Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/155443 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
CHOPE Working Paper No. 2011-08
Publisher: 
Duke University, Center for the History of Political Economy (CHOPE), Durham, NC
Abstract: 
This essay analyzes the construction of "neutral" knowledge by the scholars (mostly psychologists, anthropologists and sociologists) who were members of UNESCO's Social Science Department between 1946 and 1956. Making use of recent literature on the politics of knowledge and using archive material, we try to clarify the postures between what we call "universalists" and "pluralists" in three of the major research projects that shaped the Department: the Tensions project, the race statements of 1950 and 1951, and the program of technical assistance. We make the case that both "pluralism" and "universalism" involved a great deal of political maneuvering and strategy to advance national or professional purposes, and that therefore, neutrality could only be apparent.
Subjects: 
International organizations
UNESCO
social science
OSS
wars
technical assistance
post-colonial world
development
race studies
culture and personality studies
India
Japan
neutrality
politics of knowledge
JEL: 
B29
Z13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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