CfP: Local Communities and New Elites in Austria-Hungary
Research Group on the Slavic Cultures in the Habsburg Monarchy at the Institute of Western and Southern Slavic Studies, University of Warsaw; T. Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences; German Historical Institute in Warsaw kindly invite to an international conference:
Local Communities and New Elites in Austria-Hungary (Warsaw, 12–13 June 2023).
Changes in the management of the Habsburg Empire and new technologies, expanding the circulation of social communication, accelerated the modernisation processes taking place in Central Europe. It was an area inhabited by various ethnic, national, religious and linguistic communities; they had to rework their modus vivendi and to find their place in complex networks of relations. Deep and multi-faceted socio-cultural changes were leading to new cumulations of symbolic (and political) power and to gaining visibility by new groups, which were forming according to changing configuration of values and integration impulses.
We pose the question how the elites of new communities or of those that had to redefine themselves were formed. We are interested in the local perspective and local reflections of ongoing processes in general, as they have not been sufficiently represented in research on the cultural and socio-political space of the Habsburg monarchy.
We propose the following thematic fields that will help us to focus the discussion:
- localness as a dimension of social experience
- networks of contacts between the centres and the periphery
- formation and the role of local centres
- cooperation and confrontation of old and new elites
- civic ethos between the ideas of the state, nation and local community
- biographies and professional careers under the Habsburg monarchy
- new local leaders and charismatic personalities
- intellectual and economic elites and their role at the local level
- languages of the new elites, language policy
The outcomes of the conference will be a multi-author monograph in English; a review procedure will be applied.
Please send 200–300 words abstracts and a short bio by 15 March 2023 to: habsburgstudies@uw.edu.pl. Admission decisions will be announced by 10 April 2023.
Organisers:
Research Group on the Slavic Cultures in the Habsburg Empire at the Institute of Western and Southern Slavic Studies, University of Warsaw (UW), http://uwhabsburgstudies.uw.edu.pl/
Anna Kobylińska, Ph.D. (Institute of Western and Southern Slavic Studies, UW)
Maciej Falski, Ph.D. (Institute of Western and Southern Slavic Studies, UW)
Aleksander Łupienko, Ph.D. (T. Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Partners:
T. Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences
German Historical Institute in Warsaw
Venue:
German Historical Institute in Warsaw
Conference languages:
Polish and English
Practical information:
Conference participants can be offered accommodation.
No conference fee.