Fundaments of Economic Thinking : Economic and Social History

The Centre for Contemporary Social History, that has been incorporated in EDSG, is currently conducting research in two distinct veins. The first line of research belongs to the well-established tradition, especially at the VUB, of "structuralist" research in social and economic history. Exploiting in particular sources that lend themselves to quantitative analysis, the focus is on the inequality of personal wealth in Belgium in the 19th century, especially regarding taxation and housing. The second line of research has a "post-modern" inspiration and is currently dealing with the problem of historical knowledge itself and the historian's relationship with "his" sources and historiography. In that overarching vein, which is treated as a separate research topic, two projects have emerged: one dealing with the relationship between historical social statistics and social policy, the other one focusing on the "language of labour" in the 19th century (how did craftsmen, workers and employers talk about their mutual obligations?).