The concept of Europe, a matter of cultural and political debate for centuries, is a historiographic topos raising the research interests of many scholars in several different fields of specialization. In the construction of the European space(s), in its advancements or regresses, a crucial role has been played by economic actors and relations, which often overpass national borders and intertwin with the nature and roles of political powers and national States. Looking at the last decades, it immediately appears evident how the international spread of finance, the pervasiveness of global markets, the spreading of technological innovations, the expanding strategies of large corporations, have deeply redesigned national, economic, and political systems. Nonetheless, even well before the last globalization (or re-globalization), traditional government systems were pressed by the internationalization of economies: by centrifugal pushes, by the need for external resources, or the emergence of new actors on the international stage in economic, technical, and social fields, that have increasingly influenced both the private and the public life. In more recent times, then, a new institutional framework developed at supranational, European, level getting new functions and involving actors, such as trade unions, charities, business interests, scientific institutions, and churches, reinforcing the dynamics of cooperation, integration, and convergence beyond national borders.

The Italian Society of Economic Historians (SISE) and the “Mario Romani” Department of Economic and Social History and Geographical Sciences - Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan, Italy), welcome paper and session proposals to the conference “The European space. Geo-economic balances and State powers in the long run”, that will be held at the Catholic University of Milan on June 22-24, 2023. 

Potential areas of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Productions and markets

• Labour and social actors in the European framework

• The economy as a tool in international relations

• Geographies, networks, territories

Submission

Please send abstracts for papers (max 500 words) or entire sessions (4-6 participants, max 1,000 words) together with the proponent’s short CV (max 250 words) to spazioeuropeo[at]unicatt.it by April 16, 2023. 

Proponents of accepted proposals will be notified by the Program Committee by April 30, 2023. The conference is held both in presence and remotely.