Knowledge and Development V E-Book

• Herausgeber: StudienVerlag
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Schriftenreihe der OeAD-GmbH
• Sprache: Deutsch

Seitenzahl: 328

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Like the four previous volumes, this book continues the publication of the best texts from the Young Talent Austrian Development Research Award. In 2023, the theme of the prize was Energy Transition and the Global South. It also includes contributions of the winners of the main prize: a reflection on Austria's colonial history, and a theoretical treatise on the concept of climate colonialism that characterizes climate crisis as a global crisis of distribution and justice. As different as the contributions presented here may be, they are all linked by a central theme: Whether Ugandan climate activists, palm oil farmers in Indonesia, opponents of lithium mining in Argentina, Indian women workers in enormous heat, or villagers in Uganda who benefit from simple emissionreducing solar technology, climate change and the resulting energy transition always have – in addition to technological and economic aspects – a central social dimension that must be negotiated sociopolitically and which must also be critically accompanied by social science. Development research also makes an important contribution to these diverse transformation processes – not least as a peace project.

Leseprobe

Andreas J. Obrecht (Ed.)Knowledge and Development V

Schriftenreihe der OeAD-GmbHBand 11

I Introduction

Development Research as a Peace Project

Andreas J. Obrecht

II Contributions by the Winners of the Austrian Development Research Award 2023

Habsburg’s Colonial Empire and Austrian Identity

Walter Sauer

Climate Colonialism – a Travel Guide through Origins, Theory, and Case Studies

Karin Fischer

III Energy Transition and the Global South: Contributions to the Young Talent Austrian Development Research Award 2023

Climate (In)Justice as a Global Challenge: A Framing Analysis of the Climate Justice Movement in Uganda

Clemens Bohl

Palm Oil and the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive II: A Green Trade War? Analyzing the Impact on EU-Indonesia’s Bilateral Relations and the Future of the Palm Oil Sector in Indonesia

Nisasia Ekafitrina

Inequalities in Resource-Based Global Production Networks: Resistance to Lithium Mining in Argentina (Jujuy) and Portugal (Região Norte)

Felix Malte Dorn

“Come Hail or Heatwave”: Utilizing Just Energy Transition to Address Occupational Heat Stress among Female Construction Workers in Hyderabad, India

Ambika Sairam

Safe Water and Saved CO2: CO2 Reductions and SDG Impacts of Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) with WADI – Project Evaluation of “Clean Air and Safe Drinking Water for Soroti” (Uganda)

Max Reisinger

Authors

I Introduction

Andreas J. Obrecht

Development Research as a Peace Project

At the beginning of May 2024, I am in the Algerian city of Oran, or rather in an austere suburb called Ain El Turk. From the balcony of my slightly shabby apartment right on the beach, I have a magnificent view of the calm Mediterranean Sea in the morning. The whitecaps of the waves lap leisurely at the golden yellow beach; far out, there is a container ship on its way towards the Strait of Gibraltar. As enchanting as the sight of the sea swaying in the early summer sun may be, there is hardly any romantic elation. The apparent idyll cannot be separated in my mind from the thousands of people who drowned in this sea on their journey to the coasts of Europe – a sea of death and the dead.

In the north, there is the promise of Europe to which people set off again and again – fleeing persecution, poverty, and the consequences of climate change, and in search of a better economic life that can also support those who are staying at home. In the south, there are mountains and salt lakes, rocks and screes that end up in the vast Saharan sand desert. Following the secession of South Sudan from North Sudan, Algeria is the largest country on the African continent in terms of area. Many of the people who are sent on the risky journey from the Maghreb coast to the European mainland by unscrupulous traffickers previously crossed the vast desert – with enormous exertions and the use of great resources. The narrative of Europe – the continent of milk and honey – has, shockingly, lost none of its appeal to date. The more difficult the situation in the migrants’ countries of origin, the more they cling to this narrative – despite all the deaths in the sea.

From the port city of Oran, I travel to Saida on the next day – a city in the interior of the country, which is reached after a two-hour drive. The University of Saida is one of the new members of the Austrian-African university network Africa-UniNet,1 which has invited me as well as representatives of sub-Saharan universities that are active in the network to an international meeting lasting several days. Africa-UniNet, financed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF), is a great initiative that was launched around five years ago by the then minister of science, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Heinz Faßmann. Seventy-two higher education institutions now take part in the network, 26 from Austria and 46 from a total of 19 African countries. The network sees itself as a communication platform for transnational research between Austrian higher education institutions and universities and scientific institutions on the African continent, and as a funding instrument for excellent research on the thematic guidelines of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Up to six higher education institutions can take part in the current 80 or so research projects: at least one of them must be from Austria. The activities also promote cooperation between African universities in particular and thus contribute to a lively scientific exchange across many borders – the “North-South-South cooperations” go beyond national, linguistic, social, and cultural borders, are implemented in different jurisdictions, and orient their scientific questions and problem-solving approaches towards the necessities of a common sustainable future that relies more on cooperation than on competition. This not only brings the Austrian scientific landscape closer to that of our neighboring continent, but the continent’s scientific areas – which are often still separated from each other due to the borders drawn by colonialism – also communicate with each other and work together more closely. This is also shown by the regional distribution of African member institutions from the following countries: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda. The broad regional distribution also accounts for the great diversity of topics and research approaches. More than 100 scientific disciplines have been represented in the project work to date.

Research in diverse knowledge areas works when those involved, regardless of discipline, are willing to learn from each other, to reject hegemonic knowledge, and to practice epistemological and cultural openness as the basis for joint scientific thinking and action. It is a great challenge and opportunity not just to demand respect, mutual understanding, and trust, but also to establish them in concrete scientific relationships. Every emphatic understanding of other worlds of knowledge and lifeworlds enlarges the space in which peaceful cooperation can take place, not only in science but in all sectors: cultural, social, economic, and sociopolitical.

“Science and Research for Development” was established at the OeAD in 2009 – with the takeover of the “Commission for Development Research” (KEF), which until then had been established at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), and the acquisition of the “Austrian Partnership Program in Higher Education and Research for Development” (APPEAR)2 in a Europe-wide call for proposals. Prior to this, the OeAD had gained decades of experience in implementing various scholarship programs supporting students from developing countries. Austrian universities have always had scientific cooperations with institutional partners in countries of the Global South, although these were mostly based on the personal commitment of individual researchers. KEF and APPEAR were the first systematic funding channels for development research projects that are committed to a common basic understanding.

Development research is not understood as a discipline, but as an interdisciplinary and in some cases transdisciplinary field of research that draws on a wide variety of academic subjects but has an overarching normative goal – improving the living conditions of people in poor countries and marginalized regions. The SDGs proclaimed by the international community in 2015 have also given this understanding a boost. Solution-oriented research must focus on promoting a prosperous future for all people – especially also in economically difficult regions – and contribute to the gradual implementation of the SDGs. Moreover, two central analytical orientations have emerged in the debate on this relatively young interdisciplinary field of research, both of which are of central importance for understanding global and local problems and their possible solutions – research for development and research on development. Both approaches complement each other in the analysis and are also reflected in this publication.

One of the prerequisites for the establishment of Africa-UniNet is the aforementioned APPEAR program, which promotes development research in the ADC’s priority countries3 at the following three levels: research, teaching, and management of higher education institutions. An important overarching goal is institutional capacity development and a contribution to poverty reduction in the respective countries. The projects in this program are also based on cooperation between at least one Austrian higher education institution and universities or scientific institutions in the partner countries. Forty-five multi-year higher education cooperation projects have been successfully completed to date. Twenty-two projects are currently implemented. Moreover, more than 180 scholarship holders successfully completed their academic education at Austrian universities with a master’s or PhD degree in the APPEAR program, which has been running since 2010 – most of them within the framework of the project activities. Although only four partner countries in sub-Saharan Africa are currently taking part in APPEAR, the African APPEAR alumni played a significant part in the development of the Austrian-African university network Africa-UniNet and also in the preparation of scientific cooperations. Alumni are ambassadors of an Austrian research and academic tradition that is open-minded and sensitive to specific cultural contexts, who contribute expertise and are not afraid to embrace new experiences and creative, innovative methodological and analytical approaches.

It is not only the situation of ongoing migration across the Mediterranean that has worsened massively in the last few years but also the political, economic, and social conditions in many countries for which development research is particularly relevant. Following the Russian invasion of the Crimean Peninsula, the war in Syria, the isolationist US foreign policy under the Trump administration, Brexit, etc., the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2020, also plunged the high-tech world into unprecedented apathy for almost two years. The political, social and economic consequences of global lockdowns were enormous and still have an impact today. The pandemic had finally been overcome to some extent – but in February 2022 the world was once again holding its breath: many people, including those with geopolitical knowledge, had considered Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which violated international law, to be impossible until the very end, so the horror at this breach of taboo in the middle of Europe was all the greater. It was a conventional war of aggression waged with utmost severity, aimed at the territorial conquest of a neighboring country, the legitimacy of which was recognized by the aggressor thirty years ago as binding under international law. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has subsequently exacerbated the geopolitical and economic situation worldwide. Besides food shortages, interrupted supply chains, and costly armaments worldwide, there was a steady rise in inflation not only in the OECD countries, but also in “poor” countries in particular – especially due to the increase in energy costs, which were partly due to a reduction in Russian oil and gas supplies.

The tendency to use violence and military intervention as a means of enforcing political interests has increased in many countries and regions of the world in the last few years. In the wake of the Russian war of aggression, for example, international legal frameworks, international law and humanitarian conventions have been increasingly violated, or at least disregarded, by political actors to violently enforce unilateral interests. We encounter examples of “brutalization” in many different contexts, including in those countries in which our institutional partners carry out development research projects. The past year4 was characterized by major challenges in this regard, which can be briefly outlined by the political developments: In 2023, the repeatedly announced summer offensive by the Ukrainian armed forces began too late, namely at a time when the Russian defense lines of the occupied Ukrainian territories had already been massively expanded. The offensive, which cost a great number of lives on both sides, only led to marginal recaptures of territory – often just a few kilometers. Commentators spoke of a positional war – just like it often was the case in the First World War. In early fall, the offensive came to a complete standstill, and with it the hope of a turning point in the war died. What is more, the lack of success of the Ukrainian offensive increasingly called into question Western involvement (especially military aid) – a political reaction that was exacerbated by the rise of right-wing movements in Europe and the preelection campaign in the USA. The first half of 2024 was characterized by new arms supplies but also a long delay in the release of US military aid. By the time this book went to press, the military situation in Ukraine had deteriorated further and discussions about intensifying military aid were continuing. Meanwhile, strategic targets in Russia itself are attacked with “Western weapons,” which could lead to further escalation. This situation inevitably leads to constant uncertainty in the post-Soviet APPEAR countries of Moldova and Georgia, which contain Russian-controlled territories that could play a central strategic part in any further attempt by the Russian Federation to “reconquer” post-Soviet territories.

In the post-Soviet APPEAR country of Armenia, the government of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh in Nagorno-Karabakh was forced to surrender in a lightning operation by the Azerbaijani armed forces in September 2023. This resulted in the flight and expulsion – which Azerbaijan denies – of more than 100,000 Armenians. The reconquest of the South Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan led to a wave of internal refugees that was difficult for the poor country of Armenia to cope with, but also fundamentally called into question Russia’s role as Armenia’s “protecting power.” Russia has moved strategically closer to Azerbaijan as a result of the war in Ukraine. The APPEAR Armenia projects are – according to reports – not affected by these latest developments, although uncertainty and mistrust towards the aggressive neighbor characterize the basic political mood.

At least 1,140 people were murdered in the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Military posts near the border were overwhelmed, horrific massacres were carried out in settlements, small towns, and at a music festival in southern Israel, and more than 200 hostages were taken and abducted to Gaza. The Israeli army then bombed and invaded Gaza with the declared aim of destroying Hamas militarily, of destroying the terrorist organization’s military infrastructure and extensive tunnel system, and freeing the Israeli hostages. At the time of going to press, the Gaza war was still raging, with enormous losses among the Palestinian civilian population – so far more than 37,0005 people have lost their lives. The APPEAR project in Gaza had to be suspended after the bombing of our institutional partner, the Islamic University, in the second week of the war. Despite voices of concern, especially from the United Nations and the US administration, that the scale of Israel’s military response is inappropriate and that there is far too little humanitarian aid available for the suffering civilian population in Gaza, and despite clear condemnations by the International Criminal Court, the campaign continues. At the time this book went to press, neither a ceasefire nor a medium-term peace plan was in sight and the majority of hostages – if still alive at all – were still in the hands of Hamas.

In Ethiopia, too, there were new acts of war in the last year that had nothing directly to do with the largely settled conflict in Tigray. The region affected was Amhara, where Bahir Dar University is located – a long-standing institutional partner of Austrian development research. Fighting groups from different ethnic groups rebelled against the government of the province, which they reject as a puppet government appointed by the central government in Addis Ababa. In the hot phase of the conflict, more than 100 fighters and civilians were killed every day. Bahir Dar University was closed and mobility was generally extremely restricted. The conflict has now lost some of its intensity and it is to be hoped that this development will continue.

In West Africa and the Sahel, the security situation has also tended to deteriorate. The forced withdrawal of French troops from Niger has boosted the narrative that a “local dictator” is in any case better than a “neo-colonial or post-colonial puppet government.” The entire region also suffers from the destabilizing influence of Islamist groups such as Boko Haram. In a number of West African countries, such as Mali, Russian mercenary troops are taking advantage of the power vacuum. In Burkina Faso, where both APPEAR and Africa UniNet projects are carried out, the situation is considered insecure, especially in the north of the country.

Not only the new wars and violent conflicts but also their socioeconomic consequences destabilize regions and countries in which Austrian scientists conduct development research together with local institutional partners. These are sometimes difficult, sometimes even dangerous research situations. As a funding institution, we closely monitor and analyze the political situation in the countries, have a close exchange of information with colleagues on-site and coordinate with the project managers in each case. Applied development research has always been a very challenging, transdisciplinary field of science, and has become even more so in the uncertain and often violent present.

Violent conflicts always exacerbate poverty. Global achievements in reducing absolute poverty have already been partially undone by the COVID-19 pandemic and conflicts have exacerbated this trend in the last two years. High inflation and a significant rise in food prices are direct and indirect consequences of war in many countries. It seems as if the world has entered a revisionist era in which violence is once again legitimate to enforce political and territorial interests.6 The Russian Federation’s war of aggression on Ukrainian territory in the middle of Europe, which violates international law and is imperialist and conventionally waged, represents a breach of taboo in this respect. Besides economic and political upheaval, it has led to a massive, new arms race worldwide, tying up important resources for sectors that promote and sustain life. Against this backdrop, development research – i.e., the creative search for joint solutions for the gradual implementation of the SDGs – once again presents itself as a peace project. Scientific cooperation in the sense of sustainable development research is more important than ever.

So, while global armament has begun again and Europe is filling its armories – to support Ukraine but also to show its willingness to defend itself – the security policy debate is essentially reduced to military and strategic considerations. However, it is vital to remember that security and peace are not only achieved through military deterrence but above all through cooperation and collaboration – wherever this is institutionally possible. This applies also to transnational institutions and transnational science. The European programs promote openness to the world – from Erasmus experiences abroad for young people, and cooperation in teaching and research, to major transnational science initiatives to, for example, combat climate change. Conflicts can only be resolved by means of cooperation. The geopolitical situation will only ease if more space is given to unprejudiced communication and an appreciative interest. This starts on a small scale – thinking together, experimenting, observing, recognizing, sharing what we have recognized and putting it into practice so that people’s living conditions improve, so that the stressed planet can recover, and an unlimited future becomes possible. This is what the peace project of development research is all about, which is incompatible with ethnocentrism, nationalism, and hegemonic politics. The knowledge generated by development research contributes to a sustainably organized world that sees itself as the sum of interdependent and interacting parts that cannot be reduced to themselves.

The normative aspect of conducting science for the social, cultural, economic, political, etc. improvement of human living conditions in the context of the United Nations SDGs is inherent in development research. A third focus of “Science and Research for Development Cooperation” at the OeAD is the “Cooperation Development Research” (KoEF) program,7 which is also funded by the BMBWF. Within this framework, projects can be carried out with scientific institutions in those countries8 that are less covered or not covered at all by other Austrian programs. KoEF projects are currently carried out in the following countries: Egypt, Ethiopia, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mongolia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Zambia, Solomon Islands, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam, Zimbabwe.

The systematic promotion of development research with the instruments described here is of recent origin. To support the establishment of this field of research, the Austrian Development Research Award was awarded for the first time in 2013 on the initiative of the then minister of science, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Töchterle. The prize is awarded every two years by the BMBWF in cooperation with the OeAD and honors both established and young scientists for excellent scientific achievements in development research.

In 2023 the main prize was awarded to two outstanding personalities who are an integral part of development research in Austria: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Walter Sauer and Dr. Karin Fischer. Walter Sauer is nationally and internationally renowned for his work on and analysis of Austrian colonial history, in particular museum collections, and as an expert in restitution and repatriation. He is also vividly remembered for his great commitment to the abolition of apartheid policies in the Republic of South Africa. The SADOCC (Southern Africa Documentation and Cooperation Centre), which he founded, also makes a special contribution to the dissemination of knowledge.

Karin Fischer, in turn, made a decisive contribution to establishing the International Development degree program at the University of Vienna. She has also established an internationally renowned research focus on global supply chains at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. In her diverse publications, conference contributions and presentations, she deals with topics such as working conditions, social change, globalization, raw materials, goods and value chains, etc.

Clemens Bohl was awarded the junior researcher’s prize in 2023. The jury’s statement reads: “In his contribution Clemens Bohl pursues a very good and expandable approach and presents a socio-politically highly relevant topic in a solid way and also from a local perspective in order not to lose sight of post-colonial North-South relations. He succeeds in providing a differentiated comparison of the activists’ and the majority population in Uganda’s frames in relation to climate (in)justice in a good and reflective style of writing.” Like the four previous volumes, this book also publishes the best texts of young academics submitted for the Austrian Development Research Award. Moreover, the publisher has asked the two main prize winners to present a central topic of their research work in a separate contribution. In a speech he gave to the German History Society in Sheffield on 8 September 2022, Walter Sauer dispels the myth that Austria was not a colonizing country. In his contribution “Habsburg’s Colonial Empire and Austrian Identity,” he explores the many traces of colonialism in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Karin Fischer opens the debate, which continues in varied ways, in the junior researchers’ texts. With a view to the Global South, she analyses the increasing adoption of the term “climate colonialism” in an academic context and beyond. Further, she characterizes the climate crisis as a global crisis of distribution and justice in her contribution: “Climate Colonialism – a Travel Guide through Origins, Theory, and Case Studies.”

As always, the junior researcher’s prize has a special theme. In 2023 it was “Energy Transition and the Global South.” The five contributions by young academics in the third part of this book cover a broad thematic and geographical range. The text by the prize winner Clemens Bohl – “Climate (In)Justice as a Global Challenge: A Framing Analysis of the Climate Justice Movement in Uganda” – is based on qualitative interviews with Ugandan climate activists and quantitative data. The actors’ interpretative framework of the causes and consequences of manmade climate change, which relate to both local and global contexts, is shown. The results of the qualitative content analysis of the interviews are mirrored by quantitative data from Afrobarometer surveys – thus creating a picture of complex and politically highly topical social developments that also revolve around normative questions of justice and responsibility.

The political dimension of Nisasia Ekafitrina’s contribution is integrated into the analysis of macroeconomic relations between Indonesia and the European Union. Her article “Palm Oil and the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II: A Green Trade War?” describes the potential impact of the EU’s “green policy” on trade relations with Indonesia. Biofuel from palm oil is to be successively reduced from a European perspective. Online interviews with Indonesian government representatives, palm oil industry associations, NGOs, smallholder initiatives, and field research in Jakarta provided the data for this study. The analysis shows the influence of the “green economy” and sustainability narratives on Indonesian national policy as well as the economic and political dominance of the EU, which, despite the initiation of proceedings by Indonesia at the World Trade Organization (WTO), need not expect any “retaliation” from Indonesia.

The third junior researcher’s text deals with another raw material that is of central importance for the energy transition envisaged in Europe: the mining of lithium is directly linked to increased electromobility. Felix Malte Dorn analyzes the growth of lithium mining as an example of the continuation of the “imperial way of life.” Resistance to mining projects is spreading in many places. Using two case studies, the article “Inequalities in Resource-Based Global Production Networks: Resistance to Lithium Mining in Argentina (Jujuy) and Portugal (Região Norte)” analyzes the effects of hegemonic development discourses along global production networks and makes global and intrasocietal inequality structures visible.

In May 2024, the temperature climbed to up to 50 degrees Celsius in parts of India. The heatwave in 2022, which forms the basis of Ambika Sairam’s study, caused the hottest May in 122 years in Hyderabad – with temperatures rising to up to 45 degrees Celsius. The article “Come Hail or Heatwave: Utilizing Just Energy Transition to Address Occupational Heat Stress among Female Construction Workers in Hyderabad, India” examines the living and working conditions of female outdoor construction workers and the social and health consequences of the ever-increasing heatwaves. Additional company benefits and other measures described in the article to cope with the enormous heat stress could alleviate the unacceptable and unhealthy working situation of women – but are far from being implemented.

The final junior researcher’s text in this book takes us back to the East African country of Uganda. Max Reisinger examines a simple but efficient technology for the disinfection of water using solar energy – which also has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions. In his article “Safe Water and Saved CO2: CO2 Reductions and SDG Impacts of Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) with WADI – Project Evaluation of ‘Clean Air and Safe Drinking Water for Soroti’ (Uganda),” the emission reductions compared to the boiling of drinking water are examined against the background of a baseline study. Moreover, the individual and social changes resulting from the implementation of this system are discussed: The results show not only an improvement in the health of the villagers but also time savings, increased autonomy, a stronger sense of community and gradual regeneration of surrounding ecosystems.

As different as the contributions presented here may be, they are all linked by a central theme: Whether it is Ugandan climate activists, palm oil farmers in Indonesia, opponents of lithium mining in Argentina, Indian women workers in enormous heat, or villagers in Uganda who benefit from simple emission-reducing solar technology, climate change and the resulting energy transition always have – besides technological and economic aspects – a central social dimension that must be negotiated in a sociopolitical way and also be critically accompanied by social science. Development research also makes an important contribution to these diverse transformation processes – not least as a peace project.

On this note, the editor wishes to thank the BMBWF for supporting development research in Austria and for making the Austrian Development Research Award – and thus also the publication of this book – possible. Thanks also go to the OeAD, which provides a suitable institutional framework for the professional implementation of the programs, and thanks also go to those who took part in the Austrian Development Research Award and made their scientific expertise and competent contributions available for this publication. The editor also wishes to express special thanks to Dr. Rainer Einzenberger, who was responsible for the organization of the Austrian Development Research Award.

______________

1www.africa-uninet.at

2 APPEAR is the higher education cooperation program of the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC). It is financed by the ADC and implemented by the OeAD. www.appear.at

3 Albania, Armenia, Ethiopia, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Georgia, Moldova, Mozambique, Palestinian territories, Uganda

4 The editorial deadline for this book was July 1, 2024.

5https://www.ochaopt.org/ (July 1, 2024) OCHA – United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

6 The “United Kingdom Peace Index” of the think tank “Institute for Economics & Peace,” which was published in mid-June 2024, shows that violent conflicts are taking place in 92 countries—more than at any time since the Second World War. Austria is in 3rd place on the peace scale—out of a total of 163 countries. The situation has deteriorated in 79 countries in 2023—more than in any other year since the index was introduced in 2008. One direct consequence of this is that 108 countries have increased their military spending https://www.economicsandpeace.org/global-peace-index (28 June 2024).

7https://oead.at/en/cooperations/international-he-cooperations/cooperation-development-research

8 DAC list of recipient countries of the OECD’s Official Development Assistance (ODA)

II Contributions by the Winners of the Austrian Development Research Award 2023

Walter Sauer

Habsburg’s Colonial Empire and Austrian Identity1

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Permit me to start by drawing your attention to a press statement issued by the Austrian Ministry of Culture in January 2022 which includes the following: “Although Austria is not regarded historically as a colonial power, current research has revealed the multiple involvement of the Habsburg monarchy in colonial affairs.”

This sentence is remarkable as it deviates from the longstanding position maintained by government, media, and most civil society that former Austria, meaning the Habsburg Empire, was not or only marginally involved in European expansion overseas. This is a sort of a national consensus, supported by mainstream historiography and also internationally accepted. Research and political debates around colonial legacies of the past, etc., focus on Britain, France, contemporary Germany, and others, but not on Austria, Switzerland, or Scandinavia – countries with a seemingly noncolonial past.

But even if apparently obvious, this perception – which I will name the denialist discourse – leaves some questions unanswered. One of them relates to the paradox: “Austria had no colonies, but it has extensive colonial collections.” This has become an unexpected challenge since President Macron’s announcement to return art works in French museums acquired in colonial contexts to their countries of origin. It has generated political pressure all over Europe and in Austria as well; some – like Achille Mbembe during a recent visit to Vienna – even speak of a moral obligation. Does it mean that the Republic of Austria too has to return certain objects or even whole collections?

In order to respond sensibly to possible claims for the restitution of cultural objects or human remains, we have to understand better how these collections were assembled and whether and how there was a colonial context on which restitution claims can legitimately be based. This is the context not only for the statement of the Ministry of Culture mentioned above but also for the establishment of an international advisory group to make recommendations for a restitution policy as well as for intensified colonial provenance research in Austrian federal museums.

For all these efforts, it is paying off today that a few historians, partly from outside traditional academia, already started to reassess Austria-Hungary’s colonial entanglements twenty years ago – an undertaking which was initially confronted with little interest. What did this reassessment actually entail? We were obviously not aiming at creating “alternative facts.” But our intentions were

• to contribute to a systematic understanding of colonialism as a system which encompassed countries playing different roles – some more militarily aggressive, some more behind-the-scenes, but hardly any country developing and acting outside the system;

• to reinterpret modern Austrian history in the light of contemporary interpretations of colonialism, and on the basis of all available sources (many of which were neglected in the denialist discourse);

• to deal with certain ideological interpretations of Austrian history which – as I will try to show in a moment – are linked more to identity politics than to realities. These interpretations generally aim to position Austria on a global scale in a specific way, and vis-à-vis Germany in particular.

I

Very early, the Habsburg Empire got involved in transatlantic trade – remember the close family connections between Vienna and Madrid – and it established colonial outposts in East Africa, India, and China since the early eighteenth century. This was done relatively late, as before the ruling elite had been occupied by protracted wars against the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. Although trade relations with the Indian Ocean region were profitable, the colonies could not be sustained for long. In the nineteenth century, we see phases of bigger or lesser colonial interests, and a notable absence during the Scramble for Africa. Here lies, indeed, an important difference to West European powers.

But does that mean that the Habsburg Empire – around 1900 the second biggest state in Europe in terms of geographical extension, and the third biggest in terms of population – was disconnected from the colonial system? I don’t think so. There is a popular misconception which simplifies colonialism to a system of state sovereignty over territories with clear-cut starting and independence dates. But in a wider perspective, colonialism was also a process which implied decades, even centuries, of economic, cultural, and political penetration long before these regions became colonies in a constitutional sense. Looking only at “formal empire,” Gallagher and Robinson reminded us already in the 1950s, “is rather like judging the size and character of icebergs solely from the parts above the water-line” – and this is now commonly accepted in the historiography of European expansion.

If we only look at the tip of the iceberg, Habsburg Austria seems largely off the hook. It did not conduct genocide somewhere in Africa, nor was there an Austrian Savorgnan de Brazza, Cecil Rhodes, or Leopold II. On the other hand, there had been numerous, unsuccessful attempts by Austrian stakeholders to acquire colonies since the 1850s, escalating shortly before the opening of the Suez Canal and again around 1900. Furthermore, we notice an economic upswing, massive investments into the navy, participation in the multilateral intervention against the so-called Boxer Rebellion in China, and reinforcements of colonial propaganda that might perhaps have enabled Austria to reach its colonials goals. Had the course of events not been interrupted by World War I, Austria might thus be understood as a colonial power in the making, which – fortunately from today’s perspective – came too late to complete this process.

Looking at the iceberg below the waterline, the picture becomes, in any case, more complex and ambiguous. Unequal trade relations were shaped to the unilateral benefit of Austria or Austria-Hungary. The monarchy participated in all multilateral state meetings on colonial affairs, including the notorious Congo Conference in Berlin, whose decisions were ratified in Vienna. Furthermore, particularly since the 1850s, numerous individuals – adventurers, missionaries, tourists, scientists, as well as emigrants – travelled through regions in Africa and Asia which were still politically independent and thus partly “unknown” to Europeans. Remember the Catholic missionaries in Southern Sudan, or people like Emil Holub, Oscar Baumann, or Samuel Teleki and Ludwig von Höhnel who were among the first or even the first Europeans in what is today Zambia, Rwanda/Burundi, or Northern Kenya. Others could be named as well. Whether on purpose or as a by-product only, they collected evidence on landscape formations, climate conditions, settlement and transport structures, the economic potential, and, not least, political, social, and cultural conditions; and most of them returned with collections of cultural objects, natural specimen, and sometimes human remains, too. They all were part of the general colonial destabilization of the Global South.

Some perceived themselves as forerunners of a specific Austrian(-Hungarian) colonialism, while others found employment in the service of other European powers and so contributed to territorial expansion: of Britain (in South Sudan and East Africa), Portugal (in Angola), Belgium (in the Congo), and, in particular, Germany (in East Africa and the Pacific). By publishing voluminous travelogues, many of them popularized the image of the heroic white explorer in far-off lands, and entrenched derogative, even racist perceptions of local situations.

The conventional discourse insisting on Austria-Hungary’s nonrelevance to colonial affairs – which I call the denialist discourse – understands such activities as essentially nonpolitical and devoted to academic research. The classical evidence for that approach is to be found in a speech delivered by the then president of the Geographical Society in Vienna, Emil Tietze, at the funeral of Emil Holub, a popular “explorer” of Southern Africa, in 1902:

When travellers from other countries, other nations set out for foreign lands, it is not always, but very often for specific goals, the achievement of which directly or indirectly benefits their homeland, be it in political, colonial or commercial terms. Under normal circumstances, the Austrian traveller has no other driving force than the love for science itself and the desire to expand knowledge of other countries through his findings or his collections.

We observe two interesting points here: (1) the attribution of a special quality, if not superiority to Austrians – an ideological element to which I will return later, and (2) the separation of commercial or strategic interests on the one hand (which he terms colonial) and science on the other, which he perceives as a universal good as it advances Europe’s understanding of the world. This conviction serves as a cornerstone of the denialist discourse in our country. Because Austrians devoted their efforts overseas to research, they by definition cannot be regarded as colonial.

From contemporary understandings of colonialism, it becomes, however, clear that science was extremely relevant to colonial expansion as a systemic contribution towards weakening, conquering, and dominating overseas societies and exploiting their resources. In a practical sense, knowledge of geography, geology, linguistics, sociology, and other disciplines was indispensable for the establishment and maintenance of colonial rule. And in a more long-term perspective, research findings from the colonies did contribute to the tremendous dynamics of Europe’s development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: on the one hand, to the development of new technologies and products, and on the other to the information hegemony which Europe or what we call the Global North still enjoy today. Scientific work in colonialism was a one-sided process leading to a world system which is still characterized by the epistemological dominance of the North. In the words of Michael Adas: “Especially in the industrial era science and technology were sources of both Western dominance over African and Asian peoples, male and female, and of males over females in European and American societies.”

To name but a few examples, we could refer

• to the circumnavigation of the globe by the Novara flotilla in the late 1850s, which was designed to underline Austria’s reappearance on the international stage, to do market research abroad, and to carry out a wide range of scientific and collecting tasks, but also had the mandate to proclaim the Nicobar Islands an Austrian colony; or

• to Emil Holub, who in the 1870s investigated the social and political structures of local kingdoms in Botswana and Zambia with the long-term aim to establish Austrian settler communities in this region; or

• to geographer Oscar Baumann, who around 1890 laid the foundations for the Northern Railway Line (still existing today) in what was to become German East Africa; or

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