Výzkumné semináře Institutu mezinárodních studií FSV UK a Masarykova ústavu a Archivu AV ČR
23. 11. 2015
The cooperative idea spread to Central and Eastern Europe – albeit unevenly, because of the structural peculiarities and the economic development of the region – and became “the” social movement besides nationalism since the 1890’s. The states “discovered” the cooperatives as a tool of modernization of the rural areas and a special kind of a (quite conservative) “social policy” and set up legal frameworks for the operation of coops and providing them with credit. The rural cooperatives, on which Torsten Lorenz will focus in his presentation, became a “ladder” of social advance and the starting point of political careers. The lecture will present some findings from the research on the role of cooperatives in the modernization of the rural areas in Central and Eastern Europe between ca. 1850 and 1940 and the preliminary structure of a book which he is currently working on.
