Introduction: Global Histories of Social Planning

In: Journal of contemporary history, Volume 52, Issue 1, p. 3-15

Abstract

Introducing the special section on histories of social planning in late colonial and postcolonial societies (1920s–60s), this article argues that we have to take the global origins and reverberations of discourses on planning seriously. It outlines the field of planning and the historiographical debates around it, which mainly centre on European, US and Soviet history. It then checks the viability of the concept for late colonial and postcolonial contexts. In this way, it demonstrates how planning discourses, for instance in recently decolonized states, became global and how they reflected back onto Europe and the USA for example. Beyond summarizing the contributions of the special section, this article raises wider issues concerning the potentials of a dialogue between European, Soviet and US American contemporary history and (post)colonial history. It shows how the paradigm of planning can be applied to settings outside of Europe, the Soviet Union and the USA, and how in turn postcolonial history can contribute to a new understanding of the global history of planning.