A Global History of urban development policies since 1945
Final Report Abstract
The principal aim of the project was to investigate why and how the urban space became an important field of development policies after 1945. Two research trajectories were identified and analysed: public policy and social affairs in connection with planning and construction, and the environmental dimension of the urban space. Partial project I reveals the important role the UN system played in regard to the dissemination of knowledge and the practical assistance provided to member countries in the Global South during the decades of decolonization. Partial project II shows that environmental concerns entered the discourse of development earlier than is usually thought. However, the environment was predominantly seen as a resource factor rather than as an object of conservation. The discourse on environment of the 1950s and 1960s can thus be seen as an extension of earlier debates focusing on resource management. Still, it is remarkable that local actors in Mexico City and Sao Paolo were able to activate national and international partners. A continuing challenge for historical projects in the field of global history is accessibility of local archives. While archives in Latin America provided rich material, manageable access to archives of a larger number of cities in the Global South – as investigated in partial project I – proved, for a variety of reasons, difficult. Cooperative project may counter this deficit in the future. The project team believes that its research redirects the focus on the Euro-Atlantic region with regard to the urban space. Its results speak to a number of sub-disciplines, such as environmental history, urban history, science and technology studies, late colonialism and decolonization, and regional history (Latin America, Africa, Asia).
Publications
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Governing Urban Environmental Problems in Developing Countries: Mexico City, São Paulo and the Discovery of Urban Environmental Problems as a Field of Development Policy. In: Jahrbuch für europäische Überseegeschichte 16 (2016), S. 187-203
Sabrina Kirschner
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Von Clean Cities zu Green Cities – die Anfänge urbanen Umweltmanagements in den 1970er Jahren. In: Lisa - The science portal of the Gerda Henkel Foundation. Das Doktorandenforum des 51. Historikertags (2016) in Hamburg
Sabrina Kirschner
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Grenzüberschreitende Zusammenarbeit im urbanen (Ab-)Wassersektor: Entwicklungspolitische Lösungsansätze für die (Ab-)Wasserprobleme São Paulos in den 1950er bis 1970er Jahren. In: Christian Henrich-Franke et al. (Eds.): Grenzüberschreitende institutionalisierte Zusammenarbeit von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Baden-Baden 2019, S. 157-192
Sabrina Kirschner
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Vom Wiederaufbau zur urbanen Entwicklungspolitik. Die Vereinten Nationen, transnationale Netzwerke und das Problem der Urbanisierung, ca. 1945-1966. In: Historische Zeitschrift 309. 2 (2019), 337-376
Tobias Wolffhardt
