Rural Societies in Transition (19th to 21st Centuries)

In recent years, rural societies have become the focus of media coverage. In France, Germany and the Netherlands, farmers have demonstrated against government agricultural policy, falling prices for agricultural products, neglect of infrastructure and ignorance of the needs of rural populations by driving tractor convoys, setting up road blockades and burning tyres. While rural societies were often romanticised as a harmonious alternative to urban life, they often experienced ongoing conflicts and inequalities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Throughout Europe, rural societies and the lifestyles of people living in the countryside, by the water or in mountainous regions have undergone fundamental changes as a result of modernisation processes in agriculture and constant interaction with urban society and political centres. 

Various academic disciplines discuss the construction, or rather deconstruction, of the idea of rural space; the discursive power of the urban-rural divide; and the lasting consequences of the globalised economy. While the dichotomy between urban and rural areas is certainly evident, it exerts too strong an influence on the perception of rural societies as remnants of the pre-modern era. Rural societies can be found in agricultural communities, fishing villages and specialised agricultural regions, as well as in towns shaped by industry and commerce. However, how did societies in these areas develop against the backdrop of economic transformation processes and the cultural hegemony of the city as a model of life in the modern age? The editors of the Archiv für Sozialgeschichte (AfS) take this question as a starting point from which to examine the specific living conditions, social changes and political developments in rural areas from the early nineteenth century to modern industrial societies at the end of the twentieth century.

What long-, medium- and short-term changes did rural societies experience? Which continuities shaped community life? How were village societies and small communities organised? What self-images were created and what were the visions for the future? The focus will be on the perspective of the country and its society, with an aim of capturing a social history of rural areas in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that goes beyond the idea of »being different from the city«, instead attributing an independent role to modern rural societies.

At the conference, which will take place on 25–26 June 2026 at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Bonn, we would like to develop ideas for papers, proposed topics and common questions relating to the overarching theme outlined here for Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 67 (2027). Participation is possible on a case-by-case basis following registration.