But after World War II the socialist bloc practiced alternative models of worldwide collaboration — ones supposedly based on the principles of solidarity, international cooperation, anti-imperialism, and scientific-technological revolution. The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), the economic organization founded by the Soviet Union and its satellites in 1949, abandoned the Stalinist policy of autarkic national economies and aimed at inter-socialist economic collaboration. He recounts this history from the perspective of the cooperation between architects, planners, and construction companies from Eastern Europe and the Global South. He also shows how personal contacts between architects, planners, managers, and engineers from Southern, Eastern, and Western countries impacted urbanization processes in Eastern Europe after the end of socialism. It shows how state-socialist architectural export permeated urbanization processes around the world and continues to do so today.

Source: The North Africa Journal September 15, 2020 12:45 UTC