Call for Papers: Families in the Alps. Households and relatives, neighbours and friends – social and economic relationship networks
RHN 129/2023 | Call
https://www.ruralhistory.eu/newsletter/2023/rhn-2023-129
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Organisers: Margareth Lanzinger and Aleksander Panjek, Internationale Gesellschaft für Historische
Alpenforschung / Association Internationale pour l’Histoire des Alpes / Associazione Internazionale per la Storia delle Alpi
29–31 August 2024, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Deadline for abstract submissions: 31 January 2024
Call for Papers
for the International Conference:
Families in the Alps.
Households and relatives, neighbours and friends – social and economic relationship networks
***Please find the Slovene version below***
The Alps have been an almost classic research area for social anthropological, especially American, studies on villages and families, dealing with property and inheritance, etc. since the 1960s, some of which were already quantifying. Previously, population-geographical demographic studies – such as the “Innsbruck School” – had also been carried out on some Alpine valleys. Intense and controversial discussions in the Alpine context revolved around, among other things, homeostatic concepts. These questioned about a possible connection between population and available resources in the sense of a demographic-economic balance or the limits of population growth, based on marriages and births as essential factors. More open and broader approaches rejected environmental deterministic perspectives and referred to options for agency, pluri-activity and integrated economies.
With the international boom in research on family history since the 1970s, questions from historians have also focused on household composition and work organization, on differences and implications of inheritance laws and practices, on specific migration and marriage patterns and also historical-anthropological topics. Here and there, mountain regions stood out due to specific household constellations: for example, the presence of stem families in the narrower sense, in which fathers continued to hold the power, authority and economic position in their hands, even after a son or daughter had married into the house; or shared fraternal inheritance and complex households with several married brothers; or household-heading women and absent men due to gender-specific seasonal mobility. Overall, studies have been able to illustrate the diversity and complexity of families and households.
From the 1990s onwards, approaches further expanded: the “household” was virtually dissolved and differentiating perspectives were introduced: the focus was now more on individual positions (as wives and husbands, sons and daughters, siblings, grandparents, etc.), on genders and generations, based on contractual arrangements linked to legal and administrative frameworks. Various property, inheritance and matrimonial property regimes were connected to one another by historians. Above all, relatives, but also other social relationships that went beyond the household - such as neighbors, friends, guardians and others - were now the focus of interest. The social spectrum of studies, too, has expanded and differentiated. This includes landless people as well as rural craftsmen and traders, agricultural producers and pluri-active workers as well as peasant and other elites.
The planned conference of the International Association for Alpine History is based on these differentiations. We will question the meaning, effectiveness and modes of action of fundamental relationships - represented by families, relatives, neighbours, friends and others - in different social and economic contexts of Alpine societies. This addresses work and wealth relations, competing interests as well as alliances and collaborations. In this perspective, authors are invited to present papers on local or regional case studies from a synchronic or diachronic perspective, discussions of concepts and models specific to (Alpine) family history based on their own research, inter-Alpine comparative studies or papers that combine two or more of these approaches. The time span covered by the conference ranges from the end of the Middle Ages to the early contemporary period (early twentieth century). The papers can be presented in Slovene, Italian, French, German or English.
In selecting the proposals received, the organizers will take into consideration the relevance and originality of the themes as well as the equal representation of the regions of the Alpine area (roughly the regions included in the Alpine Convention) and the chronological period foreseen by the conference. Contributions relating to other European mountain areas that concern the themes and approaches presented in this call may also be accepted.
Margareth Lanzinger & Aleksander Panjek
Please send a thematic proposal (200–250 words) and a short CV by 31 January 2024, to the following address: aleksander.panjek@fhs.upr.si
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Družine v Alpah.
Gospodinjstva in sorodniki, sosedje in prijatelji/ce: ekonomske in socialne mreže odnosov
Alpe so od šestdesetih let 20. stoletja skorajda klasično raziskovalno področje socialno-antropoloških, predvsem ameriških študij o vaških skupnostih in družinah, o odnosu do posesti in dedovanja ipd., pri čemer so nekatere že vključevale kvantitativni pristop. Pred tem so bile opravljene tudi študije iz geografije prebivalstva in demografije nekaterih alpskih dolin (npr. »Innsbruška šola«). Živahne in kontroverzne razprave so se v alpskem kontekstu med drugim odvijale okoli homeostatskih konceptov, ki so obravnavale morebitno povezavo med prebivalstvom in razpoložljivimi viri v smislu demografsko-ekonomskega ravnovesja oziroma meja rasti prebivalstva, in sicer na podlagi porok in rojstev kot bistvenih dejavnikov. Bolj odprti in širši pristopi so zavračali okoljske deterministične perspektive in se sklicevali na to, da so alpske skupnosti izkazovale možnost izbire, različne oblike pluriaktivnosti in kombiniranja dohodkov.
Z mednarodnim razmahom zgodovinskih raziskav o družini od sedemdesetih let 20. stoletja dalje so se vprašanja osredotočila na sestavo gospodinjstev in organizacijo dela, na razlike in implikacije zakonov in praks na področju dedovanja, na posebne migracijske in poročne vzorce ter na zgodovinsko-antropološke teme. Pogosto so gorska območja izstopala zaradi specifičnih gospodinjskih konstelacij, kot na primer: prisotnost matičnih družin (stem families) v ožjem smislu, v katerih so očetje obdržali v svojih rokah položaj moči in avtoritete ter gospodarsko upravljanje tudi po tem, ko sta sin ali hči po poroki s svojima novima družinama ostala pri hiši; ali kompleksna gospodinjstva, sestavljena iz več poročenih bratov so-dedičev; ali pa gospodinjstva na čelu z ženskami in odsotnimi moškimi zaradi spolno specifične sezonske mobilnosti. Na splošno so študije pokazale raznolikost in kompleksnost družin in gospodinjstev.
Od devetdesetih let dalje so se pristopi še bolj razprli in so »gospodinjstvo« tako rekoč razgradili s tem, ko so se uvedle razlikovalne perspektive: poudarek se je namreč prevesil na posamezne položaje v družini (žene in možje, sinovi in hčere, bratje in sestre, stari starši itd.), na razmerja na osnovi spola in generacije ter na pogodbene dogovore, pogojene s pravnimi in upravnimi okviri. Režime posesti, dedovanja in premoženjskih razmerij med zakoncema so zgodovinarji pričeli povezovati v smiselno celoto. V središče pozornosti je stopilo predvsem sorodstvo, a tudi drugi socialni odnosi, ki so presegali gospodinjstvo, kot so sosedje, prijatelji, skrbniki in drugi. Širši in bolj raznolik je postal tudi socialni spekter študij, saj je vključil ljudi brez zemlje, podeželske obrtnike in trgovce, kmetovalce in »pluriaktivne« delavce, kakor tudi kmečke in druge elite.
Ta razlikovanja tvorijo tematsko rdečo nit konference Mednarodnega združenja za zgodovino Alp. Spraševali se bomo o pomenu, učinkovanju in načinu delovanja temeljnih odnosov, ki jih predstavljajo družine, sorodniki, sosedje, prijatelji in drugi, v različnih socialnih in ekonomskih kontekstih alpskih družb. S tem naslavljamo delovne in premoženjske odnose, konkurenčne interese kakor tudi zavezništva in sodelovanja. Avtorje vabimo, da predlagajo referate o lokalnih ali regionalnih študijah primera v sinhroni ali diahroni perspektivi, razprave o konceptih in modelih v zgodovini (alpske) družine na podlagi lastnih raziskav, primerjalne študije med alpskimi območji ali pa take, ki združujejo dva ali več teh pristopov. Časovni razpon konference sega od konca srednjega veka do zgodnje novejše dobe (začetek 20. stoletja). Referati so lahko v slovenskem, nemškem, italijanskem, francoskem ali angleškem jeziku.
Pri izboru prispelih predlogov bomo organizatorji upoštevali tematsko ustreznost in izvirnost ter hkrati enakomerno zastopanost različnih območij alpskega prostora (okvirno prostorski obseg Alpske konvencije) in časovnih obdobij, ki jih zajema konferenca. Sprejeti bodo lahko tudi prispevki o drugih evropskih gorskih in hribovitih območjih, ki so skladni s temami in pristopi, predstavljenimi v tem pozivu.
Margareth Lanzinger in Aleksander Panjek
Tematski predlog (200–250 besed) s kratkim življenjepisom pošljite do 31. januarja 2024 na naslov: aleksander.panjek@fhs.upr.si
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Source and more info, also in French, German and Italian: https://www.labisalp.arc.usi.ch/it/news/detail/36770