Resilient Societies
Shocks, Adaptation, and the Persistence of Inequality in Historical Perspective
Sustainable societies are not only those that reduce environmental harm but those that can withstand shocks without sustaining a rise in inequality or undermining long-run welfare. History offers a unique laboratory for understanding why some individuals, communities, and states proved more resilient than others when faced with environmental, epidemiological, economic, political, and household-level shocks.
This two-day workshop will bring together historians, economic historians, demographers, economists, and other social scientists to examine how past societies experienced, adapted to, and sometimes exacerbated shocks. We take a broad view of shocks, which could include harvest failures, epidemics, heat waves, droughts, floods, displacement, war, income loss, institutional disruption, and household crises such as bereavement, disability, or the loss of a breadwinner.
We are especially interested in the demographic, economic, and social consequences of these shocks. How did they affect mortality, morbidity, fertility, family structure, migration, living standards, education, human capital formation, labour market outcomes, and social mobility? How did pre-existing inequalities by class, race or gender shape exposure, vulnerability, and recovery? And which forms of adaptation, e.g. technological, institutional, political, community-level, and household-level, mitigated harm or redistributed risk?
Please submit a 300–500-word abstract for the workshop using this form by 2 November 2026:
Accepted papers will be notified by 16 November 2026.
The workshop is kindly funded by the LSE Global School of Sustainability, LSE Historical Economic Demography Group and The Finance and Business History Lab (University of Toronto). This means that registration and meals during the workshop will be provided for all participants. We also have limited funds to help support the cost of attendance for workshop participants. We will not be able to fund all speakers and plan to prioritise funding for PhD students and funds for accommodation for other researchers in need of support. If you need funding to attend the workshop, please note in detail what you will require to attend on the form. We will then give you a funding offer if your paper is accepted.
Will be posted here when finalised
Claire Celerier (U Toronto)
Shari Eli (U Toronto)
Louis Henderson (LSE)
Eric Schneider (LSE)
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