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

Summary
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.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/896809
Start date: 15-10-2021
End date: 22-11-2024
Total budget - Public funding: 191 852,16 Euro - 191 852,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

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.

Status

TERMINATED

Call topic

MSCA-IF-2019

Update Date

28-04-2024
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Horizon 2020
H2020-EU.1. EXCELLENT SCIENCE
H2020-EU.1.3. EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
H2020-EU.1.3.2. Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
MSCA-IF-2019