Projects / Programmes
Economic and social position of Slovenes during the transition from feudalism to capitalism
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.01.00 |
Humanities |
Historiography |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H240 |
Humanities |
Contemporary history (circa 1800 to 1914) |
| H270 |
Humanities |
Social and economic history |
capitalism, 19th century, Slovenes, Habsburg monarchy, social history, economic history, social history of medicine
Researchers (4)
| no. |
Code |
Name and surname |
Research area |
Role |
Period |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
03471 |
PhD Stanko Granda |
Historiography |
Head |
2008 - 2011 |
1,080 |
| 2. |
24476 |
PhD Katarina Keber |
Humanities |
Researcher |
2008 - 2011 |
193 |
| 3. |
30799 |
PhD Klaudija Sedar |
Historiography |
Junior researcher |
2010 - 2011 |
291 |
| 4. |
10673 |
PhD Andrej Studen |
Historiography |
Researcher |
2008 - 2011 |
471 |
Organisations (2)
Abstract
The study will examine the economic and social conditions in the Slovenian part of the Habsburg monarchy during transition from feudalism to capitalism. The main studied period will be the one between the end of Illyric provinces in 1813 and the stock market breakdown in 1873. The essential focus will be on the economic and social changes, caused by the transition from one political and economic system to the other. The multi-layered impact of a predominantly rural society's transition into the post-feudal or pre-industrial and industrial society will interest us from the perspective of the majority rural population, as well as from the perspective of the emerging proletariat. Economic and social changes will be demonstrated by a series of case studies. Individual studies will examine (a) economic causes for the deterioration of the rural population's situation, (b) economic effects of railway network construction and its impact on industrialization, with special focus on the role of Slovenian businessmen, (c) social consequences of transition on the example of a large increase in alcohol consumption, (d) hygienic conditions of city and rural proletariat and (e) medico-social changes on the example of transformation of the public healthcare network due to the extinction of the healer profession and the establishment of "bratovske skladnice" (fraterneties' funds) as a new form of medico-social care to meet the needs of the emerging industrial workers' class. The research will be predominantly based on archival material of the state, provincial, district and communal level, held by the Slovenian and Austrian archives. Other sources such as topographies, administrative indexes (šematizmi) and newspapers will, among others, contribute to the study. Due to the fact that the Slovenian historiography until the present did not study economic and even more social history of the first capitalist transition, the research will have an essential impact on this segment of history of the 19th century. Moreover, it will raise interest in social and economic history that is, compared to political history, under-represented in the Slovenian historiography.
Significance for science
The primary focus of the project is on the economic and social history, which still remain underrepresented in Slovenian historiography. Social history, which has long been an established historical discipline in European historiographies (the so-called Sozialgeschichte is studied at special institutes in the German academic environment), is still in the exclusive domain of very few researchers and therefore almost non-existent in Slovenian historiography. In comparison with its political counterpart, social history continues to have the connotation of a second-class scientific discipline in the Slovenian historiographical environment, since the theme which it investigates, is popular and mass, everyday and “ordinary”, sometimes excessively all-encompassing and sometimes much too transient to be easily understood. The problem of economic history, however, is in the lack of economic knowledge and, in the past, mainly in the poor understanding of manifold consequences of the transition from feudalism to capitalism, which in the Habsburg Monarchy took place in the mid-19th century.
Consequently, there is a severe lack of original research (with the exception of minor fragmentary studies) on the social and economic history of the 19th-century Slovenian provinces in the Habsburg Monarchy and Austria-Hungary, respectively. No less problematic seems to be the 19th century itself, which was of much importance and interest to Slovenian historians only two decades ago, whereas in the recent years the number of researchers specialising in this period has been on the decline.
The research themes of the project, such as health care and the development of the public health system, as well as the problem of alcoholism in industrial centres of the 19th century are new subjects to the Slovenian milieu which, on one hand, open a new and above all different perspective on the changing society of the 19th century, and on the other, importantly contribute to the knowledge on the social history of the Slovenes in the 19th century. The problems concerning health and diseases, the development of public health service, hygiene practices and the emergence (or diagnosis) of new, modern diseases and addictions characteristic of the industrial era, such as alcoholism, they unveil the deeper layers of man’s existence in a certain period of time and shed direct light on both psychophysical traits of industrial population and on the very conception of health, diseases and death.
In connection with the above, the project “Socioeconomic status of population in Slovenian lands in transition from feudalism into capitalism” is of manifold significance for Slovenian historiography. If the content of the project popularises the investigation of the 19th century itself as the first modern and rapidly developing age which gave root to the majority of developmental origins of the contemporary world “as we know it”, its primary focus is on the social change and modernisation of society as a consequence of the crucial economic developments in the period of industrialisation of Slovenian provinces.
Significance for the country
The development of social and economic history undoubtedly contributes to the overall development of the national historical science and hence to the progress and development of Slovenia. The development of social history is especially important, since such historiographical research also gives national historiography a broader, international dimension. Research that reveals individual segments of the problem concerning the first capitalist transition in the mid-19th century, however, also has important implications for contemporary developments, in light of which Slovenian society is, again, confronted with an economic and social order based on capitalism. Even though these are two different transitions into capitalism, their comparison is highly interesting and applicative.
The results of the project, which investigates new contents from the agrarian-economic and social history, however, will also importantly contribute to the field of protecting movable and immovable cultural heritage in both Slovenian rural areas and old industrial centres.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2008,
2009,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2008,
2009,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
