Call for Papers: Economic and Social History Seminar, Girona – Middle Classes and Social Change in Historical Perspective
RHN 45/2018 | Call
https://www.ruralhistory.eu/newsletter/2018/rhn-2018-045
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Organisers: Centre de Recerca d’Història Rural of University of Girona, GDRI-AAA and the Research Project HAR2014-54891-P “Neither elite nor poor”
2-4 July 2018, Girona, Spain
Deadline for submissions: 10 May 2018
Call for Papers:
XXIX Seminario d'Història Econòmica i Social / Economic and Social History Seminar
Ni élites ni pobres. Clases medias y cambio social en perspectiva histórica /
Neither Elite nor Poor. Middle Classes and Social Change in Historical Perspective
The topic of the middling social groups is crucial to understand social change in the last decades. Firstly, the so-called emerging countries could hardly be classified as such if social groups susceptible to being considered middle class had not emerged in their midst. And in Western countries, the current crisis has also been associated with the avatars known by these groups. Contrast, however, the importance currently awarded both processes with the little importance attached to the emergence or decline of these middling groups in historical research. In fact, our interest in this Seminar stems from dissatisfaction with the way in which the middle classes have usually been dealt with in historical research, either absent, or with too restrictive or too a priori view. To overcome these obstacles, we propose a broad concept of the middle classes which, as the title of the Seminar reflects, would encompass all those people who cannot be conceptualized as forming part of the elite or the poor, two categories which by contrast have been the subject of numerous historical studies. The study of the middle classes in historical perspective requires a method of analysis which explores and contextualizes those social dynamics that have led to the formation, transformation or disappearance of these groups. To achieve this, the researchers must also take into account social relations, or relations between these groups and others comprising a society, including therefore the elite and the poor. It must also incorporate a dynamic vision to allow the observation, in each case, of those scenarios where these groups are formed or blocked, are transformed, consolidated or disappear.
Organisers:
Centre de Recerca d’Història Rural of University of Girona
International Scientific Coordination Network - Agriculture, Approvisionnement, Alimentation (GDRI-AAA)
HAR2014-54891-P, “Neither elite nor poor. Middle classes and social change in the countryside in historical perspective”, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.
Researchers interested in presenting a paper at this seminar should send an abstract and a title before May 10, 2018 to Rosa Congost (rosa.congost@udg.edu).