Call for Papers – International Conference
The End of Western Industrial Capitalism and the Rise of the New World.
Social conflict, institutional change, and new accumulation pathways.
For more than two centuries, industrial capitalism has been a central force shaping global economic development, class hierarchies, political institutions, and everyday life. From the first industrial revolution to the mass production era of the twentieth century, its institutions and social coalitions have served as engines of productivity, innovation, and systemic transformation. Yet, the profound changes that have unfolded since the late twentieth century – financialization, digitalisation, the erosion of labour power, deindustrialisation, and the emergence of new global centres of accumulation – have raised fundamental questions about whether the classical industrial model has entered a structural and perhaps irreversible phase of decline.
This conference seeks to interrogate these issues by examining the long-term trajectories, conflicts, and turning points that have defined the rise, consolidation, and potential reconfiguration of industrial capitalism from the eighteenth century to the present. Far from being a linear or homogeneous process, the history of capitalism is marked by ruptures, crises, uneven developments, and systemic reinventions. Social conflict – understood not only as the struggle between capital and labour but also as competition within and across groups such as industrial, commercial, financial, urban, and landed – has often served as a catalyst for institutional change, economic experimentation, and new policy regimes.
At the same time, current debates about the end of industrial capitalism intersect with broader questions about global production networks, shifting geopolitical power, the redefinition of the State’s economic role, inequality, and the ecological limits of growth. What new patterns of accumulation are emerging? How do old industrial regions reshape themselves – or fail to – when faced with deindustrialisation? What were the causes of the end of mass industrialisation, especially in the Western world? How have value chains been realigned internationally, and what effects has this had on the Western industrial system? How can we interpret the new industrialisation in Asia in light of this transformative process? What social and institutional changes has this transformation brought about?
The aim of this conference is to bring together scholars from economic history, political economy, social history, sociology, geography, and related fields to reflect on these issues from a comparative, transnational, and interdisciplinary perspective. By exploring industrial capitalism across different regions and historical contexts, we hope to foster dialogue between diverse methodological approaches and contribute to a richer understanding of capitalism’s multiple paths and possible futures.
Topics of interest
We welcome proposals addressing (but not limited to) the following themes:
- Historical transformations of industrial capitalism, from the first industrial revolution to post-industrial economies
- Labour relations, class conflict, workers’ movements, and the restructuring of labour markets
- Financialization, corporate governance, and technological change
- Global inequalities, uneven development, and the remaking of the world economy
- (Neo)colonialism, (neo)imperial expansion, and their legacies in the formation of global capitalism
- The decline of manufacturing and the rise of service, digital, and knowledge-intensive sectors
- State intervention, welfare institutions, industrial policy, and crisis management
- Environmental limits to industrial growth, resource constraints, and ecological transitions
- Urbanization, spatial transformation, migration, and demographic change
- Platform capitalism, and automation in historical perspective
- Comparative regional perspectives across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia
- Methodological and historiographical approaches to studying capitalism’s transformations
We particularly encourage papers that adopt inter-disciplinary, transnational, or longue durée approaches.
Submission Guidelines
Participants are invited to submit:
- An abstract of 300–400 words
- A short academic bio (max 150 words)
- Institutional affiliation and contact information
Venue: Istituto Storico Italiano per l’Età Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome Date: 22-23 April 2027
Submission deadline: November 30, 2026
Notification of acceptance: December 30, 2026
Scientific Committee: Camilla Audia (Warwick University); Andrea Cafarelli (Università di Udine); Giampaolo Conte (Università Roma Tre); Giovanni Farese (Università Europea di Roma); Chiara Giorgi (Università di Roma La Sapienza); Gaetano Sabatini (Istituto Storico Italiano per l’Età Moderna e Contemporanea); Valerio Torreggiani (Università di Udine)
Organizing Committee: Marco Bertuccio (Istituto Storico Italiano per l’Età Moderna e Contemporanea); Erika De Nicola (Università di Teramo); Matteo Nardozi (Giunta Storica Nazionale); Francesco Oliva (Istituto Storico Italiano per l’Età Moderna e Contemporanea)
Keynote Lecture: TBD
Contact information: Giampaolo Conte (giampaolo.conte@uniroma3.it) and Valerio Torreggiani (valerio.torreggiani@uniud.it)