Papers by Christof Dejung
The Historical Journal, 2024
The rise of global history has fundamentally reshaped historical scholarship over recent years. Q... more The rise of global history has fundamentally reshaped historical scholarship over recent years. Questions about class structures, however, have rarely been specifically addressed by global historians. Scholars of social history, meanwhile, have traditionally studied social stratification within national frameworks. The introduction to this special issue addresses these shortcomings, exploring global social history as a new field of historical inquiry. Interweaving global and social history, it demonstrates that we cannot understand the emergence and transformation of social groups across the modern worldgroups such as the aristocracy, the economic bourgeoisie, the educated middle classes, the peasantry, or nomadic groupswithout considering how they were influenced by global entanglements. Moreover, it points out that we have to examine globalization as a social process that was shaped by particular social groups. The special issue will connect the study of global connectivity with that of the emergence and evolution of social structures.
The Historical Journal, 2024
Global trade is a topic that is well suited for conceptualizing global social history as it allow... more Global trade is a topic that is well suited for conceptualizing global social history as it allows the opportunity to challenge the notion that global markets were primarily congruent with imperial territories. Businessmen were regularly able to establish economic networks that transgressed state borders and challenged imperial aims for territorial control. This may be evidence for the fact that capitalism and imperialism were two different, although sometimes converging, spatial structures, each with a distinct logic of its own. Even in the colonial period, and despite the prevalence of imperial racism, cooperation between metropolitan capitalists and businessmen from peripheries was possibleand, in fact, the rule rather than the exception. This cooperation was facilitated by similar business practices and a similar mercantile culture, which is why the two constituencies have been described as joint members of a globally connected bourgeoisie in several studies. The ability of economic elites to establish transregional business structures is highly relevant for conceiving global social history as a distinct approach. It reveals that the activities of these actors were crucial for establishing global capitalism, and allows scholars to examine the embeddedness of mercantile elites in their socioeconomic environment and in particular to study the relation between capital and labour.
This volume historicizes the use of the notion of selt'-interest that at least since Bernarcl de ... more This volume historicizes the use of the notion of selt'-interest that at least since Bernarcl de Mandeville and Adarn Smith's theories is consiclcred a centlal colllponent of economic theory.
The scholarly context for the Pierre du Bois Annual
Conference 2022 is a fascinating development... more The scholarly context for the Pierre du Bois Annual
Conference 2022 is a fascinating development in the
discipline of history in the last decade: the rising interest in
trans- and interimperial histories. These build on studies
showing that a single empire’s metropole and colonies
need to be empirically and conceptually integrated. In the
first decade of the 21st century, such more contextualized
and decentered histories of empire started evolving into
trans- and interimperial histories proper. Inspired by an
earlier turn to transnational and global histories, respective
historians have been critiquing a deeply rooted and
ultimately nationally-biased tendency, by many historians
of empire, to focus empirical research and even conceptual
conclusions on one single empire. The rise of trans- and
interimperial histories crystallized by the 2010s—though it
was, one may say, predated by older studies of non-
European modern empires. While methodologically
dissimilar to present trans- and interimperial studies, these
studies quasi by necessity paid considerable attention to
(often unequal) relationships especially with modern
European and American empires.
The fundamental objective of the present conference is
to take stock of this fascinating, partly old though mainly
new field of historical inquiry as it regards the modern
period; to bring together people who work on diverse transand
interimperial themes, approaches, and geographical
areas; and to chart possible future research synergies,
prospects, and trajectories.
To this effect, the conference, which will feature a keynote
by a preeminent scholar of the Japanese Empire,
Louise Young, brings to the Graduate Institute in Geneva
about forty participants whose studies involve the Belgian,
British, Qing Chinese, French, German, Habsburg, Qajar
Iranian, Italian, Japanese, Ottoman, Portuguese, Russian,
and US-American empires, and who will speak on themes
ranging from methodological and historiographical reflections
to regions, labor, economy, settlers and agriculture,
war and violence, culture, institutions and knowledge,
race, law, and nation(alism)s.
Comparativ, 2022
This article presents the first detailed study of the agronomic practitioner Ernst Fickendey (187... more This article presents the first detailed study of the agronomic practitioner Ernst Fickendey (1878–1958), who worked for five different empires over the course of five decades. Trained within the imperial structures of Wilhelmine Germany, he later embodied a type of itinerant expert able to bridge several political ruptures to align himself with varying political and imperial regimes to pursue plantation projects in both tropical colonies and Europe. The article explores Fickendey’s technocratic gaze that disregarded human and ecological contexts and the consequences of his planting schemes of rubber, palm oil and cotton. It shows how foreign recruitment and sojourning allowed Germans, also after 1918 and 1945, to remain involved in processes of European imperialism and achieve social mobility. With Fickendey cultivating a range of slow-yielding species, the article finally considers also how he sought to adapt the biological rhythms of plantation economies to the temporal orders of industrial production.
This article examines the history of the Swiss merchant house Volkart Bros., which was one of the... more This article examines the history of the Swiss merchant house Volkart Bros., which was one of the most important exporters of Indian raw cotton and one of the biggest trading firms in South Asia during the colonial period. The study allows for a fresh look at Indian economic history by putting forth two main arguments. First, it charts the history of a continental European firm that was active in South Asia to offer a better understanding of the economic entanglements of the subcontinent with the wider world, which often had a reach beyond the empire. This ties in with recent research initiatives that aim to examine the history of imperialism from a transnational perspective. Second, the history of a private company helps in developing a micro-perspective on the often ambiguous relation between the business goals of individual enterprises and colonial rule. The article argues that this may be evidence of the fact that capitalism and imperialism were two different, although sometimes converging, spatial structures, each with a distinct logic of its own. What is more, the positive interactions between European and Indian businessmen, fostered by a cosmopolitan attitude among business elites, point to the fact that even in the age of empire, the class background of actors could be more important for the establishing of cooperative ventures than the colour of their skin or their geographical origin. It is argued that this offers the possibility of examining the history of world trade in terms of global social history. * I would like to thank Margret Frenz, Moritz von Brescius, and the two anonymous readers of Modern Asian Studies for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. The article relies mostly on those unpublished records from the Volkart Archives in Winterthur that could be accessed for the first time for scholarly study. They have only recently been transferred to the Winterthur Municipal Archives and made accessible to the public.
While the nineteenth century has been described as the golden age of the European bourgeoisie, th... more While the nineteenth century has been described as the golden age of the European bourgeoisie, the emergence of the middle class and bourgeois culture was by no means exclusive to Europe. The Global Bourgeoisie explores the rise of the middle classes around the world during the age of empire. It compares middle-class formation in various regions, highlighting differences and similarities, and assesses the extent to which bourgeois growth was tied to the increasing exchange of ideas and goods. It indicates that the middle class was from its very beginning, even in Europe, the result of international connections and entanglements.
in: Matthias Middell (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Transregional Studies, London and New York, 2019
Global historical and transregional approaches have fundamentally transformed historical research... more Global historical and transregional approaches have fundamentally transformed historical research in the past decade. However, there has been a remarkable conceptual vacuum in literature produced recently. The concept of ‘society’, which had been at the centre of many theory-based historiographical endeavours two or three decades ago, is scarcely used today. The following contribution will propose some suggestions concerning how this claim could be realized methodologically.
Neue Perspektiven auf die Europäische Geschichte (1800–1930), 2000
The discipline of European History has been fundamentally challenged by recent historiographical ... more The discipline of European History has been fundamentally challenged by recent historiographical developments. The global turn contested basic assumptions of European modernity and brought forth new research questions which historical research has to face. These issues are addressed in this volume. The authors use transnational, postcolonial and global historical approaches to shed new light on European history. What is more, the examination of geographic and analytical margins requires a new approach to the history of the European continent. In such a perspective, “Europe” becomes a specific social and cultural constellation that is characterized by internal similarities and conflicts, external delimitation, and interaction with other parts of the world. Such a perspective extends conventional concepts of European history that primarily focused on Western Europe by explicitly including the history of Eastern and Southern Europe, Scandinavia and the non-European world into the discipline.
The new book series „Peripheries“ aims for decentering and provincializing European history and thus offers a new research trajectory that combines traditional European historical schlarship with global historical and postcolonial approaches.
Kolonialismus und Wissen in der Moderne, 2013
Was ist Wirtschaft? Wo müsste man sie suchen? Und woran könnte man sie erkennen? Aus historischer... more Was ist Wirtschaft? Wo müsste man sie suchen? Und woran könnte man sie erkennen? Aus historischer Perspektive ist die Annahme einer überzeitlich erkennbaren ökonomischen Sphäre fraglich oder zumindest untersuchungswürdig. Weil nicht nur das Wirtschaftsleben, sondern auch die Konzeption von Wirtschaft einem Wandel untersteht, sind empirisch kompetente Studien vonnöten, die Querbezüge herzustellen vermögen zwischen den Praktiken des Wirtschaftens und der Wirtschaftswissenschaft mit jenen der Politik, der Moral und der Religion. Anhand von elf Begriffen von B wie Beute bis S wie Steuern erkunden die Autor/innen dieses Bandes historisch, inwiefern sich das Verständnis von Ökonomie verändert, wenn der Zugang zur Wirtschaft nicht über die Konzepte der neoklassisch ausgerichteten ökonomischen Theorie, sondern durch die Hintertür der Geschichtswissenschaft erfolgt. Mit der Suche nach der Ökonomie soll ein historisches Gegenmittel zu den vermeintlichen Sachzwängen der aktuellen Wirtschaft er...
This contribution presents an overview on the numerous studies on the history of non-European mid... more This contribution presents an overview on the numerous studies on the history of non-European middle classes which have been published within the last few years. It argues that the establishing of middle classes in different parts of the world can be construed to a considerable extent as the result of global entanglements in the long nineteenth century. The article further discusses the epistemological problems, however also the advantages, of describing these social groups which emerged in the non-European world in the age of empire with European concepts such as bourgeoisie or middle classes. And it explores whether an examination of their history could be extended to a global social history in a next step.
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Papers by Christof Dejung
Conference 2022 is a fascinating development in the
discipline of history in the last decade: the rising interest in
trans- and interimperial histories. These build on studies
showing that a single empire’s metropole and colonies
need to be empirically and conceptually integrated. In the
first decade of the 21st century, such more contextualized
and decentered histories of empire started evolving into
trans- and interimperial histories proper. Inspired by an
earlier turn to transnational and global histories, respective
historians have been critiquing a deeply rooted and
ultimately nationally-biased tendency, by many historians
of empire, to focus empirical research and even conceptual
conclusions on one single empire. The rise of trans- and
interimperial histories crystallized by the 2010s—though it
was, one may say, predated by older studies of non-
European modern empires. While methodologically
dissimilar to present trans- and interimperial studies, these
studies quasi by necessity paid considerable attention to
(often unequal) relationships especially with modern
European and American empires.
The fundamental objective of the present conference is
to take stock of this fascinating, partly old though mainly
new field of historical inquiry as it regards the modern
period; to bring together people who work on diverse transand
interimperial themes, approaches, and geographical
areas; and to chart possible future research synergies,
prospects, and trajectories.
To this effect, the conference, which will feature a keynote
by a preeminent scholar of the Japanese Empire,
Louise Young, brings to the Graduate Institute in Geneva
about forty participants whose studies involve the Belgian,
British, Qing Chinese, French, German, Habsburg, Qajar
Iranian, Italian, Japanese, Ottoman, Portuguese, Russian,
and US-American empires, and who will speak on themes
ranging from methodological and historiographical reflections
to regions, labor, economy, settlers and agriculture,
war and violence, culture, institutions and knowledge,
race, law, and nation(alism)s.
The new book series „Peripheries“ aims for decentering and provincializing European history and thus offers a new research trajectory that combines traditional European historical schlarship with global historical and postcolonial approaches.
Conference 2022 is a fascinating development in the
discipline of history in the last decade: the rising interest in
trans- and interimperial histories. These build on studies
showing that a single empire’s metropole and colonies
need to be empirically and conceptually integrated. In the
first decade of the 21st century, such more contextualized
and decentered histories of empire started evolving into
trans- and interimperial histories proper. Inspired by an
earlier turn to transnational and global histories, respective
historians have been critiquing a deeply rooted and
ultimately nationally-biased tendency, by many historians
of empire, to focus empirical research and even conceptual
conclusions on one single empire. The rise of trans- and
interimperial histories crystallized by the 2010s—though it
was, one may say, predated by older studies of non-
European modern empires. While methodologically
dissimilar to present trans- and interimperial studies, these
studies quasi by necessity paid considerable attention to
(often unequal) relationships especially with modern
European and American empires.
The fundamental objective of the present conference is
to take stock of this fascinating, partly old though mainly
new field of historical inquiry as it regards the modern
period; to bring together people who work on diverse transand
interimperial themes, approaches, and geographical
areas; and to chart possible future research synergies,
prospects, and trajectories.
To this effect, the conference, which will feature a keynote
by a preeminent scholar of the Japanese Empire,
Louise Young, brings to the Graduate Institute in Geneva
about forty participants whose studies involve the Belgian,
British, Qing Chinese, French, German, Habsburg, Qajar
Iranian, Italian, Japanese, Ottoman, Portuguese, Russian,
and US-American empires, and who will speak on themes
ranging from methodological and historiographical reflections
to regions, labor, economy, settlers and agriculture,
war and violence, culture, institutions and knowledge,
race, law, and nation(alism)s.
The new book series „Peripheries“ aims for decentering and provincializing European history and thus offers a new research trajectory that combines traditional European historical schlarship with global historical and postcolonial approaches.
Inhaltsübersicht:
Michael Jucker: Beute – Christof Dejung: Einbettung – Jan-Otmar Hesse: Geld – Lea Haller: Innovation – Thomas Welskopp: Konsum – Jakob Tanner: Krise – Monika Dommann: Markttabu – Daniel Speich Chassé: Nation – Jan Behnstedt/Marcus Sandl: Religion – Alexander Engel: Spiel – Gisela Hürlimann: Steuern
25 to 27 August 2022 (Call for Papers)
In the last two decades, global history has altered the field of historical research profoundly. A brief look at recent publications in global history, however, shows that gender relations, and in particular the role of women, are barely mentioned. This conference will bring together scholars from different parts of the world to investigate the extent to which gender relations were a crucial aspect of the birth of the modern world in the long-nineteenth century.
Convenors: Christof Dejung, David Motadel, Jürgen Osterhammel
This conference provides a new approach to the emerging research field of global social history by examining the emergence of ‘middle classes’ and ‘bourgeois cultures’ across the globe in the long nineteenth century, as well as their encounters, both in imperial and non-imperial contexts. It aims to demonstrate that the nineteenth century saw the formation of similar social groups all over the world that can be described as ‘middle classes’. The conference examines the extent to which the making of these middle classes around the globe can be explained by considering the rising exchange of ideas and goods between the Western and non-Western worlds. Instead of understanding the establishment of middle class society as a distinctly Western phenomenon, which became diffused throughout the rest of the world, the conference papers seek to explore the extent to which it was, from its start, the result of global interactions and entanglements in the age of empire.
L’anthropologue et historienne américaine Ann Laura Stoler ouvrira le colloque par une conférence sur l’héritage persistant de l’impérialisme européen dans le monde globalisé actuel. Le vendredi suivront des panels, des tables rondes et de nombreux débats..
Çeviri:
Christof Dejung, "Dünya vatandaşları: Uzun On Dokuzuncu Yüzyılda Orta Sınıfların Küresel Tarihi Hakkında Bazı Düşünceler", Çev. Çiğdem Dumanlı, ViraVerita E-Dergi: Disiplinlerarası Karşılaşmalar / Sayı 12, Kasım, 2020, s. 235-257
Çevirinin aslı:
Christof Dejung, “Bürger der Welt. Überlegungen zu einer Globalgeschichte der Mittelklassen im langen 19. Jahrhundert”, Bürgertum. Bilanzen, Perspektiven, Begriffe, Herausgegeben von Manfred Hettling und Richard Pohle, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019, s. 469-489.
Özet:
Bu makale, Avrupa'nın kendi orta sınıfları ile Avrupa dışı burjuvanın ortaya çıkış ve birbirleriyle etkileşim süreçlerinin küresel tarihini incelemektedir. Makalede, Batı dışı dünyada orta sınıfların ortaya çıkışının emperyal bağlamı, dünyanın farklı bölgelerinde ortaya çıkmış orta sınıfların ortak özellikleri ve farkları ve bu orta sınıfların küreselleşme süreçlerinin bir sonucu olarak değerlendirilebileceğine yönelik üç aşamalı bir inceleme sunulmaktadır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Burjuva, 19. Yüzyıl, Orta Sınıflar, Kolonizasyon, Weltbürger
Abstract:
Citizens of the World: Some Thoughts Towards a Global History of
Middle Classes in the Long Nineteenth Century
This article examines the Global History of emergence and interaction of the middle classes within and outside of Europe. A three-stage review; the imperial context of emergence of the middle classes within non-western world, common features and differences of middle classes emerged in different parts of the world and that these middle classes can be evaluated as a result of globalization processes, is presented in the article.
Keywords: Bourgeois, 19th century, Middle Classes, Colonization, Weltbürger