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A Land of Joiners. A Gender History of Volunteer Fire Departments in a Three-Border-Region of East Central Europe in Times of Political Transformation, 1918-1989

Project description

Finding a gender balance and fighting fires in Central Europe

Volunteer associations have always actively interacted with the political context and contributed to shaping it. This is gist of new studies on associational life in East Central Europe (ECE). With support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), the A Land of Joiners project will focus on voluntary fire departments (VFD), which have existed in ECE almost uninterruptedly since the mid-19th century in the regions of Burgenland (Austria), Vas (Hungary), and Prekmurje (Slovenia) between 1918 and 1989. The project will study how political ruptures altered VFD membership structure and gender policies and how these associations reacted to political changes. It will challenge the prevailing view that associations came from Western Europe (WE) and the Atlantic World.

Objective

This project looks at East Central European (ECE) history by focusing on non-state actors and particularly on voluntary associations. Challenging the received view that Western Europe (WE) and the Atlantic World are the authentic cradle of associations and of an appropriate and healthy civil society, e.g. the USA often epitomised as the nation of joiners, this project interprets voluntary associations in ECE as variation of and not deviation from a unique-but-universalized WE and Atlantic model. New studies on associational life in ECE suggest that well-established theoretical dichotomies like state/non-state, governmental/civil, public/private need to be overcome and argue that voluntary associations always actively interacted with the political context and contributed to shaping it (Giomi/Petrungaro 2019). This research seeks to revisit these theses by focusing on a particular voluntary association, Voluntary Fire Departments (VFD), which in ECE exists almost uninterruptedly since the mid-19th century under democratic, authoritarian or dictatorial regimes alike. Focusing on social history from below and transnational connections, this research will interrogate the question in what way did political ruptures from the end of the First World War until the end of the Cold War in ECE alter membership structure and gender policies of VFDs as well as how did VFDs interact and react with the political ruptures in regard to social inclusion and exclusion along the lines of gender? The project covers the territories of today's Austria, Hungary, and Slovenia, but more specifically three regions: Burgenland, Vas, and Prekmurje, where the concentration of VFD is the largest worldwide. By seeking to counter the marginalisation of volunteering within the social histories of ECE, and of ECE within the global histories of voluntary associations, the project contributes to the current debates about gender equality and equal participation in the European Union.

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Topic(s)

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITAET GRAZ
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 190 728,96
Address
UNIVERSITATSPLATZ 3
8010 GRAZ
Austria

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Region
Südösterreich Steiermark Graz
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

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