Abstract
In the light of the disastrous humanitarian impact of the Second World War, the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and conflict-ridden decolonisation in Asia, the newly established UN organisation for education, science and culture (Unesco) initiated a multi-disciplinary research project in 1947 with a truly global reach. The main task of this project was to find out how tensions within and between societies can be explained and tackled in order to secure peace and social justice. Its case studies included Jewish settlements in Israel, the Indian caste system, and discrimination against African-Americans.
To understand the complex design and the practical conduct of this project, this paper combines the established notion of peace history with two other historiographical perspectives: the global history of social sciences and global intellectual history. With the examples of research conducted in India and Israel the paper demonstrated how, at the crossroads of post-fascism and post-colonialism, scholars from around the globe cooperated in what might be called a cosmopolitan intellectual peace-building project. A more comprehensive scientific understanding of inequality, discrimination and violence was meant to facilitate peaceful co-existence and general welfare. The paper finds the project’s major obstacles in its over-confidence in scientific solutions, the limited comparability of research, and its overall neglect of political activism.
To understand the complex design and the practical conduct of this project, this paper combines the established notion of peace history with two other historiographical perspectives: the global history of social sciences and global intellectual history. With the examples of research conducted in India and Israel the paper demonstrated how, at the crossroads of post-fascism and post-colonialism, scholars from around the globe cooperated in what might be called a cosmopolitan intellectual peace-building project. A more comprehensive scientific understanding of inequality, discrimination and violence was meant to facilitate peaceful co-existence and general welfare. The paper finds the project’s major obstacles in its over-confidence in scientific solutions, the limited comparability of research, and its overall neglect of political activism.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Publication status | Unpublished - 2021 |
| Event | Peace History Society Biannual Conference, Kennesaw State University, Georgia, USA - Kennesaw, United States Duration: 21-Oct-2021 → 23-Oct-2021 |
Conference
| Conference | Peace History Society Biannual Conference, Kennesaw State University, Georgia, USA |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | Kennesaw |
| Period | 21/10/2021 → 23/10/2021 |