The origins and legacies of the Little Divergence in Central and Eastern Europe

WORKSHOP ON ECONOMIC HISTORY, GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

Department of Social and Economic History at University of Vienna

Vienna, 1-2 June 2018

Keynote speakers:
Paolo Malanima (Magna Graecia University)
Ulrich Pfister (University of Münster)

CALL FOR PAPERS
Deadline: 15 January 2018

One of the biggest challenges in economic history is to account for present-day differences in levels of economic development across countries and regions. With this in mind, the participant of the workshop will share ideas as to when and why did the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) began to lag behind the West and why they have not been able to close, or even substantially narrow, this gap. New insights can be drawn from examining their tumultuous and complex histories, as well as their untapped sources of historical data. This may concern several developmental factors, endowments, geography, institutions, eve culture, in different time periods.
The WEast workshop in Vienna will offer an opportunity to share and discuss ideas and research pertaining to these and related questions. The prime objective of the WEast workshop is to facilitate communication between scholars from the ‘East’ and the ‘West’ working in the broad realm of Eastern European economic and social history in order to share their research and to encourage exchange of knowledge about available sources of data and state-of-the art methodologies.

In this spirit, organizers from the Department of Social and Economic History at the University of Vienna invite both graduate students and established researchers to submit their scientific work. We welcome research dealing with more general economic questions as well as less widely known aspects of the economic and social history of Central and Eastern Europe, using a variety of approaches.

Scholars wishing to participate should email an extended abstract (max 2 pages) along with a short academic CV to Erich Landsteiner no later than 15 January 2018. Selected participants will be informed by 15 February. There is no participation fee for this meeting, but participants are expected to cover their own costs of travel and the conference dinner. Accommodation will be provided by the local organizers. Young scholars whose universities are unable to cover travel expenses can apply for a small WEast travel allowance sponsored by the European Historical Economics Society.
If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact: erich.landsteiner@univie.ac.at cc: veronika.haydn@univie.ac.at

Local organizer: Erich Landsteiner
WEast organizers: Tamás Vonyó, Mikołaj Malinowski, and Jacob Weisdorf