Warden of the West: The OECD and the global political economy, 1948 to present

Warden of the West: The OECD and the global political economy, 1948 to present

Organizer
Prof. Matthieu Leimgruber & Dr. des Matthias Schmelzer, Forschungsstelle für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, University of Zurich
Venue
Universität Zürich, Rämistrasse 74 (Law faculty building), room RAI-J-031
Location
Zürich
Country
Switzerland
From - Until
27.08.2015 - 29.08.2015
By
Matthias Schmelzer

Even though ubiquitously mentioned in current affairs and in academic writing, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has remained one of the most elusive and under-researched international organizations. Founded in 1948 as the Organization for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), a Western European institution charged with monitoring Marshall Plan aid, the organization was reorganized in 1961 as an Atlantic (including the US and Canada), and then triadic (Japan joined in 1964, Australia and New Zealand by 1974) think tank, in which Western countries coordinated their policies both in the Cold War setting and vis-à-vis the emerging power-bloc of decolonizing countries in the global South.

After the end of the Cold War, the organization finally expanded its membership to include some emerging market economies and established its reputation as a key knowledge hub in the current era of globalization. Throughout its history, the OECD has worked on almost every subject of interest to national governments ranging from education (PISA rankings) to statistics to the environment, it has developed a series of unique modes of governance, and it has with varying success played more generally an important role as a warden of the West and of capitalist development.

At this first historical conference on the history of the OEEC and OECD, leading scholars will present source-based contributions that address the long-term history of this organization and analyze the OECD not as insular, but in its multiple relations to member states and other international organizations.

More Info: http://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/termine-26169

Programm

THURSDAY 27.08.2015

13h30 Welcome & Introduction

13h45 Increasing output. The challenges of productivity and free trade
Comments: Jakob Tanner (Zurich)
- Carine Germond (Maastricht)
Sharing ideas, shaping policy. Agricultural experts and expertise in the OEEC/OECD, 1955-1992
- Ludovic Fulleringer (Geneva & EHESS Paris)
Ore, wood and coal. A new look at the OEEC productivity program during the 1950s
- Wolfram Kaiser (Portsmouth)
The OEEC/OECD and steel, 1948-1989

16h15 From growth to crisis. Overseeing the capitalist economy
Comments: Tobias Straumann (Zurich)
- Floriane Galeazzi (Rouen)
The OECD WP3 as a gatekeeper of the international payments system, 1961-1987
- Samuel Beroud (Geneva)
“Positive adjustments”: the emergence of supply-side economics in the OECD and G7, 1975-1983
- William Glenn Gray (Purdue, USA)
Peer pressure in Paris. OECD country exams in the radical 1970s

18h30 Food and drinks

FRIDAY 28.08.2015

9h00 Beyond competition. Connections across the economic front of the Cold War
Comments: Sandrine Kott (Geneva)
- Andrej Marković (Zurich) & Ivan Obadić (EUI Firenze) The limits of non-alignment. Yugoslavia and the OEEC/OECD, 1955-1980
- Daniel Stinsky (Maastricht)
“Community of destiny”? The OEEC and the UN Economic Commission for Europe, 1947-1961

11h00 Being a member of the Club. Membership, rules, and access
Comments: Richard Woodward (Hull)
- Heinrich Hartmann (Basel)
Professor Tinbergen’s delicate mission. OECD expertise between policy making and public protest in Turkey in the 1960s
- Peter Carroll (Hobart, Australia)
Access, influence and policy learning in the 1960s and 1970s: Australian, Japanese and New Zealand membership of the OECD
- Magdaléna Hadjiisky (Strasbourg)
Exploration of a conversion. New Public Management at the OECD-PUMA, 1970s-1990s

14h15 Natural limits. Facing environmental and energy challenges
Comments: Rüdiger Graf (ZZF Potsdam)
- Henning Türk (Duisburg-Essen)
Anticipations and reactions. The OECD, the IEA and the second oil crisis in 1979
- Iris Borowy (Aachen)
Addressing transfrontier pollution: The OECD Environment Committee in the 1970s
- Dominique Pestre (EHESS Paris)
The Economicization of the environment. The place of OECD, 1970-2010

16h45 Roundtable – Writing the history of the OEEC/OECD
- Vincent Gayon (Paris-Dauphine)
- William M. Hynes (OECD NAEC Program)
- Matthieu Leimgruber (Zurich)
- Richard Woodward (Hull)

19h30 Conference Dinner

SATURDAY 29.08.2015

9h00 Human capital. Managing and adapting the workforce
Comments: Matthias Schmelzer (Zurich)
- Emmanuel Comte (EUI Firenze) & Simone Paoli (Padua) The OEEC/OECD in West European migration policies, from the Cold War to the North-South confrontation, 1947-1986
- Regula Bürgi (Luxemburg)
Planned education for the “free world”. The emerging role of the OEEC/OECD in education expertise, 1957-1972
- Rianne Mahon (Waterloo, Canada)
Articulating a feminist agenda Inside the OECD. The Working Party on the role of women in the economy, 1974-1998

11h30 Contested development. The Rich Mans’ Club and the Global South
Comments: Corinne Pernet (Basel)
- Patricia Hongler (Luzern)
The construction of a Western voice. OECD and UNCTAD in the 1960s and 1970s
- Kevin O’Sullivan (Galway)
Mobilizing for development. The OECD, NGOs and global governance, 1973-1988

13h00 Wrap up comments and lunch

http://oecdhistoryproject.net/2015-conference/program/
Editors Information
Published on
07.07.2015
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