Call for Papers: "The Global Public: Its Power and Its Limits" (German Historical Institute, London)
Our friends at the German Historical Institute in London are organizing a conference this coming autumn that will surely interest followers of the Toynbee Prize Foundation. Entitled "The Global Public: Its Power and Its Limits," the conference, taking place from October 22-24, 2015 and organized by Valeska Huber (GHI London) and Jürgen Osterhammel (Koblenz),
will explore theories and practices of a global public in the long twentieth century. Recent forms of mass protest and debates around open, censored or intercepted flows of information have triggered debates about the power and limits of the global public. Yet many preconditions for such a global public had their origin in the last decades of the nineteenth century, when global travel became more standardised and new media such as telegraphy, mass print and later film entered the scene. During the two world wars, the global public was mobilized and manipulated in an unprecedented manner. Communication theorists and internationalists of the inter-war period, such as John Dewey, Harold Lasswell and H.G. Wells, saw it as a rising political force that would change future decision-making. In war or crisis, peace activists and humanitarians evoked it as a moral tribunal and normative entity. The organisers of cultural and sporting events hoped for new worldwide audiences, which businessmen and advertisers associated with opportunities for profit-making on a new scale. Politicians recognised the global public as a force for prestige and image cultivation, for instance during the Cold War, turning it into an arena of intense competition. At the same time the related technologies, especially print media and film, and their penetration of different world regions and layers of society provided a field of experimentation, and the limits of the global public, on a geographical and social but also on a normative scale, remained visible.The call for papers elaborates on the themes of the conference. Those interested in participating are requested to send proposals including their name, institutional affiliation or place of residence and title of paper; an abstract no longer than 500 words, and a brief CV to huber@ghil.ac.uk no later than February 28, 2015. Participants not based in the UK should not hesitate to apply: travel and accommodation expenses will be covered.