Alva Myrdal, UNESCO and Cold War International Social Science

Project description

This project is concerned with the international organisation of the social sciences during the early Cold War era, 1945-1960. The topic is motivated by the fact that the current status, the societal importance and the global imbalances of today's international social science to a large extent can be understood against the background of the rapid expansion, the social impact and the new organisational structures that characterised the development of the social sciences after the Second World War. Empirically the project is focused on UNESCO's Social Science Department (SSD) and Alva Myrdal's period as its Director, 1951-1955. The aim is to analyse the ideas and practices that characterised the activities and the organisation of the SSD, and thereby to evaluate Myrdal's importance during this formative stage, but also to discuss the SSD in broader organisational and geopolitical context. Attention will for example be devoted to the SSD's relations to other contemporary international social science organisations, such as the International Social Science Council, the International Sociological Association and l'Institut International de Sociologie, as well as a couple of the most important North American private research foundations. In this way the project intend to contribute to a deeper historical understanding of the organisational structures and global imbalances that to a large degree still characterise contemporary international social science.