CfP: EURHO 2025: Engineers and the rural environment in the XX century
Contributions are invited to an organised session at the upcoming European Rural History Organisation (EURHO) conference in Coímbra, Portugal (9-12 September 2025).
EURHO 2025 event page: https://ruralhistory2025.org/.
Session title: S38 | Engineers and the rural environment in 20th century Europe
Organizers
Iñaki Iriarte – Universidad de Zaragoza
Francesco D´Amaro – Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Judit Gil-Farrero – Universidad de Zaragoza
Since the late 19th century, different corps of engineers have intervened in European rural environment and, consequently, on European rural societies. Agronomists sought to modernize production by analysing the best farming systems or livestock management practices and recommending or, in some cases, imposing the techniques that should be adopted by farmers. Civil engineers, on the other hand, planned and developed transport networks or irrigation systems, which could include the construction of large reservoirs, significantly impacting the affected societies. Meanwhile, forestry engineers implemented reforestation projects or the economic exploitation of forests according to the criteria established by forest science. These technical corps, either implicitly or explicitly, held a particular conception of nature that underpinned their operations and largely determined the environmental impacts of their actions. This conception of nature was not fixed but evolved in response to a variety of factors. Scientific and technical discoveries, changes in the demand for goods and services driven by income growth and technological change, economic and agricultural policies implemented by different governments, and, ultimately, the varying degrees of resistance from civil society to engineering projects, all shaped approaches to resource management and exploitation and their effects on the environment. Based on this framework, this session aims to bring together specialists working on different engineer´s corps who historically acted upon the rural environment. The goal is to discuss the views these engineers held regarding nature and the environment, trying to discover at what extent it was convergent or divergent in the different corps and how these views evolve throughout the 20th century. This discussion can be relevant for a better understanding of the outcomes of the engineer´s actions in terms of better or worse nature conservation, or even the destruction of natural spaces and resources, and consequently, to approach the degree of sustainability achieved in rural societies through history.
All interested researchers can submit their proposals to the session. A paper proposal must include a title, the name and affiliation of the authors and a short abstract (150-200 words) introducing the topic, its scope and approach. Participants may not propose more than two paper presentations at the conference sessions.
Deadline: 20 January 2025