Call for Papers:

The Lost Decade: The 1950s in European History, Economy, Society and Culture

11-13 July 2007
Cardiff University, Wales, UK

The 1950s have received relatively little scholarly attention to date, sandwiched as they are between the traumatic events of the Second World and the social, cultural, political and economic upheavals of the 1960s. Yet these years have been viewed retrospectively as a 'golden age' and represent a period during which many European countries reconstructed a sense of national unity from the vestiges of war. Indeed, the 1950s can be interpreted as a decade that set in train national and cross-national processes and institutions that have shaped contemporary European identities. This conference aims to investigate the 1950s within a European context and to explore how these seemingly 'transitional' years were in fact a fertile period for experimentation in many spheres. From political reorganization and economic reconstruction and modernization to shifts in social trends and intellectual cultures, the 1950s represent a time when new and/or revitalized post-war identities were 'road-tested' for their future use. Examining this 'lost' decade provides an opportunity to assess the cultural environment that has moulded the structures and institutions of present-day Europe. It offers the chance to re-evaluate some of the critical debates that marked the public sphere and to account for what was 'lost' in those years as choices were made over the future of European societies and cultures.

The conference organizers welcome proposals for panel and/or papers that work on specific national traditions and cultures, as well as those that foster interdisciplinary and comparative work. Contributions in the following areas would be of interest but they are by no means an exhaustive list:

* Forms of European cooperation: political, economic and intercultural
* Politics of the Cold War: East/West relations and the dynamics of conflict
* Transatlantic relations: European responses to American social, cultural and political models
* Europe and its colonial pasts and present: decolonization and its aftermath
* The society of consumption: social and economic trends
* Popular cultures, film, fashion and sport: embodying a decade
* Sexual cultures: feminism, gender and frameworks for change
* Intellectual cultures: debates and exchanges within Europe and beyond
* Political cultures: reconstructing national institutions and elites
* Memories of the 1950s: nostalgia and return
* The 1950s and its historiographical heritage

Abstracts of approximately 300 words, as well as a one-page CV, should be sent to Heiko Feldner: [log in to unmask], School of European Studies, Cardiff University, 65-68 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AS. Deadline for submissions: 31 September 2006. Speakers should seek funding from their own institution in the first instance.