Call for Papers: Agrarian productivity and efficiency in East Central Europe. Social and spatial aspects (from the 14th century to the 20th)
RHN 15/2024 | Call
https://www.ruralhistory.eu/newsletter/2024/rhn-2024-015
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Organisers/Editors: Gábor Demeter (Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont Történettudományi Intézet, Budapest)
The Hungarian Historical Review
Deadline for abstract submissions: 15 February 2024
Call for Journal Articles:
Agrarian productivity and efficiency in East Central Europe: social and spatial aspects
(from the fourteenth century to the twentieth)
The Hungarian Historical Review
The Hungarian Historical Review invites submissions for its third issue in 2024, the theme of which will be
Agrarian productivity and efficiency in East Central Europe: social and spatial aspects (from the fourteenth century to the twentieth)
Deadline for the submission of abstracts: February 15, 2024.
Deadline for the submission of accepted papers: May 31, 2024.
Land revenues were a key source of income for East Central European societies up to the twentieth century. However, neither estimates of land incomes nor the distribution of these incomes across social groups are based on reliable, consistent data concerning output per hectare or per capita. Either such data are simply unavailable from earlier centuries, or they touch only on smaller areas which have then been used in support of often biased extrapolations. Historians have thus been compelled to rely on proxy data, such as information found in sources concerning land taxes, soil quality, the quantity of seeds sown, and seed output compared to seeds sown. The considerable variety of units of measurement used in different regions has also hindered any larger comparison over time.
Recent trends involving quantitative statistical analysis, systematic database building, and hGIS techniques may give a new impetus to research targeting grain output estimates, including, for instance, the quantity of labor used for production, the distribution of output across social classes, and spatial and/or temporal analyses of agrarian outputs. For example, grain outputs (compared to sown seed) in Hungary ranged from 1:3 to 1:5 throughout the eighteenth century, but they were influenced by several factors. In addition to the physical geographical surroundings, estate size and cultivation methods also influenced efficiency, resulting in a great diversity according to the countrywide data concerning settlements in 1720 and 1728. How did this change over time and in space? What patterns of agrarian outputs characterized Poland or Romania in comparison to Hungary, Bohemia, etc.? Which regions, social groups, and estate types were more productive? Where were inequalities greater? How were incomes and inequalities interrelated?
Acknowledging some of the major steps that have been made in this field, as shown for instance by several sessions of the EURHO-conference in Cluj in 2023, the Hungarian Historical Review invites researchers involved in the questions above to share their findings in this thematic volume of HHR. We welcome new analyses of existing data and sources or comparative articles based on the existing secondary literature. Articles should range from 30,000 to 60,000 characters, including footnotes, tables, and references. Contributions can include diagrams, maps, and pictures, but a vector (ai, eps) or tiff format file of at least 300 dpi should be included alongside (separate from) the article. The desired location of any maps, figures, or diagrams should be clearly indicated in the text.
The topics involved can include:
- quantifying economic outputs or output rates and the efficiency of different products, cultivation methods, social layers, estate types
- economic (rural) inequalities across social classes based on land revenues
- short-term and long-term challenges posed by hindering factors, such as climate change, wars, plagues, etc.
Manuscripts should be based on bulk data processing or statistical analysis or GIS visualizations of territorial entities, social groups, etc.
Please send an abstract of not more than 500 words and a short biographical note with a selected list of the author’s three most important publications (avoid full CVs) not later than February 15, 2024.
Proposals should be submitted to the special editor of the issue by email:
demeter.gabor@abtk.hu, demetergg@gmail.com and hunghist@abtk.hu
The editors will ask the authors of selected papers to submit their final articles (max. 10,000 words) no later than May 31, 2024.
The articles will be published after a double-blind peer-review process. We provide proofreading for contributors who are not native speakers of English.
All articles must conform to our submission guidelines.
The Hungarian Historical Review is a peer-reviewed international quarterly of the social sciences and humanities, the geographical focus of which is Hungary and East-Central Europe. For additional information, including submission guidelines, please visit the journal’s website: https://hunghist.org/
Contact:
Gábor Demeter: demeter.gabor@abtk.hu, demetergg@gmail.com, hunghist@abtk.hu
Journal Website: https://hunghist.org
Source: H-Soz-Kult