[oberlist] CZ* cfp: Cultural workers in the urban economy 1850-1939, Panel, Cities & Societies in Comparative Perspective, Prague, 2012

ober at emdash.org ober at emdash.org
Mon Sep 5 08:55:17 CEST 2011


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [balkans] CfP:Cultural workers in the urban economy 1850-1939,
Panel, Cities & Societies in Comparative Perspective, Prague, 2012
From:    "clio_dp" <aniar at evrocom.net>
Date:    Wed, August 24, 2011 7:38 pm
To:      balkans at yahoogroups.com
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Main session at the EAUH 2012 Conference: Cities & Societies in
Comparative Perspective
Prague, Czech Republic, 29 August - 1 September 2012


Deadline for proposals: 1 October 2011


In What is Art (1904) Leo Tolstoy noted `the people who do all the
work...the people who always sit below the stage moving the decorations,
winding up the machinery, working at the piano or French horn, and setting
type and printing books' (p 69). Elsewhere he mentions `the professional
artists, who lived by the trade, receiving remunerations from newspaper
editors, publishers, impresarios, and in general from those agents who
come between the artists and the town public � the consumers of art' (p.
119). In recent years the impact of cultural activity on the fabric and
organisation of cities has received increased attention from urban
historians. This session aims to focus on some of the distinctive features
of this aspect of urban life during a key period of change. Between the
mid-nineteenth century and the Second World War the role of culture in the
economic life of European cities not only expanded, but was transformed.
Mass education, technological innovation, pr
 ofessionalization, and the development of the cultural industries and
their associated institutions gave rise to new patterns and types of
employment. Elite culture flourished, supported by an expanding art
market, the specialist press and public and private patronage. At the
same time new forms of popular culture developed, catering to a growing
public of literate workers and lower middle class employees. Both sectors
of cultural production generated distinct forms of work for large numbers
of `cultural workers' with a diversity of skills. Alongside the 'stars'
of cultural production � artists, actors, composers, and performers �
battalions of 'backroom' workers shifted scenes, made costumes, set type,
took photographs, made instruments, edited copy, framed and dispatched
pictures, and carried out all the other tasks required by the making,
presentation, and dissemination of cultural products. The establishment
and growth of the cultural quarters found in ma
 ny metropolitan cities was dependent upon the workers who serviced and
staffed the agencies involved in cultural activity. This session will
explore and analyse the contribution of different types of cultural
worker to the nature and texture of urban life and the cultural economy
within the comparative framework of European cities in the period. Papers
should address the key question of the impact of changes in technology,
commercial and cultural practices, and forms of cultural transmission on
the lives of people employed by, or involved in, the cultural sectors of
the urban economy.

Other questions might include the following:
� What particular sites of cultural activity can be found in towns and
cities?
� What categories of cultural workers can be identified and how did
their patterns of work, life experiences and lifestyles interact with and
help to shape urban life and culture?
� What role was played by distinctively urban sites of sociability and
leisure?
� What part was played in the development of urban cultures by
professional and industrial networks and organisations?
� How important was the mobility of cultural workers within and between
cities?
� How did the experiences of those employed in the `cultural industries'
of the private sector differ from those in state or municipal
institutions?


he proposals should be directed either to
1. the only email address available in the post (I think I posted the copy
of the file I'm attaching here too): Jill Steward (Newcastle University) -
Jill.Steward at ncl.ac.uk
or
2. directly submitted via the online paper proposal form of the EAUH 2012:
 http://www.eauh2012.com/sessions/call-for-paper-proposals/

The general rule requires no more than 500 words.
Deadline: 1 October 2011.


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