In its very conception, the museum as an institution functions as a symbol and social lever for the consolidation of the Eurocentric idea of “universal knowledge” production, while concurrently serving the purpose of “civilizing” the “Other”. With the liberation of African countries from colonial grip following World War II, and especially in the 1960s and 1970s, debates around decolonizing museums gained importance among the newly established international circles of museum professionals.

The online International Workshop “Alternative Forms of Globalization? The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) as Development Organization” was held between 13. and 14. November at the University of Vienna and organized by Berthold Unfried and Claudia Martínez Hernández within the framework of the FWF/Austrian Science Fund sponsored research project “Entanglements between Cuba and the German Democratic Republic (GDR): mobilities, exchanges, circulations within the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance”.

In its introduction, BERTHOLD UNFRIED (Wien) highlighted that by admitting “underdeveloped” (“subdesarrollado” by Cuba’s own self-definition) extra European states as members, the CMEA was confronted with the problem of massive economic inequality among its members on a global scale.