„No technical solution“
Historische Kontexte einer Moralökonomie der Weltbevölkerung seit den 1950er Jahren
Publication date
2014-01-01
Document type
Sammelbandbeitrag oder Buchkapitel
Author
Organisational unit
Universität Basel
Publisher
Oldenbourg Verlag
ISSN
Book title
Global commons im 20. Jahrhundert : Entwürfe für eine globale Welt
First page
33
Last page
52
Part of the university bibliography
Nein
Language
German
Keyword
Mentalitätsgeschichte
Politikgeschichte und -wissenschaft
Umweltgeschichte
Welt- und Globalgeschichte
Wirtschaftsgeschichte und -wissenschaften
Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Europa
Regional übergreifend
Neuere Geschichte
Epochal übergreifend
Abstract
The concept of world population has figured prominently in discussion about the limits of natural resources in the 1960s and 1970s. Most notably, Garrett Hardin's influential article The Tragedy of the Commons, published in 1968, set the stage for persistent and controversial discussions which framed concepts of global commons by connecting demography, resources, interventionist development policies and moral debates about 'appropriate' living standards. The chapter approaches the global commons through the lens of a critical history of knowledge. By contextualising the global commons within the framework of game theory and human ecology as developed by the developmental biologist Paul Ehrlich, it uncovers the mechanisms with which world population was construed as an epistemological problem. The chapter argues that the global commons served as means to translate this particular scientific discourse into political practice.
Version
Published version
Access right on openHSU
Metadata only access