Call for Papers
Session at the World Economic History Congress, Stellenbosch, 9-13 July 2012
Financing social care. Charitable institutions and redistribution of income in pre-industrial societies around the world (c. 1600-1900)
Organizers: Lex Heerma van Voss, Marco van Leeuwen and Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk
Income inequality is at the core of most debates in economics and economic history. For pre-industrial societies, new research aims at calculating coefficients for historical income inequality within and between regions. However, in studies of pre-industrial income distribution, the redistribution by means of charity is usually not taken into account.
Nevertheless, in all human societies, income distribution as a primary outcome of economic activities is corrected by transfers of money, goods, care and other services. Those with income support the (very) young, the (very) old, the sick and the weak, at the very least within their own families. In most societies these transfers or redistributions of income reach beyond the family, and extend to the local community, or to a national or even international scale. In preindustrial societies, these transfers could be direct and on a face to face basis, but also through institutions and anonymously, voluntary or obligatory, through churches, special charitable foundations, or mutual assurances; could be paid as alms, insurance premiums or taxes.
In this session we aim at a comparative history of pre-industrial charitable giving. We focus on how institutions influenced the practice of charitable income transfers. In some cases charity was only one of a variety of tasks for institutions, as was the case for churches and guilds. Taking up collections could be part of religious services, but also take part elsewhere, door to door or in public space. Some societies knew special charitable foundations, which enabled donors to set apart a form of capital (land, money) and do good with the income generated from this. This is true for Christian, Muslim and Jewish societies. However, in most other societies it was possible to donate capital to a religious institution with the intention to have its proceeds used for charitable purposes, but not to create a separate self-governing foundation to do so. Other examples of income transfers are (mutual) assistance by neighbours or friends. These could be more or less monetized, regulated or institutionalized, but seem to have been important throughout the world.
How and from whom were charitable gifts collected? How were the funds managed? How did charities create credibility? Who were the intended receivers and how much income was transferred this way? We aim at mapping similarities and differences in institutions and ways of financing charity around the world and come to an explanation of patterns worldwide. Therefore, we prefer paper proposals with a broad temporal and/or geographical scope. Papers from non-western regions are very much desired.
Please send your paper proposal (c. 500 words) at your earliest convenience, but by 1 February 2011 at the latest to Lex Heerma van Voss: LHV@iisg.NL
Lex Heerma van Voss
International Institute of Social History
po box 2169
1000 CD Amsterdam, Netherlands
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