Category: Agenda

European Research Council project CAPASIA – The Asian Origins of Global Capitalism is organising a series of online/hybrid lectures dedicated to the connected histories of capitalism. The series is jointly organised with the European Research Council project ECOINT – a Twentieth-Century International Economic Thinking, and the Complex History of Globalization and the EUI Conversations on the New Histories of Capitalism Working Group. Download the poster via the button below to view the full program and access links to the respective lectures.

PROGRAMME AND LECTURE LINKS (PDF)

Posthumus students Bram Hilkens (PhD candidate at Erasmus University Rotterdam) and Sam Miske (PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), with support by the Posthumus Institute research network ‘Economy and Society of the Pre-Industrial Low Countries in Comparative Perspective’, the NWO-funded VIDI projects ‘Positively Shocking! The Redistributive Impact of Mass Mortality through Epidemic Diseases and Violent Conflict in Early Modern Northwest Europe’ and ‘Land Grabbing and Dutch Empire (16-18th century)’, and the International Institute for Social History (IISH), are organising the workshop ‘Agrarian Capitalism in the Preindustrial Low Countries : Local, Regional, and Global Dimensions’ at the International Institute of Social History in June 2023. For this workshop, papers on agrarian capitalism in the preindustrial Low Countries and related areas, such as border regions and colonies under the Dutch Empire, are welcomed. The organisers are hoping to receive contributions from researchers at various points in their respective careers and especially encourage the application of early career researchers such as PhD candidates and postdocs.

About the workshop

In scholarship concerning the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the concept of agrarian capitalism has played a crucial role as it marks the dominance of market mechanisms over other forms of exchange of land, labour, and capital in the countryside. The medieval and early modern Low Countries form a particularly interesting case in this scholarship, as both the Southern Low Countries and the Dutch Republic have been associated with early forms of agrarian capitalism. These transitions, however, have mostly been discussed in isolation from not only one another, but also from broader social developments such as the overseas expansion of the Dutch Republic, the flourishing of textile industries in the Southern Low Countries, or war-driven migration, to name a few.

New research projects are attempting to approach the agrarian capitalism framework from a different angle, stressing its many interrelated links with environment, inequality, the rise of the world market, and gender relations. This workshop attempts to consider new approaches to and uses for the agrarian capitalism framework for the Low Countries. Under what circumstances do we speak of agrarian capitalism? How do we distinguish it from ‘urban’ or ‘regular’ capitalism? What kind of variables indicate its emergence or dominance? Where do we place it chronologically? Do we speak of an internal institutional transition in the countryside, or is it impossible to see it apart from broader, global socioeconomic developments? How did these processes relate to (changes in) the gendered division of labour and economic autonomy of women? By addressing such questions, we aim to test the relevance of the agrarian capitalism framework for the case of the preindustrial Low Countries and vice versa.

Program

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On 11-13 December 2023, UCSIA, the Urban Studies Institute (University of Antwerp) and Centre Pieter Gillis (University of Antwerp) organise an academic workshop at the University of Antwerp on interdisciplinary perspectives on the role of religiously inspired solidarity in modernising and post-secular contexts.

The organisers of this workshop aim to discuss the role of faith and religious inspiration in organizing solidarity in contemporary superdiverse and post-secular urbanized societies as well as in secularising societies from the nineteenth century on by proceeding from the observation that religiously inspired or faith-based organizations have played and continue to play a significant role in offering social support and protection to vulnerable groups. However, these organisations do not sit easily in their intellectual and political-ideological context. While religiously inspired solidarity is driven by inner motives and personal faith, in the historical development of European welfare states, solidarity has become institutionalized as a set of impersonal redistributive mechanisms such as paying taxes and social contributions.

Confirmed keynotes are Anne Birgitta Pessi (Professor of Church and Social Studies, University of Helsinki), Sigrun Kahl (Assistant Professor of Political Science and Sociology, Yale University) and Joan Stavo-Debauge (Associate Researcher, University of Lausanne).

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On 5 June 2023, Posthumus alumna Dr Janna Everaert, now affiliated as postdoc researcher with the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, will present the first copy of the book Macht in de metropool: Politieke elitevorming tijdens de demografische en economische bloeifase van Antwerpen (ca. 1400-1550), published with Amsterdam University Press, to the mayor of the City of Antwerp, Mr. Bart De Wever.

If you want to attend this launch, please make sure to register before 24 May 2023 (see button below).

REGISTER

About the book

During Antwerp’s Golden Age, the city replaced Bruges as the primary trading hub of Western Europe. Antwerp transformed from a medium-sized Brabantine town to an unparalleled metropolis in the Low Countries with over 100.000 inhabitants. Although little is known regarding the impact of this transformation on the city’s governance, Antwerp serves as an intriguing and exceptional case study. Unlike other trading metropolises such as sixteenth-century Lyon or seventeenth-century Amsterdam, where merchants increasingly occupied positions in the city council, this was not the case in Antwerp. The book Macht in de Metropool reconstructs the compositions of Antwerp’s city council between 1400 and 1550. It examines the profile of the different aldermen and mayors and how they evolved over time. Furthermore, the research analyses the real estate investments of this group and their relationship with key groups in society such as the merchants, the nobility, and the central administration.

PUBLISHER’S INFO

Preceding the PhD defence by Hugo La Poutré, the Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG) and the Scientific Network for Historical Demography (HiDo:) jointly organise the hybrid workshop ‘Epidemics in Medieval and Early Modern Western Europe’.

This workshop will be chaired by Dr Anjana Singh and includes presentations by several Posthumus fellows and alumni.

The workshop will be held both on location and via a live-stream. No prior registration is required, but please contact organiser Dr Richard Paping to obtain the required links.

MORE INFO (PDF)

On 30 June 2023, the Center for Urban History of the University of Antwerp and the Antwerp Interdisciplinary Platform for Research into Inequality (AIPRIL), in cooperation with the N.W. Posthumus Institute, will host a workshop that is dedicated to the brand new book by Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden, published in 2022 under the title Pioneers of Capitalism: The Netherlands, 1000-1800.

To frame the long-term socioeconomic history of the Northern Netherlands, the book employs the terminology of ‘varieties of capitalism’, which revolves around the idea that the balance between market and state differs in time and space. While capitalism in the colonies remained extractive, the intervention of the state in the economy fostered the rise of a resilient and inclusive market economy within the Netherlands. Assessing the societal impact of the idiosyncratic development of Dutch capitalism, Prak and Van Zanden refer to a group of Flemish historians who recently drew attention to the paradoxical confluence of rising middle classes and increasing social inequality that went hand in hand with economic growth in the Low Countries.

This workshop reflects on the ‘varieties of capitalism’ and ‘Low Countries paradox’ concepts and assesses their strengths and limitations for future research into the socioeconomic history of both the Northern and Southern Netherlands. Please register prior to the event by e-mail with PhD candidate Bas Spliet at the University of Antwerp.

~ because of scope, in Dutch only ~

Het onderzoeksteam achter het Kennisplatform Collectieve Kracht organiseert op 16 juni in Eindhoven een inspirerende dag waar burgercollectieven en overheid worden samengebracht. Beide partijen hebben in het verleden met elkaar samengewerkt, maar waar zal die samenwerking in de toekomst toe leiden en welke volgende stappen moeten genomen worden?

Het evenement begint met een warm welkom door Lukas Held van Collectieve Kracht en Jacques Giesbertz van Europe Direct Eindhoven. Hierop volgen een keynote en tien sessies met elk hun eigen thema’s en sprekers. Het evenement wordt afgesloten met een panel en netwerkborrel. Welkomstconsumpties en consumpties tijdens de netwerkborrel zijn voorzien, de optionele lunch dient zelf betaald te worden. Toegang tot de bijeenkomst is verder vrij, reservering vooraf is echter nodig.

MEER INFO EN RESERVEREN

Antwerp Summer University welcomes applications for the Summer School CityLab IX: ‘Cities and states: exploring a complicated relationship’, to be organised at the University of Antwerp in July 2023. In this CityLAB, a range of scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and focusing on cities and states in the North as well as the South will introduce the participants to their research. Urban professionals and high profile urban politicians will also discuss how they see the current position of cities in relation to national states. Participants will also have the opportunity to discuss their research with other participants and senior scholars.

Through this interdisciplinary summer school, the organisers aim to bring junior and senior scholars from a variety of disciplines to explore and discuss how, when and why the relationships between cities and states have evolved and are still evolving. Particular interest is taken in how cities and state have differed and differ in the way they govern societies and with which impact on social inequality, power relations, socio-ecological flows and living in diversity.

Applications should be submitted via the dedicated portal, the deadline for applications has been set at 15 May 2023. Those requiring visa to enter Belgium are advised to submit their application timely.

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On 5 June 2023, Posthumus alumnus Hugo La Poutré will defend his PhD thesis ‘English population 1086-1377: a modelling approach’ at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Groningen.

Population size, food production, and consumption are closely related. Hugo La Poutré concentrates on this relationship in his doctoral research. He shows by the use of simulations that the English population tripled within two centuries, from two million in 1100 to over six million in 1300. Half a century later, the Black Death, the devastating plague epidemic of 1348-1349, caused more than three million deaths in England alone. During the following plague epidemics, the population declined even further.

Amongst other things, these changes left their mark on the production and consumption of food. Pints of beer and hog roast might not have been uncommon at the end of the fourteenth century, but they were when the population peaked at the start of the fourteenth century. Then, it must have been pea soup with bread. After all, such a large population had to be fed, and arable land is simply more productive than pasture. La Poutré makes plausible that the common people must have lived on an almost vegan diet of cereals and legumes. To raise production, peasants spread as much manure on their land as possible, and let their land less often lie fallow. Making use of models, La Poutré calculates their production to have been 50 per cent higher than what was attained at their lord’s land. In this way, a population of six million could be fed.

Promotors are Dr Richard Paping and Professor emeritus Maarten Duijvendak, both from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Groningen.

The defence will also be streamed live via the link mentioned in the header section of this post. You can find more info and download the thesis via the button below.

Please note that Hugo has connected his promotion to the charity programme of Tracing (Restoring Family Links), a programme of the international Red Cross to help find lost relatives in case of war, conflicts, natural disaster or migration. Donations are welcome.

THESIS INFO

Gijs Dreijer, Lewis Wade, Mallory Hope, Cátia Antunes and Maria Fusaro kindly invite participants to join the workshop ‘Risk and Entrepreneurship – Old Discussions, Innovative Questions, New Insights’, to be held at Leiden University on 7 and 8 June 2023. The keynote lecture will be delivered by  Professor Anthony Hopkins, Emeritus Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at Cambridge and an Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke College.

This workshop has been made possible by contributions from Leiden University fund CWB (grant nr. W221373-3-1), University of Exeter European Network Fund 2022-2023 (grant nr. 6.4), the Roots and Routes Network of the Posthumus Institute, and the NWO VICI project Exploiting the Empire of Others (grant nr. VI.C.191.027).

Introduction

Entrepreneurs are often seen as either engines of economic growth or villains exploiting workers to make excessive profits. Yet historically, the role of entrepreneurs in adding value to society has been multifaceted, thus defying this dichotomy. This workshop brings together experts from the University of Exeter and Leiden University, as well as specialists from across the world, to analyse the historical role of the entrepreneur in a comparative and global-historical perspective, particularly in relationship to the management of risk and uncertainty. It compares the historical role of entrepreneurship in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, moving away from a focus on Western firms and instead focusing on individual entrepreneurs, large and small, who through innovative strategies contributed to solving societal challenges.

Confirmed speakers

You can download the full (preliminary) programme here. Next to the keynote lecture by Professor Hopkins, the following lectures have been confirmed:

• Dr Gijs Dreijer, Leiden University – Exploiting the Empire of Others: Dutch Entrepreneurs in the Scramble for Africa (1850s-1910s)
• Dr Sarina Kuersteiner, Union College – From Divine Provision to Risk Commodity: Concepts of Future Profit in Geniza papers and Latin contracts, ca. 1000-155
• Dr Rémi Dewière, Northumbria University – Failures and Successes of Canon Technology Transfer in the 18th-century Mediterranean World: Two French Entrepreneurs in North Africa (1771-1775)
• Professor Lakshmi Subramanian, Centre for Social Studies Calcutta – Speculation or Risk Management? Changing Debates around “aunth” in Western India 1750-1920
• Dr Lewis Wade, Institute of Historical Research – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained? Entrepreneurial Uncertainty in the Languedocian Cloth Industry, 1683–1700
• Dr Noelle Richardson, Leiden University – Entrepreneurship and imperial transitions: Dutch merchants in the intra-Asian trade (1740s-1808)
• Dr Sascha Klocke, Lund University – Rural Capitalists or Entrepreneurs? African Commercial Agriculture and Economic Development under Colonial Rule
• Dr Edmond Smith, The University of Manchester – Working Between World Systems: The Experience of Globalisation for Akan Entrepreneurs from Eguafo to Bitu
• Professor Maria Fusaro, University of  Exeter – Title TBC
• Dr Audrey Gerrard, Norwegian University of Science and Technology – Between Private Affair and Government Control: The Queensland Plantation Labour Debate 1880-1890
• Matthias Lukkes MA, Leiden University – Managing Risk for whom? Bomba Labour in the Dutch Transatlantic Slave Trade
• Dr Mallory Hope, Harvard University – “To Conserve in their Integrity… The Assets and Rights of their Church”: Managing Water and Shared Resources on the Chapter of the Notre Dame’s Rural Domaine
• {Professor Amy Froide, University of Maryland, Baltimore Country – Women, Risk, and Joint-stock Enterprise in Early Eighteenth-century London
• Dr John Kegel, Leiden University – Risk, Entrepreneurship and Concessionary Companies
• Professor William Deringer, MIT – Hazardous Nature: Coal Mining Engineers, Discounting Calculations, and the Price of Risk circa 1800

How to participate

Those interested to participate can e-mail Dr Gijs Dreijer

FULL PROGRAM (PDF)