Internationalising Colonial Knowledge. Edgar Barton Worthington and the Scientific Council for Africa, 1949–1956

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11943512
AutoresDamiano Matasci (0000-0002-2803-8401, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen48
Número5
Páginas892-913
Fecha de publicación2020-09-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0308-6534 • E-ISSN: 1743-9329
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03086534.2020.1816621
OpenAlexW3113166306
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas48

By focusing on the trajectory of the British biologist Edgar Barton Worthington (1905–2001), this article examines the history of the Scientific Council for Africa South of Sahara (SCA), an intercolonial organisation created in 1950 that aimed at fostering scientific collaboration between European colonial administrations, both in the metropoles and on the African continent. Drawing on the private papers of Worthington, who actively worked for SCA up until 1956, it shows how colonial officials and scholars attempted to establish a common research programme in many fields of natural and social sciences, in connection with the post-war developmentalist agenda. The article also highlights the struggle that arose around the control over knowledge about African societies and natural resources, as well as how scientific ‘colonial circuits’ were readapted to face a new global context shaped by decolonising pressures and geopolitical realignments

Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Decolonization · Face (sociological concept · Geopolitics · Kingdom · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of scientific knowledge · African history and culture studies · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law