International organizations and global civil society: histories of the Union of International Associations

Abstract

"The Union of International Associations (UIA), founded in in 1910, sought to coordinate the relations and interests of international organizations across the world. As both an information hub on international organizations and an international body in its own right, the UIA's long history makes it a prism through which to study the field of international organizations and its dynamics. International Organizations and Global Civil Society is the first scholarly study to cover both the Union of International Associations' early years and its more recent past. It brings together experts from a variety of fields, including history, political science and international relations, architecture, digital humanities and library and information studies to explore key issues including the major ideas that were fundamental for the UIA's activities, the UIA's importance for the development of the field of scientific internationalism, the relations between the UIA and other international organizations and the changing position of the UIA when facing geopolitical challenges such as totalitarianism, the World Wars, decolonization, the Cold War and the making of a new world order. The volume sheds light on the history of social, cultural and political internationalism, and the way in which knowledge about international organizations was constructed, collected and conveyed. It addresses a number of current scholarly concerns: the concept of 'global civil society'; the development of international relations as a field of study; the investigation of transnational factors in modern and contemporary history; and the tracing of forerunners to the 'information society'."--Bloomsbury Publishing