Between Stalinism and Infrastructural Globalism: The International Geophysical Year (1957–8) in Czechoslovakia, Poland and German Democratic Republic Cover Image

Between Stalinism and Infrastructural Globalism: The International Geophysical Year (1957–8) in Czechoslovakia, Poland and German Democratic Republic
Between Stalinism and Infrastructural Globalism: The International Geophysical Year (1957–8) in Czechoslovakia, Poland and German Democratic Republic

Author(s): Doubravka Olšáková
Subject(s): Cultural history, Economic history, Political history, Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Cold War in Europe;Eastern Europe history;infrastructural globalism;international geophysical year;GDR;Poland;Czechoslovakia;

Summary/Abstract: This article analyses the political, scientific, and social circumstances of the beginning of infrastructural globalism in Eastern Europe, using the example of the International Geophysical Year (1957–8). This research programme led to the establishment of the first large global infrastructures operating in Eastern Europe, i.e. behind the Iron Curtain, under the auspices of international organizations (UNESCO, ICSU). Following the Geneva conference in 1955, large infrastructures and ‘big data’ science were supposed to become part of Soviet science diplomacy. The paper shows that while the Soviet Union and East-European countries accepted the challenge and became part of the global scientific community, nevertheless specific features of data and information control remained under the strict surveillance of the USSR.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 115
  • Page Range: 97-122
  • Page Count: 26
  • Language: English