Call for Papers for a Session Proposal: World Economic History Congress 2025 – Natural resources, Economy and Sustainability in Preindustrial period
RHN 8/2024 | Call
https://www.ruralhistory.eu/newsletter/2024/rhn-2024-008
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Session Organisers: Matteo Di Tullio (University of Pavia); Giulio Ongaro (University of Milano-Bicocca)
World Economic History Congress: “Equality and Sustainability Challenges”
28 July – 1 August 2025, Lund, Sweden
Deadline for paper proposals: 20 January 2024
Call for Papers for a Session Proposal:
World Economic History Congress 2025
Natural resources, Economy and Sustainability in Preindustrial period
In recent years, sustainability and sustainable development became central issues in economic and political debate. These issues also attracted the attention of historians, although very little systematic historical research has been conducted on this topic, particularly for the preindustrial period. Sustainability, in fact, is still related mainly to industrialization and to the use of fossil fuels.
The session will investigate the long-run relationship between economic activities and the emergence of sustainability issues in preindustrial time. The key research goal is to situate issues of sustainability dynamically within extremely broad economic, social, and environmental contexts, considering changes in the perception of natural resources, especially wood and water, the main resources in the Early Modern period, between rules and practices. To this end, we aim to analyse the management of natural resources through a comparative study of various European areas, to understand how they dealt with the environmental, economic, and social aspects of sustainability. We hypothesize that preindustrial societies were concerned with environmental, economic, and social aspects of sustainability and will examine the mechanisms by which they coped with them.
The session wants to provide answers to the following main questions:
- What was the relationship between different economic activities and the emergence of sustainability issues?
- How was the emergence of sustainability problems perceived and managed?
Papers with an interdisciplinary approach, that examine different actors and different scales of analysis from different points of view (economic, environmental, juridical, social, technological, and cultural), are particularly welcome. More specifically, possible topics – but not exclusive – of the papers could be:
- The analysis of conflicts to reconstruct the social dimension of sustainability;
- The investigation of consumption patterns, prices, and, broadly, supply and demand variables to understand the economic aspects of sustainability;
- Treatises, communal statutes, and chronicles to analyse the scientific and cultural dimension of sustainability.
Paper proposals (200 words max) should be sent before January 20th 2024 to the session organizers (matteo.ditullio@unipv.it; giulio.ongaro@unimib.it) together with a short CV (max one page) of the proponents.
Congress Website: https://wehc2025.com/
See also the CfP for another session proposal in RHN 2/2024.