Past announcements 2013
Announcement October 12th 2013: De Zesde Dag van de Historische Demografie gaat door op donderdag 12 december in Monasterium Poortackere te Gent. Download programma
Announcement April 14th 2013: Call for Papers: Session Proposal Rhythm and evolution of staple food markets in Europe (1650-1950), for the European Social Science History Conference (Vienna, 23-26 April 2014)
Call for papers for a Session Proposal for the European Social Science History Conference (Vienna, 23-26 April 2014)
Session title: Rhythm and evolution of staple food markets in Europe (1650-1950)
Network: Economic History
This session wants to explore the rhythm and evolution of staple food markets in Europe in the modern period. We invite authors to submit an abstract on the topic of seasonal patterns and long-term evolutions in food markets between the mid-seventeenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Proposals for papers dealing with grain, potatoes or sugar beets, and with the volume of transactions on public markets are especially welcome, though other approaches to the theme will be considered as well.
Price behaviour and long-term price movements on staple food markets have received ample attention from scholars. Debate on the degree of market integration, based on patterns in price behaviour, has generated a lot of publications (Federico 2012). Conversely, the volume of transactions on markets seems to have concerned scholars much less. The focus on prices is legitimised by the idea that they form the synthesis of supply and demand. Regarding patterns in the volume of transactions, much more is supposed than exposed. It is very often supposed that prices of staple food, in pre-industrial societies, conformed to a model exhibited by Labrousse and French historians in the middle of the 20th century. According to that model, after harvest, a lot of farmers very quickly sold their crops (between September and December), often to generate the necessary cash to repay outstanding debts, and because of the increase in supply the price dropped. Later, between April and July people, especially peasants, went back to the market as buyers and the prices rose because the supply was narrow and the demand very high. Those hard times were called “soudure” in French. After the middle of the nineteenth century, with the expansion of international trade flows, especially wheat, food provisioning in Europe changed fundamentally. Nonetheless, politicians still periodically referred to the issue of the soudure, which permits a study of trade rhythms and new trade flows even after 1870.
Did the volume of market transactions effectively follow Labrousse’s model with two peaks per year? And if the volume of transactions did so, was that the case for all foodstuffs: for bread grains (wheat, maslin, rye, spelt) as well as for other cereals (oats, barley, buckwheat) or other food such as potatoes or sugar? Were there changes in the long run: did seasonal patterns become less outspoken as part of rising market efficiency? Furthermore, if prices and sale volumes corresponded to Labrousse’s model, it is still unclear whether his hypothesis offers the best explanation. Other hypotheses can certainly be formulated to explain seasonal patterns in prices and transactions, related among other things to the speed of threshing, the characteristics of the crops, the possibility to preserve them and the costs for storage.
Please send your abstract (350 words max) and a short CV (institutional affiliation, research area, main publications) before 05 May 2013 to: or
Wouter Ronsijn (Doctor-assistant, Ghent University, History department, EED Research group) and Laurent Herment (Docteur CRH-EHESS GDRI-CRICEC)
Announcement April 8th 2013: Call for Papers: Sixth Historical Demography Day (Thursday 12 December 2013, Ghent University, Belgium); Theme: Vulnerable groups & Historical Demography
Call for Papers: Zesde Dag van de Historische Demografie (English version below)
Thema: Kwetsbare groepen & Historische Demografie
Organisatoren: Isabelle Devos & Bart Van de Putte (UGent)
Datum en locatie: donderdag 12 december 2013, Universiteit Gent
Het doel van de Zesde Dag is een genuanceerd beeld te schetsen van bevolkingsgroepen die in het verleden een kwetsbare positie innamen in de samenleving. Welke maatschappelijke groepen kunnen omschreven worden als 'kwetsbaar'? Hoe zien deze groepen er uit in demografisch opzicht (huwelijkspatronen, vruchtbaarheid, overlevingskansen, leef- en huishoudsituatie)? Op welke manier zijn deze groepen en hun problemen verbonden met de sociaal-economische en culturele structuren en veranderingen in de samenleving? En welke specifieke fasen in de levensloop verhogen de kwetsbaarheid? Dit zijn slechts enkele vragen die we op deze dag wensen te beantwoorden. Door op dergelijke groepen te focussen, willen we meer inzicht krijgen in de manier waarop maatschappelijke uitsluiting en inclusie in het verleden werden bepaald.
Voorstellen voor papers (in Nederlands of Engels) kunnen tot 31 mei 2013 ingediend worden bij Isabelle Devos (Isabelle.Devos@ugent.be) en Bart Van de Putte (Bart.VandePutte@ugent.be).
Call for Papers: Sixth Historical Demography Day
Theme: Vulnerable groups & Historical Demography
Organizers: Isabelle Devos & Bart Van de Putte (UGent)
Date and location: Thursday 12 December 2013, Ghent University, Belgium
The purpose of the Sixth Day is to provide a nuanced picture of populations that occupied a vulnerable position in the past. Which social groups can be described as 'vulnerable'? How do these groups behave in demographic terms (marriage patterns, fertility, survival, living and household situation)? How are these groups and their problems related to cultural and socio-economic structures and societal changes? And what specific stages of the life course increase vulnerability? These are just some of the questions we wish to answer in this conference. By focusing on these groups, we want to gain more insight into the way in which social exclusion and inclusion in the past were determined.
Proposals should be submitted before 31 May to Isabelle Devos (Isabelle.Devos@ugent.be) and Bart Van de Putte (Bart.VandePutte@ugent.be).