Dear all,

Next week, on Wednesday 11th of June, Patricia Hongler will present a paper on the topic “Being Boring. Creating Western Consensus and Objectivity at OECD”.
The seminar takes place at 1 pm in room EAS.E.168 (East Building) at the LSE. Everyone is welcome.

Abstract
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is well known for publishing authoritative but rather lengthy reports on different aspects of economic policy. This paper focuses on the production of two reports, one on the cocoa economy (1956) and one on development assistance (1963). It argues that in these two contexts the construction of 'Western consensus and objectivity' helped to negotiate conflicts arising from decolonisation. The use of statistic data opened up technical spaces of communication and allowed the articulation of clashing interests in a save frame of 'factual' reasoning. Also, the concept of 'Western objectivity' served to ward off what was been constructed as the hysterical and emotional way of newly independent countries to phrase their demands.


Patricia Hongler studied General History and German Literature at the University of Zurich. She completed her MA in 2012 with a thesis on the "Swiss Volunteers for Development Aid" (1964-1974). Since July 2012 she works as a research assistant at the University of Lucerne. She is part of the research group "Macroeconomic Expertise and International Organization. Generalized knowledge in European-African relations 1940s-1960s" led by Professor Daniel Speich Chassé.

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