Postdoctoral Fellowship: Constructing Spaceship Earth: UN Scientists and the Cold War Origins of Sustainable Development

本研究探讨了科学技术研究领域的一个关键问题：跨国专家群体如何以及为什么创造全球科学知识，以及产生了什么后果。为了做到这一点，该研究探讨了全球可持续发展的想法如何在第二次世界大战后的四分之一世纪中成为科学家，活动家和政治家的重要关注点。基于多国档案研究，包括联合国（UN）的记录，它调查了由联合国机构协调的国际社会和环境科学项目，以分析由共同价值观，规范和实践团结起来的跨国专家社区的发展，这些共同价值观，规范和实践被称为可持续发展。通过研究与联合国机构有关的科学项目，阐明了技术专家在从帝国向国际世界秩序过渡中的关键作用。这项研究丰富了对价值观与科学之间相互关系的理解，表明对于战后国际主义科学家来说，基础研究的目标是培养一个共同价值观的世界共同体。更广泛地说，这项研究有助于社会和历史的理解，如何专业知识和民主可以在全球化时期的协调。这项研究培养了博士后研究人员，创建新的课程材料，并创建学术出版物，阐明了战后的分歧之间的跨国专家社区，寻求解决当地和国家问题的进一步政治和经济全球一体化，以及那些经常感到被全球化这股明显不可抗拒的力量所疏远的公众。

This study investigates a key problem in the field of science and technology studies: how and why transnational expert communities create global scientific knowledge, and with what consequences. To do so, the study examines how the idea of global sustainable development became a vital concern for scientists, activists, and politicians during the quarter-century following World War II. Based on multinational archival research, including records at the United Nations (UN), it investigates international social and environmental scientific projects coordinated by UN agencies to analyze the development of a transnational community of experts united by shared values, norms, and practices that came to be known as sustainable development. By studying scientific projects affiliated with UN agencies, the key role of technical experts in the transition from an imperial to an international world order is illuminated. The study enriches understanding of the reciprocal relationship between values and science, demonstrating that for post-war internationalist scientists, the objective of basic research was to cultivate a world community of shared values. More broadly, this research contributes social and historical understanding of how expertise and democracy can be reconciled during periods of globalization.The study trains a postdoctoral researcher, creates new course materials, and create academic publications that illuminates the postwar origins of the divide between a transnational community of experts that seeks solutions to local and national problems in further political and economic global integration, and publics who often feel alienated by the apparently irresistible forces of globalization.