The efforts to develop under-developed areas of the world have recently been given increasing attention in historical research which has re-discovered that the socialist world system had its own corresponding efforts labelled Solidarity or, in the Cuban case, Internationalism. We feel that this new field of research is properly situated within the broader approach of Global History. This means that comparisons and transfers take centre stage.
Activities in a development perspective comprised a broad range of resource flows from uni-vectoral Aid and Solidarity-transfers to trade "in the mutual interest". The question of uni-laterality or of mutuality/reciprocity in the transfer of resources thus is at the center of the first panel of this conference. A second panel tries to follow the route of concepts travelling in this sphere. Development and Solidarity activities were platforms of encounters between “East,” “West” and “South” which brought together profoundly unequal actors. Modes of coming to terms with inequality in a universal (modernization, socialist) frame are the topic of the third panel. These activities in the Development/Solidarity Sector brought massive flows of people – experts, advisors, development workers, contract workers, students – into circulation. These encounters are the subject of a fourth panel.
This conference is to present ongoing or very recently accomplished research on development practices in the Cold War era, including a look at actors of African, Latin American and Asian countries.
Organised by Univ.Doz. Dr. Berthold Unfried and Mag. Eric Burton, Department of Economic and Social History, University of Vienna

Schedule (also as PDF)

2.12. Alois Wagner-Saal, Centrum für Internationale Entwicklung, Senseng. 3

13h30
Welcome by Berthold Unfried and Eric Burton, Wien

Introductory keynote:
David Engerman, Brandeis: The Politics of Development Aid: Three Frames of Analysis
Commentary: Petra Dannecker, Wien

15h Coffee break

Panels:

15h15
- Mutuality/Reciprocity in the transfer of resources: Trade, Aid, Solidarity
Simon Godard, Paris: Dealing with inequality in an international socialist organization: how the integration of Cuba and Vietnam changed CMEA-discourse on “development” and “internationalism”
Berthold Unfried, Wien: Univectoral transfers and the mutual interest: Solidarity, Trade and Migration in the Socialist World System
Chair and Commentary: Alexandra Sindrestean, Wien

17h Coffee break

17h15
- Travelling Concepts
Ingrid Miethe, Gießen: Workers Faculties globalizing
Verena Kröss, Bremen: The World Bank's Rural Development Doctrines and Approaches, 1960s to 1980s
Chair and Commentary: Michael Zeuske, Köln


19h30 Joint Dinner


3.12.: HS 45, University main building, Universitätsring 1

10h
- Flows of People in the Development and Solidarity Sector
Eric Burton, Wien: Tanzanian Counterparts of German development workers
Constantin Katsakioris, Bayreuth: Creating a Socialist Intelligentsia: Soviet Educational Aid and Its Impact on Africa, 1960-1991
Chair and Commentary: David Engerman, Boston

11h45 Informal standing lunch (in situ)

13h
- Development Encounters: Facing Inequality in a Universalist Perspective
Alena Alamgir, Atlanta: Contract Workers from Vietnam: Vietnamese Workers’ Labor Disputes in 1980s’ Czechoslovakia
Artemy Kalinovsky, Amsterdam: Soviet Central Asian Experts and the Developing World
Chair and Commentary: Berthold Unfried, Wien

14h45 Coffee break

15h
- Concluding Lecture
Piero Gleijeses (Washington): Internacionalismo & Solidaridad. Contributions of Cuban "Internationalism" to the international history of development efforts  (via Skype)

16h Final Discussion, Round Up and Perspectives for Research