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From Barataria to Utopia: Economic-Positivism, Scientific Governance, and Colonial Discourses of International Order, 1880-1940

Project description

The switch to scientific rule in the 20th century

The impacts of colonialism have long been under review. The EU-funded EPOSSCIGOV will examine how colonial governments in Australian Papua/New Guinea and British West Africa broke with 'humanitarian' practices of governance in the early 20th century, implementing instead 'scientific' rule, that made unrealised contributors to the rise of the concept of 'economic interests' in interwar international discourses of world order. The project will focus on the latest methodological innovations in the examination of colonial, imperial and international governance, considering each as necessarily entangled both in time and in colonial space.

Objective

EPOSSCIGOV examines how colonial governments in Australian Papua/New Guinea and British West Africa broke with 'humanitarian' practices of governance in the early 20th C, began implementing 'scientific' rule, eventually transferred 'scientific' principles to League of Nations mandates that they administered, and therefore made unrealized contributors to the rise of the concept of 'economic interests' in interwar international discourses of world order. It does so by building on recent methodological innovations in the examination of colonial, imperial, and international governance, considering each as necessarily entangled both in time and in colonial space. Recovering and reassembling the archive of colonial-to-international transfers, as EPOSSCIGOV proposes to do, reveals the significant number and substance of such entanglements. Likewise, EPOSSCIGOV considers the substance of these entanglements in a more complex intellectual topography, one that for the first time in any dedicated way examines such transfers in the context of the new legal theory of economic-positivism, gaining currency during the first half of the 20th century. EPOSSCIGOV's results will therefore offer new historical knowledge about the origins of European and global discourses of development, international justice, and governance that are still operational today.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2018

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Coordinator

THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 224 933,76
Address
SUSSEX HOUSE FALMER
BN1 9RH BRIGHTON
United Kingdom

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Region
South East (England) Surrey, East and West Sussex Brighton and Hove
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 224 933,76
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