CFP: Mapping Networks in Historical Cultural Markets: Methods and Tools (Helsinki, 31 October 2015)

International Conference on Urban History, ‘Reinterpreting Cities’ – European Association for Urban History, Helsinki, Finland
August 24 – 27, 2016
Session – Mapping Networks in Historical Cultural Markets: Methods and Tools
Due date for submission of paper abstracts: Oct 31, 2015
This interdisciplinary session explores how networks helped to establish, expand, and sustain markets for cultural products such as books and art, as well as theatre, music and cinema productions. Although the study of social ties among market participants is by no means new, it is becoming increasingly prominent due to historiographical and methodological developments. Recent studies on cultural markets and urban creativity, for instance, testify to the importance of local and interlocal networks for innovation and market development (cf. Davids & De Munck 2014; De Marchi & Raux 2014). Moreover, analyses of historical networks have been reinforced by the spilling over of the method of ‘network analysis’ from the social sciences as well as the advent of computational techniques in historical research (e.g. Graham, Milligan & Weingart 2013). Despite this recent interest, there is still much ambiguity around the concept of networks. The term is often used as a catch-all denoting many different relationships in cultural markets and although most historians are by now familiar with digital network visualization and spatial mapping, their analytical potential and limitations deserve further examination. Papers are, therefore, invited to reflect on issues of methodology and digital techniques, e.g. means of collecting, analyzing, and presenting data pertaining to the relationship between networks and cultural market development. We welcome contributions on Europe and beyond, across different periods, and on miscellaneous cultural markets.
The following themes fit particularly well with the aims of the session:
– Different uses of networks by individuals and firms (promotion, information collection, subcontracting, reputation building, etc.);
– Comparisons of network structures across time, space, and cultural industries;
– Tracing cultural exchange and transmission across inter-local and cross-sectoral networks;
– Relationships between networks, affiliations and institutions in cultural markets;
– Processes of intermediation in cultural markets.
Session organizers: Claartje Rasterhoff, University of Amsterdam, Dries Lyna, Radboud University Nijmegen, and Karol Jan Borowiecki, University of Southern Denmark.
Deadline paper proposals: October 31, 2015.
Notification of paper acceptance: December 15, 2015
Abstracts of paper proposals should not exceed 300 words. To submit a paper proposal, registration in the conference management system is
required: https://www.conftool.pro/eauh2016/. The session organisers will decide on the contents of their session and will make the final selection of papers. The authors of the accepted paper proposals will be invited to submit the full text (max. 5000 words) to the conference management system. Deadline for full text submissions: August 15, 2016. The papers will be made available to all participants of the conference in a restricted web area. Paper proposals and full texts can only by submitted online, via the EAUH2016 website:
https://eauh2016.net/programme/call-for-papers/.