Dear all,

sorry for posting it so late, it might be of interest for some of you, for
participants we will try and provide for travel expesenses and stay here in
Trier.
Please feel free to distribute the CFP to anyone you might think is interested
in the issues!
Thanks and Cheers
Inga


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The Research Project: Poverty and Welfare Politics in Rural Regions of Western
Europe (1860-1975), B5 within the Collaborative Research Centre 600: "Strangers
and poor people. Changing patterns of inclusion and exclusion from classical
antiquity to the present day" at Trier University hosts the conference

Poverty and Rural Societies between Tradition and Modernity. Philanthropy and
Self-Help in Europe, 1850-1930

to be held at Trier University (Germany) on
12th - 14th October 2006

CALL FOR PAPER

Public assistance in the form of poor relief or old age pensions has come to be
understood as one part of the economy of makeshifts in which poor persons and
families tried to make ends meet under the constant threat of destitution. In
rural places another means to stay the consequences of sickness and want was to
rely on help provided either by private benefactors or by charitable societies.
In many rural and mainly catholic parts of Europe these were associations like
religious orders or female congregations whose members were motivated by their
religion. In many remote areas and small villages their contribution to the
well-being of the people was in demand until well into the 20th century. Rural
poor law administration which was insufficient in many cases often depended
financially on complementary donations from charitable funds, philanthropical
foundations, or charitable individuals.

If, how and when a dual system of public and private assistance can be said to
have emerged in rural societies has hardly been discussed. Moreover, the shape
that private charity took in small towns and villages surrounded by an
agricultural environment characterized by small-farming on tiny patches of
land, has only been looked at cursorily. The same goes for the examination of
informal help sustained by kin and neighbourhood networks as well as for the
study of voluntary associations such as co-operative societies or credit unions
which were often formed as a means of self-help in rural areas.

The research project “Poverty and welfare politics in rural regions of Western
Europe (1860-1975) looks at different groups of poor people and how they
managed to survive in the face of economic hardship, restrictive poor relief
administrators and exclusion from politics. Currently, comparative work is
being done on rural communities in the Southern Rhine-Province (Landkreise
Bernkastel and Wittlich) and Northwestern Ireland (County Donegal).

The conference aims to explore organizational structures that private charity
and self-help took and their relations to local authorities. Emphasis is to be
on the interplay of the various bodies and associations on local and regional
level. Papers which take into account forms of competition and cooperation
between agencies of assistance from different denominational backrounds are as
welcome as those which consider more closely the strategies reactions and
attitudes of the poor towards these institutions.

The conference will be broken up into three sections which will deal with the
following subjects:

1. Catholic congregations/associations and local poor relief:
In what kind of charitable activities were women religious such as the Irish
Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of Religious Charity etc involved in the countryside?
Which “risk groups” were identified and targeted by them? What did members of
lay associations like the St. Vincent de Paul society or of groups run by
diocesan administrations contribute to the treatment of the poor, the sick and
the endangered? What role did they play within the grand scheme of local
‘social policy’? With respect to gender-studies, it would be interesting to see
how new and old traditionally female fields of occupation developed in contrast
to the administration of public poor relief which was dominated by males. In
what ways was the gender order redefined und restructured through the work of
private charities and co-operatives? Of what importance was philanthropical
work with regard to the ‘feminisation of religion’ during the 19th century?

2. Charitable foundations, the families of their founders and local poor relief:
What kinds of charitable foundations are to be found in rural areas and of what
importance were they compared to the extent of public poor relief? From which
social and economic backgrounds did rural founders come? Did founders belong to
local elites? How did religious attitude, sex or political affiliation
influence the way founders provided for the poor?

3. Self-help initiatives and rural poverty
To avoid the devastating consequences of large-scale poverty and destitution
among rural populations, small-farmers or members of the clergy often took the
initiative to form a variety  of agricultural co-operatives. At which point in
the development of rural societies did the idea of self-help gather momentum?
How many co-operatives were successful over longer periods of time? And what
reactions of other social groups and authorities are to be observed? How is 
the evolution of the co-operative movement linked to exhausted and strained
informal networks or to the politicization of the countryside in the second
half of the 19th century? Which social groups ‘profited’ from self-help
organisations and who was excluded? How do such associations fit into the
broader picture of rural welfare services and relief structures?


Interested scholars are kindly invited to submit an abstract of up to 500 words
to the conveners of the conference by the first of April 2006. Abstracts can
either be in English or German.

For further information or questions please do not hesitate to contact: Katrin
Marx, <[log in to unmask]>.

via post: Katrin Marx
SFB 600 – Teilprojekt B5 - Universität Trier – DM 252
Ludwig-Weinspach-Weg
D-54286 Trier
Fon: +49-651-2013324
Fax: +49-651-2013293



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