Presenting a research project that is in its early stages, the workshop is dedicated to a phenomenon that, as both an idea and a reality, is almost universally reviled. Indeed, to say that technocracy gets a bad press would be an understatement. So consensual and visceral has the dislike become that we have lost sight of the utopian energy inherent in schemes for the depoliticised rule by experts.

In the aftermath of the First World War, technocracy appeared as more than a necessary evil. Whether it took the form of planning in economics, government by consultation in politics or the creation of representative bodies in international relations, technocracy carried the promise of a more prosperous, egalitarian and peaceful future. By focussing on writers, intellectuals, academics as well as administrative and political practitioners in France, the UK and Germany, the project sets out to uncover the liberatory potential of technocracy from the sediment of later obloquy. (Text: Danilo Scholz)

ABOUT THE KWI COLLOQUIUM
The KWI Colloquium provides a platform to present and discuss ongoing as well as emerging research projects. It does not solely address research projects from within the KWI, but is also open to guest lectures which tie in with the KWI’s research agenda.

Internal colloquium, open to members of the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr).