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ABSTRACT
The article focuses on the American-Yugoslav Project in Regional and Urban Planning Studies (AYP) to explore the Ford Foundation’s role in the international circulation of urban planning expertise during the Cold War. In operation in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1966–1976, AYP was a foundation-funded collaboration between Ljubljana’s Urban Planning Institute of SR Slovenia and a succession of American universities: Cornell, Wayne State, and Johns Hopkins. Its goal was to bring the American regional planning expertise to Yugoslavia and Europe. Using the lens of network-building, the article highlights the geopolitical motivations of Ford’s presence in socialist Yugoslavia before tracing the professional trajectories of AYP’s founding members, American geographer Jack C. Fisher and the Slovenian architect Vladimir Braco Mušič. It then analyzes the project as an exemplary ‘networking instrument’ that connected numerous urban planners across Europe, in turn facilitating the transfer of American cybernetic techniques to Yugoslavia.
Acknowledgments
The archival research for the article was conducted with the help of an ACLS/SSRC/NEH International and Area Studies Fellowship. The author thanks two blind peer reviewers for constructive comments, as well as Mejrema Zatrić and Nika Grabar for sharing their thoughts and research.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Louis Winnick, quoted in Grabar, “Razvoj prostornog planiranja,” 54.
2 Banerjee and Chakravorty, “Transfer of Planning Technology,” 77; Rumbach, “Between the Devil and the Bay of Bengal.”
3 ‘Soft power’ is understood as the ability to exert influence in the international relations through persuasion, rather than coercion; Nye, Soft Power.
4 Berman, The Influence of the Carnegie; Parmar, Foundations of the American Century; Saunders, The Cultural Cold War.
5 Parmar, Foundations of the American Century, 11.
6 Wigley, “Network Fever.”
7 For ANT’s imperative of tracing associations, see: Latour, Reassembling the Social.
8 For a critique of ANT’s ‘flat ontology,’ see, among other sources, Spencer, Critique of Architecture, 150–62.
9 Neumann, “Overpromising Technocracy’s Potential,” 7.
10 Ibid., 2.
11 Ibid.; Grabar, “Planning and Ideology.”
12 Parmar, The Foundations of American Century.
13 Nielsen, The Big Foundations, Chapter 5.
14 Parmar, The Foundations of American Century, 31–64.
15 For such efforts in Chile and Indonesia, see Ibid., Chapters 5 and 7.
16 For a selection of scholarship on the Ford Foundation’s engagement in the field of planning, see: Azadeh, “The 1968 Tehran Master Plan”; Banerjee, “U.S. Planning Expeditions to Postcolonial India”; Collings-Wells, “From Black Power to Broken Windows”; Domhoff, “The Ford Foundation in the Inner City”; Loss, “Remapping the Midcentury Metropolis”; Ollivier, “New Paradigms of Urban Planning in Developing Countries”; Rumbach, “Between the Devil and the Bay of Bengal.”
17 Collings-Wells, “Developing Communities.” For a more general argument about the connections between modernization projects in the US and the Global South, see: Immerwahr, Thinking Small.
18 The array of sources on the cultural Cold War is vast; for a classic title about the US operations in Europe, see: Stonor Saunders, The Cultural Cold War.
19 Stensrud, “Europe not Taken for Granted,” 27.
20 Ibid., 65 ff.
21 Ibid., 62.
22 Lees, Keeping Tito afloat.
23 Konta, US Public Diplomacy in Socialist Yugoslavia; Vučetić, “Američke stipendije u Jugoslaviji.”
24 Vučetić, Coca-Cola Socialism.
25 “Yugoslav Exchange Program of the Ford Foundation.”
26 A Czech fellow of one of the Ford’s symposia formulated the appeal of this strategy succinctly: “Your propaganda is the best propaganda, because it is not propaganda at all.” Quoted in Parmar, The Foundations of the American Century, 108.
27 McVicker, Letter to Waldemar A. Nielsen, September 19, 1961.
28 Ibid.
29 The key target was Vladimir Bakarić, the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament, whose health prevented him from joining the program; Charles McVicker, Letter to Waldemar Nielsen, September 19, 1961. Several leading figures did accept the invitation, including Jakov Sirotković, the future Vice-President of the Yugoslav government, and Savka Dabčević-Kučar, the future President of the Croatian government and prominent dissident.
30 For partial lists see Stensrud, “Europe Not Taken for Granted,” and Konta, US Public Diplomacy in Socialist Yugoslavia, but many additional names can be identified in the Ford Foundation Records.
31 ‘Ted,’ Letter to Shepard Stone, February 15, 1963.
32 McGrath, Letter to Charles McVicker, January 24, 1961.
33 For the exceptional career of Nestorova-Tomić, see Lozanovska, “Performing Equality.”
34 Tolić, Dopo il terremoto, 21–62.
35 Tolić, “Ernest Weissmann’s ‘World City,’” 173–75.
36 Tolić, Dopo il terremoto, 78–82.
37 Skansi, ed., Streets and Neighborhoods, 213.
38 Gordon, Letter to Shepard Stone, January 13, 1964.
39 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 20.
40 Author’s interview with Vladimir Mušič, June 1, 2005. See also: Skansi, ed., Streets and Neighborhoods, 214.
41 Fisher, “Planning the City of Socialist Man”; Fisher, “Urban Analysis”; Fisher, “The Yugoslav Commune.”
42 Fisher mentions federal officials Anton Vratuša and Iztok Žagar, the engineer and pioneer of Yugoslav cybernetics Stjepan Han, and well-known economists Rudolf Bičanić, Branko Horvat, and Jakov Sirotković (of whom the last two were both future fellows of the Ford Foundation). Fisher, Yugoslavia—A Multinational State, xxi–xxiii.
43 Fisher, “The Yugoslav Commune.”
44 According to Fisher, the difference is visible in the distribution of settlements: those in the north-west followed the ‘rank-size’ distribution, whereas those in the south-east followed the ‘primate’ distribution; Ibid., 4.
45 Ibid., 186.
46 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 6.
47 Fisher, ed., City and Regional Planning in Poland, viii.
48 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 12.
49 Skansi, ed., Streets and Neighborhoods, 208.
50 Ravnikar international contacts and influences, however, extended far beyond Le Corbusier; Kulić, “Edvard Ravnikar’s Eclecticism of Taste.”
51 In the history of modern architecture, CIAM was a network par excellence. For the networking efforts of Yugoslav/Croatian architects within CIAM, see: Bjažić Klarin, “CIAM Networking.”
52 Skansi, ed., Streets and Neighborhoods, 24–25.
53 Ibid., 213.
54 Mušič, “Tribute.”
55 A ‘supreme networking figure’ is Mark Wigley’s description of Tyrwhitt; Wigley, “Network Fever,” 96.
56 Shoshkes, Jacqueline Tyrwhitt, 133–34, 154.
57 Tyrwhitt entered the Ford Foundation network through a grant that she received with her University of Toronto colleague Marshall McLuhan (a future frequenter at Delos), and Doxiadis as part of a Harvard Advisory Group engaged in a project in Pakistan. Theodosis, “Victory Over Chaos?” 104–8.
58 Doxiadis, “Ekistics and the Ford Foundation.”
59 Wigley, “Network Fever,” 92.
60 This is how the architectural historian Bogo Zupančič described Mušič; Skansi, ed. Streets and Neighborhoods, 219.
61 CIAM's ‘spiritus agens’ is how Mušič described Tyrwhitt; Mušič, “Tribute.”
62 Tyrwhitt would later visit Mušič in Ljubljana on several occasions; Ibid.
63 Skansi, ed., Streets and Neighborhoods, 214.
64 May, Letter to Mušič.
65 Mumford, “From Master-Planning to Self-Build.”
66 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 102.
67 Hall, Cities of Tomorrow, 392–97; Wakeman, Practicing Utopia, 151–201.
68 Hall, Cities of Tomorrow, 393.
69 Tepina et al., Regionalno prostorno planiranje.
70 Bojić, “Social and Physical Planning”; Zatrić-Šahović, “Geography of Architecture.”
71 Mušič and Repič, “Regionalno planiranje na Urbanističnem inštitutu RS,” 55.
72 The international tourism on the Adriatic coast was undergoing a boom at the time. For tourism planning efforts, see Kranjčević, “Turističko i prostorno planiranje u Hrvatskoj i Jugoslaviji 1960-ih.”
73 Mattioni, Jadranski projekti.
74 Parmar, Foundations of the American Century, 11.
75 Such was the case, for example, with business management programmes developed between Indiana University and the University of Ljubljana, or Stanford and the University of Belgrade; Black, “Evaluation of Current and Prospective Projects in Yugoslavia.”
76 Parmar, Foundations of the American Century, 7.
77 The Americans had difficulty making inroads into East European universities; Neumann, “Overpromising Technocracy’s Potential,” 7.
78 Black, “Evaluation of Current and Prospective Projects in Yugoslavia,” 4.
79 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 1.
80 Just the first grant for the masterplan of Calcutta amounted to $800,000 (around $7.5 million in 2022 adjusted by inflation), followed by further funds; Rumbach, “Between the Devil and the Bay of Bengal,” 1031.
81 Other Yugoslav and Slovenian bodies made further contributions, including the Boris Kidrič Fund.
82 Gordon, Letter to Records IR-5, October 7, 1968.
83 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 83.
84 The original goals as articulated by Mušič are quoted in Ibid., 4.
85 Other long-term members included the geographer Vladimir Kokole and the economist Vladimir Frankovič, who received a scholarship from Cornell University to complete his Ph.D. there thanks to Fisher’s intervention.
86 Neumann, “Overpromising Technocracy’s Potential,” 9.
87 Newsletter, no. 7, December 1968, 15–17; Fisher, “Notes on the Need for Regional (Spatial) Planning on the State Level in India.”
88 Mušič and Repič, “Regionalno planiranje na Urbanističnem inštitutu RS,” 57.
89 The full list of participants is listed in this publication; Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 97–99.
90 May, “Comments on American-Jugoslav Project to Date, and Preliminary Suggestions.”
91 For a full list of participants, see Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 97–103.
92 Certain, Interview with Katherine Lyall.
93 Mušič quoted in Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 4.
94 Neumann, “Overpromising Technocracy’s Potential,” 10; Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 8.
95 For a full bibliography, see Ibid., 104–12.
96 Ibid., 17.
97 Ibid., 18. For the Salzburg Seminar, see Parmar, Foundations of the American Century, 108ff.
98 For the foundation’s criticism, see Neumann, “Overpromising Technocracy’s Potential,” 10.
99 Ibid., 12.
100 Newsletter: American-Yugoslav Project in Regional and Urban Planning Studies, September 1969.
101 International Planning Workshop: Proceedings and Selected Papers.
102 Neumann, “Overpromising Technocracy’s Potential,” 14.
103 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 34.
104 Hall, Cities of Tomorrow, 395.
105 Neumann, “Overpromising Technocracy’s Potential,” 11.
106 For Mušič’s contributions, see: Mušič, ed., Alternative Patterns of Spatial Organization of the Ljubljana Region.
107 Skansi, ed., Streets and Neighborhoods, 92–155.
108 Gordon, Letter to Records IR-5.
109 Neumann, “Overpromising Technocracy’s Potential,” 12–13.
110 Ibid., 13; Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 42.
111 For this and other contradictions in the application of the Lowry Method, see: Grabar, “Razvoj prostornog planiranja,” 54–58.
112 Jovanović, “Uvid u lokalne perspektive,” 63.
113 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 45.
114 Ibid., 46.
115 Thyagarajan, Belgrade Transportation and Land Use Study, 1–4.
116 Le Normand, Designing Tito’s Capital, 222–30.
117 Perović, Istraživanje urbane strukture Beograda.
118 Mušič and May, “Foundations for the Organization of an International Training and Research Center.”
119 Ibid.
120 Fisher, “Program Statement, Division of International Studies, Center for Urban Studies, Wayne State University,” 6–8, 11.
121 Vernon and Birch, “Report to the Ford Foundation,” 14–15.
122 Mušič, “The Yugoslav Center for Regional and Urban Studies,” 2.
123 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 69, 93.
124 Mušič and Repič, “Regionalno planiranje na Urbanističnem inštitutu RS,” 57.
125 Mušič, “Proposal to the Ford Foundation for Support of the International Activities of the Center.”
126 “Request for Support for Foreign Fellowships Program.”
127 Vernon participated in the important 1956 Conference on Urban Planning and Development in New York, organized by the foundation, at which he also brushed shoulders with Weissmann; Muzaffar, “The Periphery Within,” 64.
128 Vernon and Birch, “Report to the Ford Foundation,” 9.
129 Neumann, “Overpromising Technocracy’s Potential,” 15.
130 Korbonski, Inter-Office Memorandum.
131 Vernon and Birch, “Report to the Ford Foundation,” 22.
132 Korbonsky, Inter-Office Memorandum.
133 Nika Grabar makes a similar argument that Ford rejected the 1970s proposals because they steered the project toward a two-way exchange; Grabar, “Razvoj prostornog planiranja,” 60.
134 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 79–80.
135 Neumann, “Overpromising Technocracy’s Potential,” 14.
136 Ibid., 16.
137 Ibid.
138 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 10–12.
139 Ibid., 54.
140 Ibid., 53–56; DeGraaf and Smock, Day Care in Yugoslavia.
141 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 56–57; Basta et al., Analysis for Residuals-Environmental Quality Management.
142 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 56–57.
143 Ibid., 79–84.
144 Saunders, The Cultural Cold War, 381ff.
145 Louis Winnick, quoted in Grabar, “Razvoj prostornog planiranja,” 54.
146 Cohen, Building a New World.
147 Wakeman, Practicing Utopia, 174–201. See also Medina, Cybernetic Revolutionaries; Beyer, “Planning for Mobility.”
148 Grabar, “Razvoj prostornog planiranja,” 56.
149 Dyckman and Fisher, International Professional Exchange, 39–41.
150 Neumann, “Overpromising Technocracy’s Potential,” 7.
151 Ibid., 32.
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Vladimir Kulić
Vladimir Kulić is Professor of architectural history and the David Lingle Faculty Fellow at Iowa State University. His books include Modernism In–Between: The Mediatory Architectures of Socialist Yugoslavia (2012) and Second World Postmodernisms: Architecture and Society under Late Socialism (2019). In 2018, he co–curated the exhibition Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.