Call for Papers: Capitalism, Community and Charity. Giving in mercantile and industrial economies (ca. 1300-2000)
Session at the Tenth European Social Science History conference in Vienna, 23-26 April 2014, in the Social Inequality Network
Capitalism, Community and Charity. Giving in mercantile and industrial economies (ca. 1300-2000)
Organizers: Henk Looijesteijn & Marco van Leeuwen
From the late Middle Ages onwards (proto-)capitalist societies emerged all over Europe, first largely on a local, urban scale, such as in Northern Italy and the Low Countries, from the eighteenth century onwards also on a national scale, such as in England.
In these increasingly monetarized societies, characterized by high mobility, great capital accumulation and strong and growing inequality, people were confronted with the issue of how to maintain a vibrant and harmonious community in the face of unravelling traditional ties of kinship and neighbourhood.
One of the ways in which communities were built and/or maintained was by the promotion of charity, an avenue we believe to be insufficiently explored. For that reason we would like to organize a session with papers on case-studies on this issue in which the following questions may be addressed:
The practice of charity: How did people organize charity in these societies? Was it a top-down or bottom-up affair? How was charity given shape institutionally? Was it left to private initiative, or did church and state claim a dominant position? How was charity financed?
The theory of charity: How was charity conceived? How was it regarded? In what way was it encouraged, or discouraged? How was it presented? How did the charitable see themselves, or did they wish to be seen? How did the recipients regard charity, and the necessity to be dependent on it?
Papers may address case-studies of whole communities, particular institutions or persons. Please send your paper proposal (c. 500 words) before 15 April 2013 to Henk Looijesteijn: hlo [at] iisg.nl.
Dr Henk Looijesteijn
International Institute of Social History
Cruquiusweg 31
1019 AT Amsterdam
00 31 20 6685866