CfP: International Congress “FAMILIES AND HISTORICAL CHANGE. Relational Dynamics and Social Transformations. A global perspective, 13th-20th centuries”
The Seminario de Historia Social de la Población (SEHISP) of the Faculty of Humanities of Albacete (University of Castilla-La Mancha), together with the Centre Roland Mousnier (Sorbonne Université, CNRS) and the Núcleo de Estudos de População “Elza Berquó” (NEPO – Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil), invite the international scientific community to the International Congress “Families and Historical Change. Relational Dynamics and Social Transformations. A global perspective, 13th-20th centuries”, which will take place in the city of Albacete on May 7th, 8th, and 9th, 2025.
This call coincides with the 25th anniversary of the SEHISP and extends the initiatives promoted in Spain in 1994 and 2007 by the Seminario Familia y Élite de Poder of the University of Murcia and now joined by other centres and research programmes from the Basque Country and Extremadura.
We perceive that we are currently living in a constant process of change that has accelerated in recent decades coinciding with the beginning of the 21st century. Perhaps one of the most visible manifestations of these transformations can be seen in what is happening with the family. However, from a historical perspective, this is neither new nor exceptional. We need only recall the apocalyptic predictions by authors such as Frédéric Le Play and others in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on the supposed impact of industrialisation and urban growth on the family.
Apart from these impressions and the overused dualistic view that seeks to separate an ideal and uniform traditional society from an unstable and uncertain modern society, we believe that in the history of the family there is still a lack of reflection on time and historical change. A clear evidence is to see how there is a great divergence in periodisation and in the criteria established to define changes (by example by Philippe Ariès, Peter Laslett, Lawrence Stone, Norbert Elias, David Kertzer, Marzio Barbagli, David Sabean, Michael Mitterauer, Francisco Chacón,…), in how to combine the short-term approach with long-term research (Jon Mathieu, 2019) and in how to harmonise time on a human scale and the life course with the time of structures, as Tamara Hareven advocated and as later was insisted, for example, by authors such as Martine Segalen, Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux, Beatrice Moring, etc.The challenge is undoubtedly how to situate ourselves between the tension of the discovery of novelty and the realisation of reiteration and continuity in social dynamics.
Once it has been assumed that the family is both queen and prisoner of the society of which it is a part (Jacques Donzelot, 1991), its study allows us to address two fundamental questions. On the one hand, to make much more complex formulations about the functioning and dynamics of social relations; and, on the other hand, to analyse, understand and explain a large part of the contradictions that exist, both in a given period and in the processes of change and transformation that have occurred over time.
The family is at the intersection of all major historical themes, from demography and economics to legal, cultural, religious and mentality aspects, as well as the history of power, gender, institutions and social groups. This applies to any society, whether in Europe, America, Asia, Africa or Oceania, which makes it a particularly suitable concept to be approached from a global dimension and in the long term, in this case, from the “monde plein” of the 13th century to the 20th century. Moreover, the family brings together issues such as the limits between the public and the private, the individual and the collective, which make it a very appropriate research perspective for tackling historical complexity.
The Congress is conceived as a play of mirrors in which families, as the object and subject of change, are not only thought of in terms of the study of their inner working in its narrowest sense and how they were affected by the changes in the context in which they developed, but also in terms of their role and the role of their members in its broadest conception, as agents of this change.
After 40 years of studies on the history of the family in Spain, and much earlier in other countries, it is appropriate to move forward in order to promote this field of research into the future. The proposal of new approaches and methodologies, the deepening of other existing ones, its international consolidation, its development in all regions of the world and the incorporation of young researchers are a magnificent expression of its extraordinary dynamism, which we wish to highlight with the convening of this congress.
THEMATIC AXES:
1.- Sources, methods and proposals for methodological renewal. Between interdisciplinarity and artificial intelligence.
2.- Households, homes and reproduction. Economy, labour, estates and inheritances.
3.- Marriages, unions: family relations, alliances and kinship.
4.- Individual and collective trajectories: life course, generational changes and social mobility.
5.- Family, gender, age and inequalities.
6. – Emotions, culture, values. Solidarity and everyday life.
7.- Conflicts, transgressions, disobedience.
8.- Displacements: migrations, absences and communities.
9.- The family in education and dissemination. Transfer and didactics
TARGET AUDIENCE:
Due to the very nature of the subject of this conference and out clear commitment to developing interdisciplinary approaches and collaborations, in addition to historians from different periods and specialities between the 13th and 20th centuries, the call is also open to participation from other disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, law, economics, demography, literature, art, philosophy, medicine and gender studies.
The conference is also open to the presentation of research from both Europe and other continents with the aim of promoting communication between specialists from different geographical origins and to contrast the peculiarities, inequalities and similarities of the processes of historical change based on the study of families in different territories.