OutNorth · New Frontiers in an Old World? Revealing the Role of North-West Europe's ‘Peripheral’ Outlands in the Growth of Capitalism, c.1400-1900
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-10-15 → 2024-11-22
- EU contribution
- €191,852
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
New Frontiers in an Old World? Revealing the Role of North-West Europe's ‘Peripheral’ Outlands in the Growth of Capitalism, c.1400-1900
This project sought to highlight the importance of 'peripheral' rural areas of north-west Europe during the emergence of capitalism (AD1400-1900). A large body of research in economic history and agrarian history has been devoted to this subject but most of this work has focused on urban-industrial centres and their agricultural hinterlands. More distant rural areas such as the west of Ireland and Boreal Sweden have received less attention. Yet recent archaeological and palaeo-environmental fieldwork in these places suggests that they were once quite valuable and could sustain complex livestock-rearing systems. The aim of OutNorth was to start developing a more periphery-centred approach that can help scholars to examine these rural areas and their economic importance before the 20th century. This involved identifying and integrating different forms of evidence (archaeological, palaeoecological and historical). As an intial study, it used one upland area in Ireland as a case study, with comparative research on forest farming in north-central Sweden. OutNorth has acted as an important methodological stepping stone, showing that it is possible to trace the history of farming in these areas and examine the adaptability and agency of their inhabitants in wider change. At the same time, OutNorth has provided the researcher with vital further training in remote sensing, digital survey, Geographic Information Systems and integrated landscape analysis. It also provided them with teaching and supervision opportunities and helped them to achieve working fluency in Swedish.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
OutNorth will develop a novel periphery-centred approach to the growth of north-west Europe's capitalist urban centres (AD1400-1900) by examining their dependence on outland producers of cattle and dairy. Most studies of capitalism's rise have focused on urban-industrial 'cores' and their agricultural hinterlands, neglecting distant places like western Ireland and inner Scandinavia. Yet recent archaeological and palaeo-environmental fieldwork suggests outlands were once valuable and could sustain complex livestock-rearing systems.Focusing on south-west Ireland, OutNorth will build a multi-level approach which determines the active role of outland pastoralists in supplying NW Europe’s core areas with food - from their use of mountain pastures and (re)negotiation of community structures, to their trade and interaction with specific urban-industrial centres. It will accomplish this by integrating the results of recent archaeological surveys and environmental sampling with neglected historical evidence, GIS-based remote sensing and digital field survey. By basing its analysis in the landscape, OutNorth will challenge the assumption that peripheral farmers’ actions were dictated by 'the outside world'. It will show instead how socio-ecological factors shaped their engagement with markets, and in turn influenced growth in core areas. Comparative analysis in western Sweden will provide a means of testing this approach in a different socio-political and environmental context, ensuring replicability.OutNorth’s long-term view of farming will make a timely contribution to the EU’s strategy on sustainable food production. Having arranged a collaboration with a major new European Innovation Partnership on upland farming, the researcher will organise a series of community events to highlight the valuable biocultural heritage of pastoralism. Together, they will discuss how historical lessons on overgrazing and social change might be integrated into future land-use management.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UPPSALA UNIVERSITET · UppsalaCoordinatorSweden
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union