PH in Transition · Public Health in Transition. Health Care at the dawn of the Habsburg Empire (1918–1924)

Public Health in Transition. Health Care at the dawn of the Habsburg Empire (1918–1924)

This project explored the transition of the public health system in the successor states of the Habsburg Empire during and after its collapse following the First World War. As a case study, it focused on the Alps-Adriatic macro-region, covering the Upper Adriatic, which became part of the Kingdom of Italy, the Slovenian territory incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (SCS), and Carinthia and Styria, which joined the First Austrian Republic. The fragmentation of this shared space was examined by comparing three models of transition from the Habsburg public healthcare system in these successor states between 1918 and 1924, during the complex geopolitical reordering of the region. This process turned the area into a multiple borderland between the three new nations. The project aimed to analyse how health and disease shaped new borders and identities in this multilingual and multicultural space, and how they contributed to the development of legal citizenship, senses of belonging, and post-war mobility for millions of citizens. My research fall within “transition studies”, which have gained prominence in recent years, especially regarding the post-Habsburg Central European region. However, health and illness remain underexplored, often considered secondary to more “important” topics like geopolitics and the study of social, political, legal, and economic structures. Public health issues, though frequently sidelined, were central to post-war periods marked by severe physical and mental health crises that profoundly impacted the lives of millions and shaped societies for decades. Moreover, my research aieds to challenge national(istic) narratives that view the end of the monarchy as a triumph for the new nation-states that emerged from the imperial collapse. To this end, I approach the field from a strongly transnational perspective, in order to render a new narrative, moving beyond narrow national frameworks to better understand the complexities of this historical transition.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз