Spaces of Interaction between the Socialist Camp and the Global South. Knowledge Production, Trade, and Scientific-Technical Cooperation in the Cold War Era

To tell the story of the post-war and post-colonial globalization without falling into the trap of a simplified vision of bipartite economic division of the world, the workshop’s aim was to renew the spatial approach as an analytical category and methodological approach to alternative means of thinking of global (especially socialist) entanglements and socialist impact on new order. Although the „socialist globalization” seems to be an already established term, with several international projects dedicated to it, the question still exists how the global was/is revealed and made through the interaction within the East-South cooperation. Aiming to explore socialistic spaces of interaction as a major actor in producing and (re-)shaping social, political, cultural and economic processes, as well as the rationale of actors who used and influenced spatial dynamics, the workshop invited international scholars to discuss the Socialistic Bloc in its role as a global player and its contribution to the (un-)making of globalization and the global economic system. To what extent can the spaces of interaction, produced by East-South entanglements, be seen as exceptional zones or rather as a systematic product of globalization? To what extent can we speak about one globalization and the socialistic engagement in it or were there rather few alternative globalization paths?

You can find the full workshop report online at H/SOZ/KULT, Link (15 May 2018)

Project B3: “East-South Relations during the Global Cold War: Economic Activities and Area Studies Interests of East Central European CMEA Countries in Africa”