Objective
RISK-LABS reimagines global firms as historical laboratories of risk governance. Spanning seven centuries and four continents, and drawing on established longue durée approaches, it examines how firms have adapted to and been shaped by systemic crises, from plague, warfare, piracy, and espionage to financial collapse, reputational attacks, and climate change.
Rather than treating risk as a modern concept confined to probability or insurance, RISK-LABS traces how risk has historically been constructed, managed, and institutionalized within firms. It argues that firms have operated not merely as market actors, but as strategic agents in the governance of risk and uncertainty.
Combining research in rich archives with computational network modelling, RISK-LABS investigates four British firms active across key historical junctures in regional and global contexts: the Merchants of the Staple (13th–16th centuries), the English East India Company (17th–19th), Jardine Matheson (19th–21th), and BAE Systems (20th–21st). These firms are treated as primary case studies in institutional experimentation, each facing distinct social, political, economic, environmental, and technological risks.
The project explores how firms responded to risk not through fixed strategies, but dynamic processes of experimentation, adaptation, and resilience. Its methodological innovations lie chiefly in integrating qualitative, comparative, and international firm-level archival research with digital tools for mapping historical networks of trade, governance, and risk.
Engaging contemporary debates on “polycrisis” and the “risk society”, RISK-LABS reframes these discussions by showing that firms have long functioned as discrete risk laboratories. Rather than envisioning a single “risk society” emerging in modernity, the project uncovers multiple risk societies in microcosm—offering a new framework for understanding capitalism’s evolution through the ongoing negotiation of risk across time.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-ADG
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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.
YO10 5DD YORK NORTH YORKSHIRE
United Kingdom
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.