Rural History Conference (EURHO), Girona, 7-10 September 2015,

 Call for papers

http://www.ruralhistory2015.org/papers.html

Deadline for paper submission is 31 January 2015

 

http://www.ruralhistory2015.org/programme.html

 

Panel 3

Organizers: Mignemi, Niccolò (1); Pan-Montojo, Juan (2)

Affiliation: 1: École française de Rome, France; 2: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain

 

Transnational networks, institutions and models in the shaping of national agrarian questions and agendas (1870-1940)

The agrarian question can be defined as a multidimensional political issue, constructed around the 1900 and included in many national political agendas until WW2, which dealt both with the unequal relationship among social agents in agriculture, and with the relationship between rural society and the evolution of society as a whole. Going beyond the limits of both the macro perspectives and the traditional comparative approaches, this session aims to explore and compare how the “agrarian question” emerged as an international and transnational question within the development processes that took place between the economic crisis of the 1870s-1880s and the Great Depression of the 1930s. During this period, national agricultures showed more and more their interconnected dynamics, and agrarian policies and programmes were given a central place in the agendas of all types of intergovernmental and non-governmental international organisations and informal networks. In European countries in particular, the modernisation of the rural world become a central problem in scientific debates and policy concerns. At the same time, international debates, initiatives and agreements imposed technical standards and governing models on the approaches to national questions and stimulated and legitimised local strategies to address what were considered to be common or related problems. Searching for connections, interactions and bifurcations in the national and regional paths, the session aims to renew the approach to the “agrarian question(s)”, overcoming both national views, which underestimate foreign intellectual and institutional influences, and international studies, which just take into account general mechanisms and relations. The idea is to analyse how the intensive circulation of resources (capitals, technologies, knowledge etc.), products (raw materials, staple food etc.) and persons (peasants, social and political leaders, technicians etc.) induced cross-fertilizations and facilitated the transfer of practices, techniques, discourses and representations. 

Panel 8

Organizers: Martiin, Carin (1); Herment, Laurent (2)

Affiliation: 1: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden; 2: CNRS-CRH. EHESS, Paris. UMR 8558. ERHIMOR, GDRI-CRICEC, France 

Technical change in agriculture, XIX-XX centuries

This session highlights technical change in European farming, with point of departure in altered use of resources, from obtained chiefly from the biosphere, for example horses, to increased use of resources from the lithosphere, such as tractors (Moser 2013). This transition was related to diverging interests, such as farmers and the elites, which make Lourenzo Fernández Prieto and Daniel Lanero ask: Who chose the new technology and who benefitted from it? This Galician study focuses on objectives, subjects of innovation and beneficiaries with reference to machinery and cattle breeds, but also compares institutional tools for innovation and the way from agrarian engineering to social engineering. From Swiss perspectives Peter Moser and Juri Auderset highlight different patterns in mechanization and motorization, and the time gap between break-through in industrial sectors and farming. Parallel use of draft animals and combustion machines in Switzerland 1945-1960 is also discussed, and so is the increased replacing of draft animals by engines by the end of this period, due to the access to the mineral resources, new knowledge, new demands and changing political frameworks. Lauren Herment compares the implementation of the threshing machine and the tractor in rural France, and finds huge differences due to geography, farm size and time. Whereas the threshing machine was implemented in a relatively steady agrarian framework that it did not disrupt, tractors are supposed to have modified deeply the global framework of agriculture. From Sweden Carin Martiin studies the concrete adaptation of the tractor at farm level; of other equipment, routines and farm economy. It is also shown that the large-scale spread of tractors in the 1950s did not mean rapid exit of horses, which often resulted in combinations of underemployed horses and underutilized tractors.

 Panel 17

Organizers: Béaur, Gérard (1); Congost, Rosa (2); Olsson, Mats (3); Pfister, Ulrich (4); Santos, Rui (5); Svensson, Patrick (3); Van Molle, Leen (6)

Affiliation: 1: CNRS/EHESS, CRH & CRICEC, France; 2: University of Girona, Spain; 3: University of Lund, Sweden; 4: University of Münster, Germany; 5: FCSH, Nova University, Portugal; 6: KU Leuven, Belgium 

Crises and Changes in the European Countryside: Challenges, Achievements and Doubts of the International Research Network CRICEC (2012-2015)

"The GDRI (International Research Network) established in 2012 is reaching the end of its four years programme. CRICEC (Crises and Changes in the European Countryside) had the objective to focus in a comparative way on the phenomena of crises and to examine if they were generating changes or not and conversely if changes were or not generating crises in the countryside, given that these crises and changes might be economic, social, familial, ecological or even politic and have always been taken into account in a deliberately international framework according to the spirit of the project retained by the French CNRS. During these 4 years more than 20 meetings have been held but it is neither possible nor desirable to do a full review. The leaders of each team would participate to a round table that allows to display some of the major actions they have undertaken and thus would bring to the knowledge of the scientific community achievements they have made, challenges they face and doubts they raise.

Several topics might fuel a debate.

- the relationship assumed by J. Thirsk between the rise of ""alternative agriculture"" and the phenomena of crisis and recession.

- the role of governments in promoting change on agriculture

- the consequences of disasters on pre-modern economies in north-western Europe.

- the instruments and strategies that have been brought into action to overcome particular forms of (agricultural) crisis; the political means and knowledge networks

- the social change in history with the hypothesis that the 18th century was a period of middle class growth in some rural regions

- the main issues raised and points made about harvest fluctuations and food shortages." 

Panel 20

Organizers: TEDESCHI, Paolo (4); BRASSART, Laurent (1); KISS, Zsuzsanna (3); VIVIER, Nadine (2); VAN MOLLE, Leen (5); Locatelli, Andrea Maria (6)

Affiliation: 1: université Lille 3 - IRHIS UMR CNRS 8529, France; 2: université du Maine, France; 3: Univ. Eötvös Lorànd University, Budapest, Hungary; 4: Universita Milano Biccoca, Italy; 5: Katholiek Universiteit Leuven, Belgium; 6: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Milano, Italy

 

Title: The making and the diffusion of agricultural progress in Europe (1760-1870)

It is commonly accepted that the agricultural take-off in Europe occurred at the end of the 19th century. Its main characteristics are the mechanization, the use of chemical fertilizers, the intensification of the rural emigration and the integration into the national and international economic markets.

But, between the economical Ancien Regime and the agricultural take-off at the end of 19th century, stands a long period of political, social and economic transition. From the physiocratic years in France to the 1860-1870’s, a double process occurred: growth of the state control on rural societies on the one hand; incentive measures to the agriculture development on the other hand. It mainly happened through the challenging of common rights, abolition of feudalism, agrarian changes, promotion of agricultural process and elaboration of agricultural public policies. This panel intends to enlighten the agricultural experiments in the European countryside from 1760s to 1870s. It will focus on the making of agricultural knowledge, its various ways of diffusion and its social and economic acknowledgment. Because the pathway to agricultural progress is not a straight line, we will emphasize as much on the failures as on the success of various initiatives. The relationship between agricultural policies and the structure of agricultural progress is the main issue of this panel. That’s why we strengthen the role of comices and exhibitions, the press and banks, agricultural societies and schools, social authorities and the State.

In the end, this panel would like to highlight the interplays between the State and farmers, agronomic science and agriculture, between official and unofficial managementing of economy of knowledge. 

Panel 24

Organizers: Wouter, Ronsijn (2); Laurent, Herment (1)

Affiliation: 1: CNRS, France; 2: Universiteit Gent

 

Title: Storage of Staple Food and Commercial Networks from the late Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century (Part 2). Laurent Herment and Wouter Ronsijn

"Several studies devoted to storage emphasize not the technological but primarily the social and economic issues. Beyond the technical aspect of storage and its evolution, numerous questions arise related to the social and economic aspects. Who controlled the storage: the producers (farmers), consumers (households), commercial intermediaries (tradesmen or processors such as bakers, millers, brewers), or the elite (nobility, church, hospitals, or local or central state institutions)? For what purpose were staple foods stored: needs of people, commercial/speculative purpose, in expectation of crisis, etc.?

When, during periods of population growth and urbanization, output grew, this also affected the trade and storage of food. Conversely, during periods of economic depression, the cost of storage becomes a burden, stimulating either technical innovations or a struggle to transfer this burden onto other actors. Finally, the globalization of the grain trade required specific storage solutions in both exporting and importing regions. This session will examine the interaction between the technical and the social and economic issues of storage, commercialization and processing of agricultural commodities. More generally, we want to assess how the constraint of storage was solved in different technical, economic and social contexts, and how the commercial networks of staple foods, were adapted to new patterns of demand." 

Panel 30

Organizers: Laurent, Herment (1); Wouter, Ronsijn (2)

Affiliation: 1: CNRS, France; 2: Universiteit Gent

 

Title: Storage of Staple Food and Commercial Networks from the late Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century (Part 1) Laurent Herment and Wouter Ronsijn

"Several studies devoted to storage emphasize not the technological but primarily the social and economic issues. Beyond the technical aspect of storage and its evolution, numerous questions arise related to the social and economic aspects. Who controlled the storage: the producers (farmers), consumers (households), commercial intermediaries (tradesmen or processors such as bakers, millers, brewers), or the elite (nobility, church, hospitals, or local or central state institutions)? For what purpose were staple foods stored: needs of people, commercial/speculative purpose, in expectation of crisis, etc.?

When, during periods of population growth and urbanization, output grew, this also affected the trade and storage of food. Conversely, during periods of economic depression, the cost of storage becomes a burden, stimulating either technical innovations or a struggle to transfer this burden onto other actors. Finally, the globalization of the grain trade required specific storage solutions in both exporting and importing regions. This session will examine the interaction between the technical and the social and economic issues of storage, commercialization and processing of agricultural commodities. More generally, we want to assess how the constraint of storage was solved in different technical, economic and social contexts, and how the commercial networks of staple foods, were adapted to new patterns of demand." 

Panel 32

Organizers: Luna, Pablo F. (1); Mignemi, Niccolo (2)

Affiliation: 1: Centre de recherches historiques (CRH-EHESS-Erhimor), France; 2: Ecole française de Rome

 

Title: Land and natural resources appropriation and re-appropriation, and their dynamics, 16th-20th centuries

"Since the late Middle Ages, the appropriation of land and natural (and human) resources represents a key-element within the expansion of the capitalist economic system and results in a great variety of experiences and special cases. Whether in Europe or elsewhere, the need to justify and legalize land and resources appropriation, against real or even potential competitors, succeeds in enhancing the assumption of the natural and historical necessity of the ongoing dynamics. Thus, the appropriation appears as an inescapable fact, an instrument serving economic as well as social development.

However, appropriation, and especially the appropriation of land, has never been a one-way process, neither in the core nor in the peripheries (and semi-peripheries). Following the different contexts and conjunctures, new land can be conquered and eminent domain imposed against pre-existing owners, for example in colonial contexts. At the same time, cycles of re-appropriation of land and natural resources exist. Negotiated through legal mechanisms or imposed by the violence, each of the two opposed process can be more or less durable, more or less permanent, more or less complete. Adopting a comparative and long-term approach, this session aims to explore the dynamics of appropriation and re-appropriation of land and natural resources in European and/or colonial contexts (in fact, colonialism is not peculiar to non-European spaces). Between the 16th and 20th century, the idea is to analyze the multidimensional issues (social, economic, legal aspects etc.) of these processes as historical phenomena that need to be placed in a global perspective, in parallel with the evolutions of the modern world-system."