Call for papers
DL 1 February 2018

Elites and the State: organisation, dissolution and re-invention of state and government, 1725–1925

Third Finnish-Russian Conference on Elite Studies
At the Consulate General of Finland, St Petersburg, 13-14 September 2018

Third Finnish-Russian Conference on Elite Studies focuses on State elites that occupy positions in the central administration or act as its representatives on the local level, organise and uphold state-level economic structures, and/or contribute to the formation and maintenance of state-related ideologies and cultural institutions.

Our starting point is the Russian concept государственность (gosurdarstvennost, derived from the word state, or государство) – translated alternately as statehood, governance, organisation/theory of the state, sovereignty within the state, government, state system, or governmental organisation.

The many aspects of this concept provide both firm framework and broad scope for historical analysis of elite functions. It covers the role of diverse elites within the maintenance of an established central government and the assertion of state control on the local level – but also the important role of oppositional elites challenging the status quo or even overthrowing an existing state system, as well as the role of elite cadres in re-inventing state structures and reorganising governmental institutions, post-crisis.

Potential paper topics include, but are not limited to:

elite formations and key individuals who

•    have a role in the developments, processes and events that constitute the history of the state, such as nationalist movements, separatist activities, civil wars, revolutions and establishment of new governments  
•    contribute to the formation, dissolution and re-invention of state-related ideologies (i.e. politicians, members of nongovernmental organisations and independent cultural, religious, artistic, academic, educational and media elites), also on a local level
•    contribute to the academic and/or popular understanding, justification and historiography of the construction and contemporary structure of the state, particularly within political philosophy and ideological, intellectual and legal history
•    organise and uphold state-level economic structures and governmental and civil service practices

various aspects of   
 
•    the design and/or display of the material, aesthetic and symbolic representations the State
•    the structural history of the government of the state   
•    the historical and historiographic usage and conceptual scope of государственность
There is no participation fee. Travelling and accommodation expenses are not covered by the organiser.

The deadline for paper proposals (in English, Finnish or Russian) is 1 February 2018.
The letters of acceptance/rejection will be sent by 1 April 2018.

The deadline for papers is 1 September 2018.

Send your proposal (max. one page) to Dr Kristiina Kalleinen:

Please feel free to forward this message to anyone who may be interested!

Members of the organising committee
Dr Kristiina Kalleinen, Docent of Political History
Dr Alex Snellman
Dr Marina Vituhnovskaja-Kauppala, Docent of Russian Studies
Dr Marja Vuorinen

The conference is organised by
The Imperial Era Network
https://keisariaika.wordpress.com

in cooperation with
Consulate General of Finland, St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences