[ATHENA] EXTENDED: Call for Papers EAUH2020_ Fires and Urban Communities

[Marie Thebaud-Sorger <thebaud.sorger AT free.fr>]

Chères et chers collègues,

pour information l'annonce ci-dessous pour le prochain congrès de l'association européenne d'histoire urbaine, certains aspects peuvent intéresser les historiens des techniques

Dear colleagues,

For information, as the Call for Papers for the EAUH2020 conference (Antwerp, 2-5 September 2020) is extendedto 27 October 2019. (Actual closing: 28 October 00h01)

 

we would like  to encourage submissions  for the  session “Fires and Urban Communities during the Early Modern and Modern Periods”  co-organized by Shane Ewen, Leeds Beckett University and Marie-Aline Thebaud-Sorger, French National Center for Scientific Research - Maison Francaise d’Oxford ALL paper proposals should be submitted through the website,  http://www.eauh2020.eu  Keywords: Communities | Fires | Vulnerability Time period: Modern period Topic(s): Social  | TechnologyStudy area: Europe  Short abstract:  Fire has always been part of urban life, and so it continues as recent fatal fires illustrate. This session aims to examine the relationship between fires and communities, and the ways that they interacted with each other. Session content:  Fire has always been part of urban life, and so it continues as recent fatal fires such as at Grenfell Tower in London (2017) starkly illustrate. However the sensitivity towards fire hazards has gradually and continuously shifted from early modern times, revealing how the city has been in constant motion in dealing with the risk posed by fire. Instead of seeing citywide conflagrations, which razed entire blocks of flammable property, fire increasingly became localised to single properties or discrete urban districts, largely thanks to the piecemeal spread of fireproof buildings and the business of fire insurance. We also see the increasing specialisation of fire extinguishing, rescue and prevention techniques from the eighteenth century, ranging from individual warning and suppression devices to the formation of public bodies of skilled and paid firefighters trained in rescue and resuscitation in addition to the core business of fire-fighting. The movement of money, ideas, people and materials has, then, been integral to the changed urban fire regime. This main session, which spans the early modern and modern periods, aims to examine the relationship between fires and communities, including the roles played by neighbours (as first responders), witnesses, firefighters, technocratic experts, councillors, and others – and the ways that they interacted with each other at different levels and over time. We wish to focus on the ways that the evolving, but constant, threat of fire has fostered new practices in protecting communities and, vice versa, how practices and experiences have shaped the perception and management of fires from the early modern to the modern period in Europe. We would like to raise three main themes: 1. Collective and individual identities shaped by urban fires (vulnerable communities; professional communities, volunteers, etc.). 2. The public and private effects of fires on the setting of new regulations, innovations in new extinguishment technologies (protection/prevention) as well as the spread of insurance business. 3. The way fires feed various narratives that create a culture of urban fire, and a shared collective memory with lessons to be learned or, indeed, forgotten. We welcome papers on topics related to any of these themes.

Dr. Marie Thébaud-Sorger

Associate research professor

Maison Française d'Oxford

USR 3129  CNRS
2-10 Norham Road

Oxford OX2 6SE

 

 

Dr. Iason Jongepier

Scientific staff  - University of Antwerp - History Department - Centre for Urban History
Research & publications|Centre for Urban History| EAUH2020 |  GIStorical Antwerp | B-magic | Antwerp Time Machine | Hofstad | Stadsgeschiedenis