The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Abstract: Aldo Agosti's biography of the Italian communist leader Palmiro Togliatti was firs... more Abstract: Aldo Agosti's biography of the Italian communist leader Palmiro Togliatti was first published in Italy in 1996 and first appeared in an English translation in 2008. In introducing the biography in this roundtable discussion, the author returns to his characterisation of ...
The article analyzes debates on family planning, demography, and gender roles to explore the emer... more The article analyzes debates on family planning, demography, and gender roles to explore the emergence of new notions of the reproductive subject in France between the 1950s and the 1970s. Drawing on papers of French and international family planning organizations, it argues that while the expansion of family planning ideology across France allowed for the discursive and practical construction of an autonomous reproductive subject, such a subject was framed by a hierarchization according to race, culture, and social class. Specifically, the analysis focuses on interventions in immigrant groups and on the French family planning movement's contribution to programs in Francophone Africa before and after decolonization. The article aims to contribute to an understanding of family planning as a transnational movement embedded in the globalization of demographic debate and the drive to normalize the nuclear family, and to an understanding of sexual change in Europe as shaped by global...
The article analyzes debates on family planning, demography, and gender roles to explore the emer... more The article analyzes debates on family planning, demography, and gender roles to explore the emergence of new notions of the reproductive subject in France between the 1950s and the 1970s. Drawing on papers of French and international family planning organizations, it argues that while the expansion of family planning ideology across France allowed for the discursive and practical construction of an autonomous reproductive subject, such a subject was framed by a hierarchization according to race, culture, and social class. Specifically, the analysis focuses on interventions in immigrant groups and on the French family planning movement's contribution to programs in Francophone Africa before and after decolonization. The article aims to contribute to an understanding of family planning as a transnational movement embedded in the globalization of demographic debate and the drive to normalize the nuclear family, and to an understanding of sexual change in Europe as shaped by global processes.
The article traces the emergence of reproductive rights principles in the UN during the 1960s-70s... more The article traces the emergence of reproductive rights principles in the UN during the 1960s-70s. Family planning programmes were the key discursive terrain on which conflicts over fertility, global population, and women's roles in 'third world development' were interlinked. The UN's Commission on the Status of Women was a key actor: in the late 1960s it defined family planning in relation to a broadened definition of human rights, and repositioned it as a women's rights issue. This shift resulted from competing but in some respects converging concepts of women's rights among Western-based, communist-aligned and Global South-based women's organisations at the Commission. While subsequent UN conferences, specifically Bucharest 1974 and Mexico City 1975, revealed enduring global conflicts over 'population management' and 'third world development', the UN reframed family planning in relation to human rights principles. It hereby responsibilised women in their social roles, potentially enhancing their reproductive autonomybut failing to fully abandon the population control agenda, against the calls of feminist movements in the Global South. The article contributes to histories of the UN and of the emergence of globally connected feminist movements, and is based on archives and publications of women's rights NGOs, UN agencies, and family planning organisations.
ARCHIVES Archivio Partito comunista italiano (APCI): Fondazione Istituto Gramsci, Rome I. Direzio... more ARCHIVES Archivio Partito comunista italiano (APCI): Fondazione Istituto Gramsci, Rome I. Direzione (Dir): records of the Direzione meetings with attached documents (microfilm) Ufficio politico (UP): records of the Ufficio politico meetings with attached documents (microfilm) Segreteria: records of the Secretariat meetings (microfilm) Comitato centrale (CC): records of the CC meetings Estero (Est): collection of documents regarding foreign countries (correspondence with foreign political part..
and less tangible than the preceding forms of world communist organization such as the Comintern ... more and less tangible than the preceding forms of world communist organization such as the Comintern and the Cominform,40 the “world communist movement” constituted a reality in the minds of those who were part of it, with concrete rules of behavior and modes of interaction. From the 1960s onwards, the WCM included three groups of communist parties: those in power in the socialist countries; those in opposition or underground in the capitalist world; and, from the 1960s onwards, Marxistinspired movements of national liberation in the Third World. It also included a number of “non-political” bodies such as the World Peace Council, the World Federation of Democratic Youth, the World Student Union and the World Trade Union Confederation (the latter two had their headquarters in Prague). The term “world communist movement” will be used here in the same way as it was used by the communist parties. However, attention will be focused on the contradictions and shifts in the definition of the term, as reflecting the deeper-lying questions of its doctrinal and strategic boundaries. While the world communist movement organized the communist parties of the world and was primarily an ideological organization prescribing “orthodox” doctrine, the communist bloc during the Cold War included only the socialist states and referred to the economic, commercial, military and political relations between them. The “movement” was wider and more diverse than the “bloc.” In this study, communist bloc will be used to refer to the system of (Soviet-aligned) socialist states and their institutions, such as the Warsaw Pact (Warsaw Treaty Organisation, WTO) and the Comecon (Council of Mutual Economic Assistance, CMEA).41 As will become clear, in moments of crisis such as 1968–1969, the Soviet Union understood the movement’s role as providing crucial ideological underpinning and political support to the bloc. 2.2. Internationalism: a working concept Internationalism is understood here as coinciding neither entirely with the discourse and theory of internationalism as used among communists themselves, nor exclusively with the practical policies of communist parties on the international scene. Rather, it focuses on the tension between them.42 This concept here proposes a way of escaping some of the dangers 16
This long-awaited study of the Italian women's movement in the ‘long 1970s’ comes at a time o... more This long-awaited study of the Italian women's movement in the ‘long 1970s’ comes at a time of increasing reflection on the missing history of Italian second-wave feminism. That it is high time for...
ment of their power. Transocean could continue to spread news in South America and China, even in... more ment of their power. Transocean could continue to spread news in South America and China, even in regions occupied by Japan. During World War II, the British managed to decipher the wireless reports of the German news agencies and could thus respond directly to the Nazi propaganda. The book’s greatest strength is that it is not an organizational history of news agencies. It rather identifies, from different perspectives, the interconnectedness between politics and German news agencies and shows convincingly the extent of the influence that national governments exerted on global journalism. Tworek shows the global reactions to the German news agencies, especially in the US. Of course, one would be curious to learn how other countries to which the news was directed responded, such as China or South America. One question for further research remains open: what topics were actually taken up? The book mentions single sensational German news, that crossed the national border; however, the...
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Abstract: Aldo Agosti's biography of the Italian communist leader Palmiro Togliatti was firs... more Abstract: Aldo Agosti's biography of the Italian communist leader Palmiro Togliatti was first published in Italy in 1996 and first appeared in an English translation in 2008. In introducing the biography in this roundtable discussion, the author returns to his characterisation of ...
The article analyzes debates on family planning, demography, and gender roles to explore the emer... more The article analyzes debates on family planning, demography, and gender roles to explore the emergence of new notions of the reproductive subject in France between the 1950s and the 1970s. Drawing on papers of French and international family planning organizations, it argues that while the expansion of family planning ideology across France allowed for the discursive and practical construction of an autonomous reproductive subject, such a subject was framed by a hierarchization according to race, culture, and social class. Specifically, the analysis focuses on interventions in immigrant groups and on the French family planning movement's contribution to programs in Francophone Africa before and after decolonization. The article aims to contribute to an understanding of family planning as a transnational movement embedded in the globalization of demographic debate and the drive to normalize the nuclear family, and to an understanding of sexual change in Europe as shaped by global...
The article analyzes debates on family planning, demography, and gender roles to explore the emer... more The article analyzes debates on family planning, demography, and gender roles to explore the emergence of new notions of the reproductive subject in France between the 1950s and the 1970s. Drawing on papers of French and international family planning organizations, it argues that while the expansion of family planning ideology across France allowed for the discursive and practical construction of an autonomous reproductive subject, such a subject was framed by a hierarchization according to race, culture, and social class. Specifically, the analysis focuses on interventions in immigrant groups and on the French family planning movement's contribution to programs in Francophone Africa before and after decolonization. The article aims to contribute to an understanding of family planning as a transnational movement embedded in the globalization of demographic debate and the drive to normalize the nuclear family, and to an understanding of sexual change in Europe as shaped by global processes.
The article traces the emergence of reproductive rights principles in the UN during the 1960s-70s... more The article traces the emergence of reproductive rights principles in the UN during the 1960s-70s. Family planning programmes were the key discursive terrain on which conflicts over fertility, global population, and women's roles in 'third world development' were interlinked. The UN's Commission on the Status of Women was a key actor: in the late 1960s it defined family planning in relation to a broadened definition of human rights, and repositioned it as a women's rights issue. This shift resulted from competing but in some respects converging concepts of women's rights among Western-based, communist-aligned and Global South-based women's organisations at the Commission. While subsequent UN conferences, specifically Bucharest 1974 and Mexico City 1975, revealed enduring global conflicts over 'population management' and 'third world development', the UN reframed family planning in relation to human rights principles. It hereby responsibilised women in their social roles, potentially enhancing their reproductive autonomybut failing to fully abandon the population control agenda, against the calls of feminist movements in the Global South. The article contributes to histories of the UN and of the emergence of globally connected feminist movements, and is based on archives and publications of women's rights NGOs, UN agencies, and family planning organisations.
ARCHIVES Archivio Partito comunista italiano (APCI): Fondazione Istituto Gramsci, Rome I. Direzio... more ARCHIVES Archivio Partito comunista italiano (APCI): Fondazione Istituto Gramsci, Rome I. Direzione (Dir): records of the Direzione meetings with attached documents (microfilm) Ufficio politico (UP): records of the Ufficio politico meetings with attached documents (microfilm) Segreteria: records of the Secretariat meetings (microfilm) Comitato centrale (CC): records of the CC meetings Estero (Est): collection of documents regarding foreign countries (correspondence with foreign political part..
and less tangible than the preceding forms of world communist organization such as the Comintern ... more and less tangible than the preceding forms of world communist organization such as the Comintern and the Cominform,40 the “world communist movement” constituted a reality in the minds of those who were part of it, with concrete rules of behavior and modes of interaction. From the 1960s onwards, the WCM included three groups of communist parties: those in power in the socialist countries; those in opposition or underground in the capitalist world; and, from the 1960s onwards, Marxistinspired movements of national liberation in the Third World. It also included a number of “non-political” bodies such as the World Peace Council, the World Federation of Democratic Youth, the World Student Union and the World Trade Union Confederation (the latter two had their headquarters in Prague). The term “world communist movement” will be used here in the same way as it was used by the communist parties. However, attention will be focused on the contradictions and shifts in the definition of the term, as reflecting the deeper-lying questions of its doctrinal and strategic boundaries. While the world communist movement organized the communist parties of the world and was primarily an ideological organization prescribing “orthodox” doctrine, the communist bloc during the Cold War included only the socialist states and referred to the economic, commercial, military and political relations between them. The “movement” was wider and more diverse than the “bloc.” In this study, communist bloc will be used to refer to the system of (Soviet-aligned) socialist states and their institutions, such as the Warsaw Pact (Warsaw Treaty Organisation, WTO) and the Comecon (Council of Mutual Economic Assistance, CMEA).41 As will become clear, in moments of crisis such as 1968–1969, the Soviet Union understood the movement’s role as providing crucial ideological underpinning and political support to the bloc. 2.2. Internationalism: a working concept Internationalism is understood here as coinciding neither entirely with the discourse and theory of internationalism as used among communists themselves, nor exclusively with the practical policies of communist parties on the international scene. Rather, it focuses on the tension between them.42 This concept here proposes a way of escaping some of the dangers 16
This long-awaited study of the Italian women's movement in the ‘long 1970s’ comes at a time o... more This long-awaited study of the Italian women's movement in the ‘long 1970s’ comes at a time of increasing reflection on the missing history of Italian second-wave feminism. That it is high time for...
ment of their power. Transocean could continue to spread news in South America and China, even in... more ment of their power. Transocean could continue to spread news in South America and China, even in regions occupied by Japan. During World War II, the British managed to decipher the wireless reports of the German news agencies and could thus respond directly to the Nazi propaganda. The book’s greatest strength is that it is not an organizational history of news agencies. It rather identifies, from different perspectives, the interconnectedness between politics and German news agencies and shows convincingly the extent of the influence that national governments exerted on global journalism. Tworek shows the global reactions to the German news agencies, especially in the US. Of course, one would be curious to learn how other countries to which the news was directed responded, such as China or South America. One question for further research remains open: what topics were actually taken up? The book mentions single sensational German news, that crossed the national border; however, the...
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