Calendrier du 28 février 2024
Development Economics Seminar
Du 28/02/2024 de 16:30 à 18:00
R2.01
GOMES Joseph Flavian (Economics School of Louvain and the Institute of Economic and Social Research (IRES))
It’s a Bird, it’s a Plane, it’s Superman! Using Mass Media to Fight Intolerance
écrit avec Alex Armand, Paul Atwell, Joseph F. Gomes, Giuseppe Musillo, Yannik Schenk
This paper examines the impact of progressive radio programming on societal change during the early period of desegregation in post-World War II U.S. We investigate the influence of the popular radio show “The Adventures of Superman” on promoting tolerance and exposing the bigotry of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in 1946. Using state-of-the-art radio propagation models, we map the broadcast’s exposure and analyze its effects on various socioeconomic outcomes. We find that counties with higher exposure to the broadcast experienced a significant decrease in support for segregationist political candidates. Individuals potentially exposed to the Superman program during their childhood exhibited more progressive attitudes towards racial desegregation and African Americans later in life. These individuals were also more likely to be in interracial marriages and less likely to participate in the Vietnam war. Additionally, we uncover significant and progressive long-term effects of the radio coverage on county-level outcomes such as the presence of active KKK branches, civil rights organizations, and accessibility of non-discriminatory services for African Americans listed in the “Green Books.” These results underscore the potential of progressive radio programming as a catalyst for social change and contribute to our understanding of how media shapes societal attitudes and beliefs.
Economic History Seminar
Du 28/02/2024 de 12:00 à 13:30
R1.09
IANDOLO Alessandro (UCL)
Arrested Development: The Soviet Union in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali, 1955-1968.
Arrested Development examines the USSR's involvement in West Africa during the 1950s and 1960s as aid donor, trade partner, and political inspiration for the first post-independence governments in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali.
Buoyed by solid economic performance in the 1950s, the USSR opened itself up to the world and launched a series of programs aimed at supporting the search for economic development in newly independent countries in Africa and Asia. These countries, emerging from decades of colonial domination, looked at the USSR as an example to strengthen political and economic independence. Based on extensive research in Russian and West African archives, Alessandro Iandolo explores the ideas that guided Soviet engagement in West Africa, investigates the projects that the USSR sponsored "on the ground," and analyzes their implementation and legacy.
The Soviet specialists who worked in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali collaborated with West African colleagues in drawing ambitious development plans, supervised the construction of new transport infrastructure, organized collective farms and fishing cooperatives, conducted geological surveys and mineral prospecting, set up banking systems, managed international trade, and staffed repairs workshops and ministerial bureaucracies alike. The exchanges and clashes born out of the encounter between Soviet and West African ideas, ambitions, and hopes about development reveal the USSR as a central actor in the history of economic development in the twentieth century.