Migration of Material and Intangible Resources in the Carpathian Basin
CALL FOR PAPERS
International Conference on
Migration of Material and Intangible Resources in the Carpathian Basin
V. International Symposium on Handicraft History
10‒11 November 2022, Budapest, Hungary
Organizer: Committee on Handicraft History, Regional Centre of the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences, Veszprém
Call for Papers: Migration of Material and Intangible Resources in the Carpathian Basin
The Committee on Handicraft History, Regional Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Veszprém launched a series of symposiums on the history of crafts in 1980, with the aim of approximating the approach of craft research to economic and social history issues. The unbroken purpose is confirmed by the volumes published in part from the materials of the symposium and partly showing the results of other projects. The symposium series was interrupted in 2001 and by continuing it we would like to encourage researchers and research groups to join the work started and the approach raised.
The “migration” of craftsmen’s products and tools, as well as their skills, has been continuous over the centuries. This is due, among other things, to the various movements of the people, the migration of lads of the guilds, the dissemination of merchandise catalogs, the organization of fairs and exhibitions, and a number of other factors. The examination of this is indispensable in the case of all industries and is closely intertwined with an analysis of the social and economic history and the economic policy decisions of a given era. Migration and mobility were one of the topics of the 1986 International Symposium on Handicraft History, and the 1992 (national) symposium also addressed (among other topics) the turnover of handicraft products. In autumn 2022, the full symposium will be dedicated to the traceable migration of intangible and material goods in craft industries, a chance to summarize the results of the last 30 years, and to present new groups of resources and approaches, since the last symposium (national symposium no. X.) has appointed the research of sufficiently unearthed resources, further examination of the social and economic background of the handicraft history as a task. Documents on the emergence/transfer of technology and the trade in products (such as catalogs, advertisements, price lists) and newly discovered physical evidence of migration provide new insights into the history of the craft industries. Further questions may be, if there is a role of a local (possibly national) identity in the commercial production of a given product? What social and economic processes, and possible conflicts does the adoption of products and technologies generate in the host professional and local community? What decision-making mechanisms and economic processes lead to the migration of intangible and material goods and the trade in products? How can the migration of craft knowledge through the technical terms of industries be observed, and what recent sources provide data for this?
We are waiting for the research results in the field of archaeology, history, archival science, ethnography, and historical museology, in which the origin or destination of the migration of the studied phenomenon, i.e. craft technology, master, butler, skill, tool, raw material or product, is related to the Carpathian Basin, or it serves as a case study on migration within the Carpathian Basin from the Middle Ages to the present day.