EH.N: CfP XVth WEHC Session: "Why Is Economic History Not an Eevolutionary Science?"

[Werner Scheltjens]

Call for papers
XVth World Economic History Congress
Utrecht, Netherlands, 3-7 August 2009
Session "Why is economic history not an evolutionary science?"

Description and aim of the session:
Economic history is dominated by two opposite approaches that can be  
roughly defined as either quantitative or qualitative. Each of these  
approaches receives criticism from the other side. Not seldom, the  
analytical results of either of these approaches differ fundamentally,  
which is a clear sign of the insufficient explanatory power of both  
quantitative and qualitative research techniques.

Economists have long been aware of this discrepancy between positivist,  
neoclassical and subjectivist, institutional research. An analytical  
solution that recently started to gain ground is the evolutionary  
approach. In their theoretical discourse, evolutionary economists have  
been able to prove that an evolutionary analytical framework of  
economics can overcome the limitations of both quantitative and  
qualitative approaches.

We are convinced that this is a highly promising event for the  
development of economic history as a scientific discipline. The  
question remains, however, how evolutionary theory can be turned into  
sound historical research practice. Therefore we would like to bring  
together evolutionary theorists and economic historians to discuss how  
evolutionary economics can become the basis of an evolutionary  
economic history.

We propose to build this session around four elements of focus:
(1) Theory: evolutionary concepts and their position in historical  
research practice,
(2) Sources and research goals: which sources (archival and other) can  
be used in evolutionary economic history? How can they be used? Why  
should they be used?
(3) Method: Evolutionary economic theory and its use in historical practice?
(4) Results: presentation of the results of economic historical  
research carried out in an evolutionary manner.

Organizers:
Werner Scheltjens, LARHRA, ENS-LSH, Université de Lyon
Prof. Dr. Kurt Dopfer, University of St. Gallen

Application:
The session will contain 6 to 8 papers. A number of papers are reserved  
for those who reacted to the original session proposal.

This call aims at recruiting 3 to 5 more papers. Applicants are  
requested to provide a short resume and a list of publications as well  
as an abstract of one-two pages.

The submission deadline is February 28, 2009. Acceptance decisions will be
communicated before March 15, 2009.

We encourage graduate students to apply.

Deadline for submission of the complete paper: May 31, 2009.

The congress organization has a grants programme for students from  
developing countries presenting a paper at the congress; the deadline  
for applications is February 1, 2009: http://www.wehc2009.org/grants.asp

For more information on the World Economic History Congress, see:
http://www.wehc2009.org/default.asp

-- 
Werner Scheltjens
Laboratoire de Recherche Historique Rhone-Alpes
Lettres et Sciences Humaines
École Normale Supérieure de Lyon
15, Parvis Descartes
69007 Lyon
France
t: +33 4 37 37 65 70
e: Werner.Scheltjens at ens-lsh.fr