regulation of the International Trade in the 1970s Michel Christian 285

Planning the Future of World Markets: the OECD's Interfuturs Project Jenny Andersson 315

Works Cited 345

Editorial Reviews

"[...] die hier besprochenen Publikationen (und nicht nur sie) [belegen] eine erfreuliche Offenheit für neue Fragen, Theorien und Methoden sowie einen fortgeschrittenen Stand transnationaler, auch blockübergreifender planungsgeschichtlicher Forschung, der vor ein oder zwei Jahrzehnten noch kaum denkbar erschien."
Christoph Bernhardt in: H-Soz-Kult (30.08.2019), https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-26866

"[...] Planning in Cold War Europe offers an essential contribution to the expanding field of Cold War studies. It also adds to the existing literature on postwar planning. While much of this scholarship has focused on economic and development planning, the authors of this volume expand the scope to other less-explored areas, like the planning of scientific research, the development of management knowledge, or environmental management. In doing so, they have paved the way for new avenues of research."
Malak Labib in: H-Soz-Kult (22.10.2019), https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-28085

From the Publisher