Naples (Italy) and online, 5–6 December 2024
Organisers:
- NextGenerationEU Project ‘Ondine’ (Dep. History, Humanities and Society – Tor
Vergata University of Rome);
- Institute of History of Mediterranean Europe of the Italian National Research Council
(ISEM-CNR).
Dates and location: Naples, 5–6 December 2024 at Fondazione Banco di Napoli, and remotely
Languages: English and Italian
Under the patronage of: Istituto Nazionale Ferruccio Parri and Fondazione ISEC
The workshop aims to highlight the multifaced and dynamic nature of gendered, economic, and
cultural practices in everyday life in maritime contexts in Early Modern and Modern times (17th–20th
centuries).
The analytical tools for studying everyday life are manifold. What all approaches and methodologies
have in common is that they operate as critiques of everyday life. In other words, all possible
approaches have to analyse the ‘structures of the everyday’ (Braudel 1967, 1979) and/or how it was
experienced and produced over time more than the everyday itself (Olson 2011).
The first to introduce the concept of everyday – precisely the notions of routine and repetition – into
historiography was Braudel (1967, 1979), who through his ‘historical imagination’ emphasised what he
called ‘material civilisation’, i.e. the ways that women and men had of producing, exchanging, eating,
living, and reproducing at the dawn of capitalism. Braudel’s approach found inspiration in Lefebvre’s Critique de la vie quotidienne, vol. I (1947) and Matérialisme dialectique (1949), the works in which the French philosopher recognised daily life as the place par excellence of production – of a material, social and cultural nature – and appropriation. In this sense, everyday life becomes the battleground – or mediation ground – among nature, capitalism and human beings. It is also where individuals articulate (i.e. appropriate) themselves (Lefebvre 1947, 1949, 1961).During the 1980s in West Germany, the historiographical investigation of everyday life experienced a new impetus. The Alltagsgeschichte (Lüdtke, Medick) sprouted from the will to analyse the lives and survival strategies of the ‘nameless’ multitudes, the aspirations and everyday struggles of the kleine Leute (little/ordinary people) (Lüdtke 1989), the ‘peoples without history’ (Wolf 1982) or those ‘left behind’.This specific approach of ‘history from below’ principally aims to harmonise the micro and the macro levels of analysis by relating the everyday experiences of ordinary people with the major configurations/transformations of a political, economic, and social nature. On those bases, Alltagsgeschichte interprets human practices and experiences as inseparable from the context in which they originated. Moreover, since the everyday is the space of individuals’ articulation, any aspect of human practice in the everyday is a cultural matter.
As for gender aspects, we know that it is the everyday that makes ‘feminine women’ and ‘masculine men’ (Holmes 2009). Moreover, since there is almost an automatism in the association between the everyday and ‘women’s affairs’ and experiences, often women’s (daily) activities are considered trivial and oversimple, thus not worthy of analysis or interpretative effort (Lefebvre 1961; Randal 2008). In maritime social contexts, the issue is further complicated. If, on the one hand, in the last forty years, historiography has recognised the value of domesticity and female (re)productive contribution in fishing communities (Thompson et al. 1983; Norling 2000), on the other, port cities continue to be
considered ‘normal’ strongholds of masculinity and male (economic, social, and cultural) production.
Given the premises, we are soliciting proposals that deal with:
- Economic practices in maritime environments (e.g. labour, business, and consumption); abstracts with a gender focus (i.e. history of women, masculinities, and LGBTQ+ communities) will be given priority;
- Gender relations and production in maritime contexts; abstracts with an economic focus (i.e. labour, business, consumption, household management, and care of the person) will be given priority;
- (Pop) Representations and narratives of everyday maritime life (e.g. exhibitions, festivities, documentaries): abstracts with a gender and/or economic angle will be given priority.
Moreover, we would particularly welcome:
- Proposals based on ‘non-official’ historiographic sources (e.g. paintings, photographs, comics, films, songs, etc.);
- Proposals that focus on gender, economic and cultural practices in imperial/colonial city-ports;
- Proposals from scholars from disciplines other than history (e.g. anthropology, sociology, economics).
Please send your 20-minute presentation proposal to Erica Mezzoli at everyday.naples2024@gmail.com by 15 September 2024. The proposal should include:
- max 300-word abstract in English;
- max 250-word bio profile in English with affiliation, position and contact information;
- the language the proponent would prefer to communicate: Italian or English;
- the modality the proponent would prefer to communicate: in person in Naples or remotely.
The workshop is organised in the framework of the NextGenerationEU Project ‘Ondine. Women’s Labour and Everyday Life on the Upper and Eastern Adriatic Waterfronts, mid-19th century–mid-20th century’ (Funded by EU; CUP E53C22002420001) hosted by the Department of History, Humanities and Society of the Tor Vergata University of Rome.