CISH 2026
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Development and Reception of Polish Economic Historiography Achievements in the 20th and 21st Centuries 

  • Date

    II. Thursday, 27.08.2026, 08:30-10:30

    III. Thursday, 27.08.2026, 11:00-13:00/30

    IV. Thursday, 27.08.2026, 14:30-16:30

  • Location
    House 3 - SR224
  • Theme
    C - National and Regional Schools of Historiography

Abstract

The year 2025 marks the 120th anniversary of the first Polish habilitation in economic history, obtained by Franciszek Bujak in 1905 at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and the groundbreaking lecture he gave there entitled “History of Economic Relations”, which together symbolically marked the beginning of economic history as an academic discipline in Polish lands. By the end of the interwar period, Franciszek Bujak in Krakow (and later in Lviv) and Jan Rutkowski in Poznań had established modern research centers that were recognized abroad, which contributed greatly to the development of Polish and world economic historiography (new methods, a wide range of sources, integration with other social sciences – economics, sociology, statistics). After 1945, more research centers developed (especially in Warsaw, Łódź, Wrocław), and economic history gained an stronger position in Polish history and economics. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Polish economic historians have systematically broadened the scope of their research, taking into account long-term economic processes, social transformations, and the development of socio-economic structures, which allowed for an increasingly comprehensive and comparative view of the history of Poland and the world. In theoretical terms, the discipline has evolved from a historical-institutional and descriptive approach, through the Marxist concept of socio-economic formations and modernization theories, to contemporary comparative, quantitative approaches and those in the field of new institutional economics. This development took place in interaction with foreign research centers, consisting of scientific trips, exchange of publications and correspondence (e.g. contact between Jan Rutkowski and M. Bloche and M. M. Postan). Even during the communist period, Polish economic historians maintained contacts with researchers from Western Europe, especially with the Annales school. The aim of the session Development and Reception of Polish Economic Historiography Achievements in the 20th and 21st Centuries, organized under the banner of the Polish Association of Economic History, is to reflect on the successive stages of development of economic historiography in Poland, its institutionalization (schools and research teams, departments, journals, publishing series, scientific associations, conferences), internationalization, theoretical and methodological approaches used, realization of the idea of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity through integration with other social sciences. As a result, it is expected first of all to expand historical knowledge. Secondly, in the long term, the publication of the panel's conclusions will allow to participate in the formation of a new social consciousness and the rational actions for the search for new topics, sources, methods, and paradigms, without which it is difficult to imagine the development of economic history in the 21st century. To participate in the session, the organizers would like to invite researchers from Poland and abroad who are interested in Polish economic historiography and who maintain scientific contacts with the Polish research community.

Convenor

  • Lucyna Błażejczyk-Majka (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań)
  • Tadeusz Janicki (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań)
  • Damian Bębnowski (University of Lodz)

Panelists

  • Tadeusz Janicki (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań)
  • Lucyna Błażejczyk-Majka (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań)
  • Damian Bębnowski (University of Lodz)
  • Bernd Martin (Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg)
  • Pascale Nachez (Université de Strasbourg)
  • Paweł Grata (University of Rzeszów)
  • Jarosław Kinal (University of Rzeszów)
  • Piotr Franaszek (Jagielonian University, Kraków)
  • Tomasz Siewierski (L.&A. Birkenmajer Institute for the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa)
  • Włodzimierz Mędrzecki (Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa)

Papers

  • From F. Bujak to J. Kochanowicz – the contribution of selected Polish academics to the development of research methods in economic history

    Tadeusz Janicki, Lucyna Błażejczyk-Majka

  • Behind the Iron Curtain: Exiled Polish Economic Historiography, 1945-1989

    Damian Bębnowski

  • Cooperation of Polish and German economic historians in the process of reconciliation between Poland and Germany

    Bernd Martin

  • French perception of Polish research on economic history

    Pascale Nachez

  • Research on modernization processes in Poland after 1989

    Paweł Grata, Jarosław Kinal

  • Contribution of Franciszek Bujak and His School to the Study of Poland’s Economic and Social History

    Piotr Franaszek

  • Warsaw Historians' Influence on Key Trends in Global Economic Historiography Post-1945

    Tomasz Siewierski

  • Society and Economy in Polish Historiography from the Late 19th to the 20th Century

    Włodzimierz Mędrzecki

  • Reception of Jan Rutkowski and Franciszek Bujak in Hungary in the Interwar Period

    Daniel Bagi, István Miklós Balázs

  • Between the Eastern Bloc and the ‘West’. The position of the journal “Studia Historiae Oeconomicae (SHO)” in debates on modern economic history during the 1970s and 1980s

    Uwe Müller, Joanna Jaroszyk