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NEWS 1st Summer School in Comparative and Transnational History. More Informations and the Deadline you find here. For a number of years, France´s Institute for the History of Aluminum has offered multiple research grants annually to support scholarship on the industry´s past, construed broadly studies in material culture, the history of technology and science, business history, international relations, et al. Initially, funding for these research opportunities came from the Pechiney corporation, France´s principal aluminum producer. In recent years, with mergers proliferating, AlCan acquired Pechiney and agreed to continue providing resources for historical research, entirely a good thing. Recently however, Rio Tinto has taken control of AlCan and hence Pechiney, notifying the Institute that, in the present difficult times, it would reduce funding support to 50 percent of prior levels. In this strained situation, the Institute is seeking funding partners globally in order to continue its tradition of sustaining chiefly junior scholars in their historical studies. If readers would like further information on this situation, or have suggestions about funding possibilities for future scholarship, please contact the Institute´s President, Mr. Maurice Laparra: m.laparra@histalu.org or telephone 33 1 49 68 64 04.
Retail Spaces and Shopping Experiences in the "European City" Panel at the German Studies Association Conference, Oakland, Ca, October 7-10, 2010. The current crisis of large urban department stores such as Karstadt has brought into focus the importance of shopping venues for conceptions of urban space in the twentieth century. Beyond their commercial role,retail stores have been central to cityscapes and the urban public sphere. The recent attention afforded to inner-city department stores dovetails with a broader "spatial turn" in the history of consumption and consumer studies: shops, shopping streets and shopping centers have begun to be contextualized within a broader urban history. This panel seeks to explore the economic and social roles of inner-city and neighborhood retailers within a broader framework of what can be called urban identity formation. What meaning did shopping and retail spaces take on for different types of urban communities since the end of the nineteenth century? Next to the layout and design of shopping spaces, the experience of these spaces by consumers is of particularinterest here and raises questions of consumer agency. To what degree were retail spaces "co-created" through the everyday practices of shoppers themselves? What role did shopping experiences (or memories of such experiences) play in discursively constructing idealized conceptions of the city in the modern era? While the focus of the panel will be on examples from German-speaking countries, a contextualization of the German case within a European framework is an explicit goal of the panel. This will provide a chance to critically probe aspects of the "European city" as an ideal-type (set e.g. against the "American" city with its suburban strip-malls and abandoned main streets) which has recently enjoyed much scholarly attention. Comparative or transnational approaches are particularly welcome. For this panel we invite paper proposals on the following (or related) topics: - Experience of shopping spaces and everyday practices of shopping across the twentieth century - Shopping spaces in art, literature and popular memory - Retail planning and urban development since World War I - Retailers and shoppers in municipal politics Please send title and abstract of your proposed paper (200 words) along with a current CV to Jan Logemann (logemann@ghi-dc.org) by February 5,2010.
The Economic History Society of Southern Africa and The Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University invite you to The XVIth World Economic History Congress in Stellenbosch, South Africa, taking place from 9-13 July 2012. We are pleased to issue the First Call for Session Proposals for WEHC 2012. Click on the following address for more information: Call for Papers European Business History Association Conference, 26-28 August 2010,
Business people routinely move from firm to firm, but they also frequently move into—or sometimes create—organisations located outside the world of private profit-seeking business, ones linked to politics, government, education, health care, philanthropy, religion, promotion of trade, and other pursuits. Movement in the opposite direction is also possible, not least owing to the fact that many of these other organisations share many of the core characteristics of the private firm, including close connection to the broader economy; undertaking manufacturing; providing services; and/or investing, selling, and employing (sometimes large numbers of) personnel. In other words, these organisations often carry out the functions and tasks associated with any business, as do most state-owned enterprises, although their main purpose is usually not to make a profit but to achieve other aims (generally while at the same time breaking even financially). As its main theme, this conference will explore the interrelationships between business practice, the firm, and the business entrepreneur on the one hand and the actors, organisations, and institutions of the broader social and political environment on the other. Specific questions to be addressed in particular national, regional, local, and/or comparative contexts might include the following: · What constitutes entrepreneurship and/or efficiency outside the context of the private profit-seeking firm? · To what extent and how does pursuit of primary aims other than profit (e.g. promotion of trade, provision of health care to the poor, more equitable distribution of goods regardless of income, and so on) affect the nature and practices of organisations beyond the firm? · To what extent must business people moving into other organisations change their ways of doing things, and vice versa? · How have business people and their behaviour, attitudes, and demeanours affected the structures, strategies, and practices of other organisations? · How have the interrelationships between business and other organisations affected the structures, strategies, and practices of the firm? · What is the relationship between entrepreneurship and philanthropy? · How do business leaders use non-profit-making activities outside the firm to advance their own entrepreneurial activity through sponsorship, charitable donations, and other measures to create good will? · What impacts have charitable organisations created by business people or companies had on scientific, technological, and economic development—indeed on the development of business and entrepreneurship—in particular countries/regions? · What are the organisational and other effects when business people become politicians or vice versa? · What are the limits of the interchangeability between business practice and that required in the environment beyond the firm? · Are some national or regional governance structures, business networks, and/or systems of innovation more conducive than others to fostering movement and mutual learning between business and organisations beyond the firm than others, and, if so, why? · In what ways has the extent and/or quality of such movement and learning changed through time? Proposals for papers and/or sessions related to the theme of the conference are especially welcome, although paper and/or session proposals not directly related to it will also be considered. For paper proposals, please submit a title and abstract of up to one A4 page along with a one-page CV to ebha2010proposals@lbss.gla.ac.uk. Session proposals should include a brief abstract of the session along with a one-page abstract and a one-page CV for each participant. Deadline for all proposals is 31 January 2010.
DRAFT CALL FOR PAPERS Business History, Special Issue on History and the Economic Crisis This special issue of Business History will focus on the lessons that can be derived from historical analysis about the nature and timing of economic crises. During the recent crisis – which began in late 2007 and which has, as of this writing, witnessed capital market calamites, heightened perception of counterparty risk, a nearly worldwide downturn in production and higher unemployment, and widespread government efforts to bolster liquidity and confidence – journalists, economists, and policy makers have made frequent use of historical parallels between this crisis and others. But comparisons have been rather narrowly drawn, mostly from the 1930s. Moreover, rhetoric like “the worst crisis since the Great Depression” is frequently heard without much serious discussion of how and why the causes, cures, dimensions, and timing of other crises might resemble or differ from our own. With a little historical distance, we are hoping that the articles here will provide more historical examples of crises and their aftermaths to help expand our imaginations and to refine our analysis in dealing with the current crisis, which hopefully will be behind us before publication. These contributions that might help: Expand on the our understanding of the causes and perhaps cures for economic crises; Avoid public despair or complacency; Better understand the economic benefits and risks of our current financial configuration; Better understand the benefits and pitfalls of immediate cures; As well as better understand the potential long-term impact on society of the crises themselves and regulatory responses. The special issue is intended to address these issues broadly. We welcome articles covering a wide geographic area that deal with specific crises in history from which lessons can be learned, debunk false analogies, recount journalist and other popular portrayals of crises, discuss typologies of crisis (dating, and liquidity, credit, panic, mania driven) and papers that deal generally with the issue of drawing policy lessons from history at all. Although this special issue might be best seen as an attempt to revisit some of the insights of Charles Kindleberger, our focus will be the 19th and 20th centuries and will not necessarily lead to a “stylized categorization” of crises. We are aiming to attract original research and publish six to eight articles. The collection will be introduced by Christopher Kobrak and Mira Wilkins. It will be edited by Christopher Kobrak, ESCP Europe, as guest editor, and John Wilson and Steve Toms as executive editors of the journal. All articles will be between 6,000 and 8,000 words, including notes. Proposals of between 500 and 1,000 words are invited and should follow the following format: Title Author (s), institution (s), contact details Topic Argument Sources Contribution to existing knowledge Notes: use single space, 6pt after paragraph, New Times Roman, size 11. Please add any references as endnotes and keep them to a minimum. Proposals should be sent to the following e-mail address: kobrak@escpeurope.eu The timetable for the special issue is: September 1, 2009 – Issue Call for Papers October 31, 2009 – Deadline for receipt of proposals December 15, 2010 – Notification to authors who have made the short-list for publication in the special issue, subject to peer review. March 30, 2010 – First draft of Manuscripts received and distributed to outside referees. May 31, 2010 – Deadline for referee reports. July 31, 2010 – Deadline for revisions. October 2010 – Publication. Some of the authors’ whose submissions are not chosen will be asked to provide commentary on the other papers. Guidelines Notes: 1) Articles can be based on original research or innovative analysis. 2) The main findings should not be published elsewhere. 3) Proposals are welcome from individuals with advanced- or early-staged research. 4) Articles should be well-contextualized in theoretical and empirical literatures.
For the Sixth Edition, we welcome proposals in all aspects of "Cliometrics of Creativity: Ideas, Innovation, Patents, R&D..." For each proposed paper, please send us by e-mail, as soon as possible and before the end of the year, a short abstract of 1000-1500 characters. Speakers who submit a proposal to the Workshop should be able to obtain independent financial support for their travel and conference attendance. However, a very limited support fund exists to assist younger colleagues who are unable to obtain funding from their own institution or from another source. We will also offer meals to the participants during the Workshop at no cost. Please do not hesitate to circulate this call for papers as widely as possible. Contact for paper proposals and practical matters: Claude Diebolt, cdiebolt@unistra.fr |
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