The IOS Annual Conference 2025 will explore differences and similarities in economic development between the interwar period and the post-1989 period, i.e., between the beginning and the end of Europe’s “Long Twentieth Century”. We use this notion deliberately. In line with recent research, we reassess the interwar period in a more positive light, shifting from older narratives of fragmentation and autarky to economic growth, structural change and social attainment. Moreover, the post-1989 period has allowed countries in the region to build on the opportunities first awarded to them in the interwar period. Both issues are vital but largely neglected by proponents of a “Short Twentieth Century” and by those who stress the detrimental effects of the fragmentation of Empire and the end of socialist modernity.

We therefore invite submissions that compare the two periods in novel ways. One example might be well-established research findings for one part of the century, but where the same set of questions could be asked for the other part as well. E.g., can the transition period help us understand interwar Eastern Europe? Transition economies research argues that we can distil four distinct development paths: (1) the Visegrad countries with their easy-market access to Western Europe; (2) the Baltic countries which use overzealous economic reforms to compensate for worse market access; (3) countries which have developed an economic (and political) model built around the export of natural resources (e.g., Russia); and (4) countries which do not boast any of the advantages above and rely on outward migration and remittances. Did the interwar period witness similar developments based on the analogous economic logic? Geographic location and natural resource endowment do not change over time; their consequences might have been as powerful in the past as in the present. Even reformist zeal could be a persistent factor, rooted in culture and embedded in specific economic and political contexts. E.g., Riga had been a free-trading hub for centuries before it became the nucleus of independent Latvia after 1918 and 1991, respectively. On the other hand, we ask whether we can identify differences in regional clusters between the two periods.

While the focus of the 2025 Annual Conference will be on the economic trajectories of Central, East and South-East Europe, the conference aims at cross-disciplinary dialogue. Economic developments do not take place in a vacuum. We therefore invite submissions from different social sciences, including history, economics, social anthropology, political science, and sociology, that address the central questions of the conference. We also encourage comparative and transregional perspectives, and we wish to explore the impact of the international level on the region. We invite contributions applying qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches.

Papers should address any of the following themes, ideally comparing the two periods with each other or pointing to research implications from one period for the other:

• Can the vast body of research into the transition economies help us better understand the interwar economic experience of the region – and vice versa?
• What are positive and negative legacies and path dependencies of the former empires for economic development of the post-1914 and post-1989 nation states?
• In what ways, and why, do the successor states of former empires retain economic clout in the region?
• How do/did countries in the region frame discussions about economic policy and development and their envisioned place on the world market?
• How do theories of economic backwardness, alternative paths of development etc. compare between periods? How did local experts explain different development trajectories?
• Do/did countries in the region see their developmental aspirations as part of a regional effort (and, if so, which region?), as part of something bigger or as confined to their nation state?
• How did economic (and political) cooperation in the region fare between regional, international and isolationist approaches? What are the patterns of trade (dis)integration after the end of Empire?
• What are concrete channels and factors of persistence (resource endowment, location, infrastructures, migration, etc.)?

Keynote speakers:

Prof. Támas Vonyó (Bocconi University, Milan)

Prof. János Mátyás Kovács (Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna)

Conveners:

Prof. Gábor Egry (Institute of Political History, Budapest)

Dr. Elżbieta Kwiecińska (Polish Academy of Sciences)

Prof. Matthias Morys (University of York)

Applications have to be sent to AnnualConference[at]ios-regensburg.de in one PDF file until Dec. 15th, 2024. The file name must include the name of the author. The application must include: an abstract (max. 300 words) and a short CV (max. 2 pages) including your institutional affiliation, contact details and most important publications.

Important dates:

• Deadline for paper proposal submissions: December 15th, 2024
• Notification of acceptance: mid-January 2025
• Deadline for full paper submissions: June 8th, 2025

The conference language is English. IOS Regensburg will cover accommodation costs of presenters and support their travel costs (in case of co-authored papers of one speaker).

The conference takes place in cooperation with the University of York (United Kingdom) and the Leibniz ScienceCampus “Europe and America in the Modern World” (Regensburg).

Contact: AnnualConference[at]ios-regensburg.de