Idesbald Goddeeris
Biographic Data
| ID | 642355 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Idesbald Goddeeris |
| GIVEN NAMES | Idesbald |
| FAMILY NAME | Goddeeris |
| SIGNATURE | GODDEERIS I |
| AFFILIATIONS | KU Leuven |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8189-1594 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 31 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Leopold II, Kimpa Vita and the Local Decolonisation of the Belgian Public Space
Belgium's relationship with its colonial past is a complex one including celebration, forgetting, and recently re-evaluation. This article argues that, unlike what's often thought, decolonization has not stopped in the past few years, but that especially the public space has gradually developed and reached new dimensions. Rather than at the national level, this development has taken place on a regional, and particularly local, level. This article…
Poland and Nicaragua: The Potentials and Limits of Transnational Solidarity, Alliance and Opposition during the 1980s
Despite the manifold and contradictory parallels drawn between Poland and Nicaragua during the 1980s, strikingly little is known about the origins of these connections, the actors involved, and the wider concrete flows and exchanges that were at work between these two countries who each played a pivotal role during the sunset years of the Cold War. This article analyses the imagined common struggles, networks and ideas that brought Poland and Nic…
Whom to Cater to: The Challenges and Choices of Jesuit Education in Ranchi, 1947–1960s
After 1947, the Jesuit province of Ranchi faced several challenges: the context of a newly independent country, increasing modernization and industrialization, and growing societal diversity resulting from immigration and urbanization. The Jesuits not only needed to upgrade their primary education, but also had to meet a rising demand for more middle and high schools. They had to make choices: Should they keep uplifting marginalized communities? …
Belgian Monuments of Colonial Violence: The Commemoration of Martyred Missionaries
Present-day scholarship on Black Lives Matter and the decolonization of public space has largely focused on the monuments that have raised societal criticism. Commemorative markers for missionaries have so far largely fallen beyond these debates. This article asks why this has been the case, how missionaries are remembered and in which ways they connect to the present-day criticism of problematic memorials. More particularly, it analyzes the memo…
Mapping the Colonial Past in the Public Space. A Comparison between Belgium and the Netherlands
Both in Belgium and the Netherlands, the colonial past is currently fiercely debated. This review article discusses recent publications on colonial heritage in the public space in the two countries: an academic monograph on Belgian postcolonial memory written by Matthew G. Stanard, a Belgian walking guide authored by Lucas Catherine, and a series of Dutch slavery heritage guides set up by interdisciplinary authors’ collectives. This review articl…
Giving Religion a Place in Development Cooperation: The Perspective of Belgian NGOs
Since the early 2000s an increasing number of publications has led to the emergence of a new research field: religion and development. Much of the literature focuses on defining and classifying faith-based organizations, and attributes distinctive characteristics and comparative advantages to religious actors in contrast to their secular counterparts. In line with more empirically oriented research, this article examines how eight Belgian NGOs pe…
The Eastern Bloc, Human Rights, and the Global Fight against Apartheid
Anti-apartheid advocacy allowed Eastern Bloc countries to reframe their ideological language of solidarity towards African countries into a legalist rhetoric during the 1960s and 70s. Support for international anti-racial discrimination law and self-determination from colonial rule reinforced their ties to Africa after the disenchantment of the Hungarian Uprising. Rights activism against apartheid showcased the socialist Bloc’s active contributio…
Moroccan Migration in Belgium
First volume in the new series CeMIS Migration and Intercultural StudiesMoroccans are one of the largest and most debated migrant groups in Belgium. Moroccan Migration in Belgium analyses diverse facets of this community from a multidisciplinary perspective and addresses the most relevant and some underexposed topics in the rapidly developing field of migration studies. Combining [...]
Moroccan migration in Belgium: More than 50 years of settlement
Moroccans are one of the largest and most debated migrant groups in Belgium. 'Moroccan Migration in Belgium' analyses diverse facets of this community from a multidisciplinary perspective and addresses the most relevant and some underexposed topics in the rapidly developing field of migration studies. Combining various academic disciplines and different research methods, the book offers a panoramic introspection into the dynamic nature of migrati…
Moroccan Migration in Belgium: More than 50 Years of Settlement
The Victory of National Interest: Debates on the Belgian Forced Return Policy, 1998–2013
Based on the 1951 Refugee Convention, persons who have left their country ‘owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion’ are entitled to protection. The principle of non-refoulement provides that ‘no country shall expel or return a refugee against his or her will, in any manner whatsoever, to a territory where he or she fears threats to lif…
Square de Léopoldville of Place Lumumba: De Belgische (post)koloniale herinnering in de publieke ruimte
Square de Léopoldville or Place Lumumba? Belgian (post)colonial memory in the public space The Belgian colonial past is dealt with one-sidedly in the public space. Belgium has hundreds of street names and memorials for white colonials, but not a single tribute to a Congolese. Several colonial monuments have been subject to protest and vandalism, but none of them has been removed or adapted, and only two have been updated with interpretive plaques…
The Benelux and the Cold War: Re-interpreting West-West Relations
What is there new to say on the Low Countries and transatlantic relations during the Cold War? How do recent trends in Cold War research open up uncharted areas to explore these relations from new angles and perspectives? With attention shifting to cultural, global, transnational and multi-centric approaches to the international history of the twentieth century, it would seem that the transatlantic is long passé as a primary frame of reference. A…
Postcolonial Belgium: The Memory of the Congo
Belgium recently celebrated a number of major anniversaries related to its colonial history. This coincides with great societal interest in the Congo and the appearance of an abundance of new books. Strikingly, the prior decade's debates over Leopold II's ‘genocide’ and the assassination of Lumumba appeared to be over. Instead, there was great nostalgia for the Belgian Congo. A single and less critical narrative dominated, epitomized by David Van…
Beyond Western European Idealism: A Comparative Perspective on the Transnational Scope of Belgian Solidarity Movements with Nicaragua, Poland and South Africa in the 1980s
This article compares the mobilization of Belgian society for campaigns professing solidarity with three different issues in the 1980s: the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, the independent trade union Solidarność in the Polish People’s Republic, and the long struggle against apartheid in South Africa. It inquires into the ideological, social, and strategic similarities and differences between these movements, and does so in a broader context b…
The Low Countries and Eastern Europe during the Cold War: Introduction
This introductory article critically assesses the main themes and issues that have dominated the historiography of the Low Countries and Eastern Europe during the Cold War. It reflects on the ways in which new archival sources and trends in international historical research can make the picture of East-West relations more diversified and complex in terms of actors, ideas, and directions. Rather than showing the importance and singularity of the B…
Secretive Spies or Ordinary Clerks? Polish Communist Intelligence Services in Brussels, 1975–89
The declassification of communist state security archives allows for a comparison between the common imagination of intelligence during the Cold War and historical reality. This case study of the Polish secret services in Belgium between 1975 and 1989 shows that some views are accurate. Embassies were the headquarters of espionage activity and all residents-i.e. the coordinators of the 'Belgian' cell-and intelligence officers worked under diploma…
Colonial Streets and Statues: Postcolonial Belgium in the Public Space
status: Published
European Solidarity with Chile – 1970s – 1980s
"The overthrow of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende and the coming to power of a military regime led by Augusto Pinochet on 11 September 1973 drew worldwide attention towards Chile. The political repression shook the world and ignited one of the largest social movements of the 1970s and 80s. Hundreds of solidarity committees and a gamut of human rights and justice organizations mobilized thousands of people. This volume of…
Polish immigration in Belgium since 2004: New dynamics of migration and integration
Belgium has been a traditional destination for Polish immigrants since the 19th century. In the period after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Polish migration to Belgium was largely characterized by pendulum movements and illegal stays, but following Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004, the Belgian labour market was gradually opened to Polish citizens. To date, this new situation has not been the subject of research, and we therefore present the fi…
The Limits of the Transnational
De limieten van het transnationale Deze inleiding bespreekt de plaats van transnationaliteit in het huidige historisch onderzoek en de problemen die in dit volume worden aangekaart. Ze wil nieuw licht werpen op de transnationale reikwijdte van sociale bewegingen na 1968. Ten eerste benadrukt ze de rol van staten en regeringen in het ontstaan en de uitbouw van transnationale sociale bewegingen. Ten tweede toont ze dat er ook andere bewegingen dan …
Lobbying Allies? The NSZZ Solidarność Coordinating Office Abroad, 1982–1989
After the proclamation of martial law in Poland in December 1981, a Solidarność Coordinating Office Abroad was set up. Led by Jerzy Milewski, the organization eliminated any internal opposition and succeeded in being recognized by most Western partners as the foreign representative of Solidarność. The Coordinating Office received most of its financial aid from trade union internationals and from the United States. Initially, the Coordinating Offi…
Inspirées par le Sud: Les mobilisations transnationales Est-Ouest pendant la guerre froide
Dans les premières décennies après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la réaction sociale de l'Europe occidentale à la situation derrière le rideau de fer resta modeste. Malgré les efforts des exilés est-européens, les protestations à grande échelle ne firent leur apparition qu'après l'invasion soviétique de la Hongrie en 1956. Même dans ce cas-là, la constellation de pouvoir de la guerre froide mit des limites à l'idéalisme occidental et fit que le mou…
The Transnational Scope of Western Labour's Solidarity with Solidarność
Western solidarity with Solidarność had a surprisingly limited transnational scope. It was mainly organized within particular nation states and coloured by domestic factors. If there was international collaboration, this was mainly bilateral with Poland, and not multilateral between different Western countries. International organizations involved in the solidarity campaign, such as the ICFTU, the WCL, and the ILO, could hardly break open borders…
Families, Foreignness, Migration
peer reviewed
Colonial Streets and Statues: Postcolonial Belgium in the Public Space
status: Published
Polish immigration in Belgium since 2004: New dynamics of migration and integration
Belgium has been a traditional destination for Polish immigrants since the 19th century. In the period after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Polish migration to Belgium was largely characterized by pendulum movements and illegal stays, but following Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004, the Belgian labour market was gradually opened to Polish citizens. To date, this new situation has not been the subject of research, and we therefore present the fi…
The Temptation of Legitimacy: Exile Politics from a Comparative Perspective
Exile is the experience of impotence. This, at least, would seem to be the lesson of the mid-twentieth century. The heterogeneous groups of Russian exiles scattered across Europe after the Bolshevik seizure of power and the opponents of Franco forced to flee from Spain in the 1930s all had plenty of time to brood on Karl Marx's dictum that exile was no more than ‘a school of scandal and of meanness’. If the causes they espoused were eventually in…
Leopold II, Kimpa Vita and the Local Decolonisation of the Belgian Public Space
Belgium's relationship with its colonial past is a complex one including celebration, forgetting, and recently re-evaluation. This article argues that, unlike what's often thought, decolonization has not stopped in the past few years, but that especially the public space has gradually developed and reached new dimensions. Rather than at the national level, this development has taken place on a regional, and particularly local, level. This article…
Belgian Monuments of Colonial Violence: The Commemoration of Martyred Missionaries
Present-day scholarship on Black Lives Matter and the decolonization of public space has largely focused on the monuments that have raised societal criticism. Commemorative markers for missionaries have so far largely fallen beyond these debates. This article asks why this has been the case, how missionaries are remembered and in which ways they connect to the present-day criticism of problematic memorials. More particularly, it analyzes the memo…
Square de Léopoldville of Place Lumumba: De Belgische (post)koloniale herinnering in de publieke ruimte
Square de Léopoldville or Place Lumumba? Belgian (post)colonial memory in the public space The Belgian colonial past is dealt with one-sidedly in the public space. Belgium has hundreds of street names and memorials for white colonials, but not a single tribute to a Congolese. Several colonial monuments have been subject to protest and vandalism, but none of them has been removed or adapted, and only two have been updated with interpretive plaques…
Lobbying Allies? The NSZZ Solidarność Coordinating Office Abroad, 1982–1989
After the proclamation of martial law in Poland in December 1981, a Solidarność Coordinating Office Abroad was set up. Led by Jerzy Milewski, the organization eliminated any internal opposition and succeeded in being recognized by most Western partners as the foreign representative of Solidarność. The Coordinating Office received most of its financial aid from trade union internationals and from the United States. Initially, the Coordinating Offi…
Inspirées par le Sud: Les mobilisations transnationales Est-Ouest pendant la guerre froide
Dans les premières décennies après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la réaction sociale de l'Europe occidentale à la situation derrière le rideau de fer resta modeste. Malgré les efforts des exilés est-européens, les protestations à grande échelle ne firent leur apparition qu'après l'invasion soviétique de la Hongrie en 1956. Même dans ce cas-là, la constellation de pouvoir de la guerre froide mit des limites à l'idéalisme occidental et fit que le mou…
Families, Foreignness, Migration
peer reviewed
Exiles' strategies for lobbying in international organisations: Eastern European participation in the Nouvelles Équipes Internationales
European and international organisations after the Second World War united not only Western European politicians but also Eastern European exiles. The latter are often represented one‐sidedly: either as powerless members or as important trailblazers of future European unity. This article tries to analyse their role more systematically by means of the case of the Nouvelles Équipes Internationales, the Christian Democratic ‘International’. It state…
Exiles' strategies for lobbying in international organisations: Eastern European participation in the Nouvelles Équipes Internationales
European and international organisations after the Second World War united not only Western European politicians but also Eastern European exiles. The latter are often represented one‐sidedly: either as powerless members or as important trailblazers of future European unity. This article tries to analyse their role more systematically by means of the case of the Nouvelles Équipes Internationales, the Christian Democratic ‘International’. It state…
The Temptation of Legitimacy: Exile Politics from a Comparative Perspective
Exile is the experience of impotence. This, at least, would seem to be the lesson of the mid-twentieth century. The heterogeneous groups of Russian exiles scattered across Europe after the Bolshevik seizure of power and the opponents of Franco forced to flee from Spain in the 1930s all had plenty of time to brood on Karl Marx's dictum that exile was no more than ‘a school of scandal and of meanness’. If the causes they espoused were eventually in…
Influences of Central European Labour Migrants on their Western Employers
In matters of migration, it is not only the immigrants that are influenced by the new environment in their host country. The autochthonous population of the receiving country is affected by contact with the newcomers. This article analyses the impact of Polish domestic and construction workers on their employers in Leuven, a mid-size Belgian town. It shows that there was much more contact between employer and employee than one might have expected…
Solidarność, the Western World, and the End of the Cold War
It is not unusual to credit certain individuals with having put and end to the Cold War. This essay discusses some of the most important of these people, focusing on their role in the Polish crisis of 1980–82: Mikhail Gorbachev, John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and Lane Kirkland. The author arrives at the conclusion that the question of the extent to which individuals can be held responsible for the victory over the Soviet Union is wrong, because it …
Families, Foreignness, Migration
peer reviewed
The Transnational Scope of Western Labour's Solidarity with Solidarność
Western solidarity with Solidarność had a surprisingly limited transnational scope. It was mainly organized within particular nation states and coloured by domestic factors. If there was international collaboration, this was mainly bilateral with Poland, and not multilateral between different Western countries. International organizations involved in the solidarity campaign, such as the ICFTU, the WCL, and the ILO, could hardly break open borders…
The Limits of the Transnational
De limieten van het transnationale Deze inleiding bespreekt de plaats van transnationaliteit in het huidige historisch onderzoek en de problemen die in dit volume worden aangekaart. Ze wil nieuw licht werpen op de transnationale reikwijdte van sociale bewegingen na 1968. Ten eerste benadrukt ze de rol van staten en regeringen in het ontstaan en de uitbouw van transnationale sociale bewegingen. Ten tweede toont ze dat er ook andere bewegingen dan …
Lobbying Allies? The NSZZ Solidarność Coordinating Office Abroad, 1982–1989
After the proclamation of martial law in Poland in December 1981, a Solidarność Coordinating Office Abroad was set up. Led by Jerzy Milewski, the organization eliminated any internal opposition and succeeded in being recognized by most Western partners as the foreign representative of Solidarność. The Coordinating Office received most of its financial aid from trade union internationals and from the United States. Initially, the Coordinating Offi…
Inspirées par le Sud: Les mobilisations transnationales Est-Ouest pendant la guerre froide
Dans les premières décennies après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la réaction sociale de l'Europe occidentale à la situation derrière le rideau de fer resta modeste. Malgré les efforts des exilés est-européens, les protestations à grande échelle ne firent leur apparition qu'après l'invasion soviétique de la Hongrie en 1956. Même dans ce cas-là, la constellation de pouvoir de la guerre froide mit des limites à l'idéalisme occidental et fit que le mou…
European Solidarity with Chile – 1970s – 1980s
"The overthrow of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende and the coming to power of a military regime led by Augusto Pinochet on 11 September 1973 drew worldwide attention towards Chile. The political repression shook the world and ignited one of the largest social movements of the 1970s and 80s. Hundreds of solidarity committees and a gamut of human rights and justice organizations mobilized thousands of people. This volume of…
Polish immigration in Belgium since 2004: New dynamics of migration and integration
Belgium has been a traditional destination for Polish immigrants since the 19th century. In the period after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Polish migration to Belgium was largely characterized by pendulum movements and illegal stays, but following Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004, the Belgian labour market was gradually opened to Polish citizens. To date, this new situation has not been the subject of research, and we therefore present the fi…
Postcolonial Belgium: The Memory of the Congo
Belgium recently celebrated a number of major anniversaries related to its colonial history. This coincides with great societal interest in the Congo and the appearance of an abundance of new books. Strikingly, the prior decade's debates over Leopold II's ‘genocide’ and the assassination of Lumumba appeared to be over. Instead, there was great nostalgia for the Belgian Congo. A single and less critical narrative dominated, epitomized by David Van…
Beyond Western European Idealism: A Comparative Perspective on the Transnational Scope of Belgian Solidarity Movements with Nicaragua, Poland and South Africa in the 1980s
This article compares the mobilization of Belgian society for campaigns professing solidarity with three different issues in the 1980s: the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, the independent trade union Solidarność in the Polish People’s Republic, and the long struggle against apartheid in South Africa. It inquires into the ideological, social, and strategic similarities and differences between these movements, and does so in a broader context b…
The Low Countries and Eastern Europe during the Cold War: Introduction
This introductory article critically assesses the main themes and issues that have dominated the historiography of the Low Countries and Eastern Europe during the Cold War. It reflects on the ways in which new archival sources and trends in international historical research can make the picture of East-West relations more diversified and complex in terms of actors, ideas, and directions. Rather than showing the importance and singularity of the B…
Secretive Spies or Ordinary Clerks? Polish Communist Intelligence Services in Brussels, 1975–89
The declassification of communist state security archives allows for a comparison between the common imagination of intelligence during the Cold War and historical reality. This case study of the Polish secret services in Belgium between 1975 and 1989 shows that some views are accurate. Embassies were the headquarters of espionage activity and all residents-i.e. the coordinators of the 'Belgian' cell-and intelligence officers worked under diploma…
Colonial Streets and Statues: Postcolonial Belgium in the Public Space
status: Published
Square de Léopoldville of Place Lumumba: De Belgische (post)koloniale herinnering in de publieke ruimte
Square de Léopoldville or Place Lumumba? Belgian (post)colonial memory in the public space The Belgian colonial past is dealt with one-sidedly in the public space. Belgium has hundreds of street names and memorials for white colonials, but not a single tribute to a Congolese. Several colonial monuments have been subject to protest and vandalism, but none of them has been removed or adapted, and only two have been updated with interpretive plaques…
The Benelux and the Cold War: Re-interpreting West-West Relations
What is there new to say on the Low Countries and transatlantic relations during the Cold War? How do recent trends in Cold War research open up uncharted areas to explore these relations from new angles and perspectives? With attention shifting to cultural, global, transnational and multi-centric approaches to the international history of the twentieth century, it would seem that the transatlantic is long passé as a primary frame of reference. A…
Moroccan Migration in Belgium: More than 50 Years of Settlement
The Victory of National Interest: Debates on the Belgian Forced Return Policy, 1998–2013
Based on the 1951 Refugee Convention, persons who have left their country ‘owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion’ are entitled to protection. The principle of non-refoulement provides that ‘no country shall expel or return a refugee against his or her will, in any manner whatsoever, to a territory where he or she fears threats to lif…
Moroccan Migration in Belgium
First volume in the new series CeMIS Migration and Intercultural StudiesMoroccans are one of the largest and most debated migrant groups in Belgium. Moroccan Migration in Belgium analyses diverse facets of this community from a multidisciplinary perspective and addresses the most relevant and some underexposed topics in the rapidly developing field of migration studies. Combining [...]
Moroccan migration in Belgium: More than 50 years of settlement
Moroccans are one of the largest and most debated migrant groups in Belgium. 'Moroccan Migration in Belgium' analyses diverse facets of this community from a multidisciplinary perspective and addresses the most relevant and some underexposed topics in the rapidly developing field of migration studies. Combining various academic disciplines and different research methods, the book offers a panoramic introspection into the dynamic nature of migrati…
The Eastern Bloc, Human Rights, and the Global Fight against Apartheid
Anti-apartheid advocacy allowed Eastern Bloc countries to reframe their ideological language of solidarity towards African countries into a legalist rhetoric during the 1960s and 70s. Support for international anti-racial discrimination law and self-determination from colonial rule reinforced their ties to Africa after the disenchantment of the Hungarian Uprising. Rights activism against apartheid showcased the socialist Bloc’s active contributio…
Mapping the Colonial Past in the Public Space. A Comparison between Belgium and the Netherlands
Both in Belgium and the Netherlands, the colonial past is currently fiercely debated. This review article discusses recent publications on colonial heritage in the public space in the two countries: an academic monograph on Belgian postcolonial memory written by Matthew G. Stanard, a Belgian walking guide authored by Lucas Catherine, and a series of Dutch slavery heritage guides set up by interdisciplinary authors’ collectives. This review articl…
Giving Religion a Place in Development Cooperation: The Perspective of Belgian NGOs
Since the early 2000s an increasing number of publications has led to the emergence of a new research field: religion and development. Much of the literature focuses on defining and classifying faith-based organizations, and attributes distinctive characteristics and comparative advantages to religious actors in contrast to their secular counterparts. In line with more empirically oriented research, this article examines how eight Belgian NGOs pe…
Political science (27 works) · Law (23 works) · Politics (18 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Law (17 works) · History (11 works) · Political economy (8 works) · Communism, Protests, Social Movements (7 works) · Geography (7 works) · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics (7 works)