Family, land and the household economy: Social and economic landscapes of rural society in early modern Europe, Reykjavík, 8-9 June 2023
Conference organized by the research project The pillars of rural society at the University of Iceland. The conference brought together scholars of early modern Europe to discuss a wide range of issues, e.g. family and the household, social relationships, ownership and management of land, and distribution of wealth and income. The Conference programme and practical info can be found her
Rural History Conference, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 13 September 2023
Gudmundur Jonsson and Óskar Guðlaugsson, “Farm fragmentation in the early 18th century Iceland: Forms, processes and causes”. Paper presented at the session Land Ownership and Land Tenancy as Driving Forces of Landscape Change in Rural Spaces.
European Social Science Conference in Gothenburg, 14 April 2023
Guðmundur Jónsson, “Economic inequality in pre-industrial Iceland: A study of wealth distribution in 1703”. Paper presented at the session The Cause and Consequences of (or a Lack of) State Capacity.
Rural History Conference, Uppsala June 2022
“Landownership and social organization of farming in Iceland around 1700”. Paper presented by Gudmundur Jonsson and Oskar Gudlaugsson in the session Digital tools and property: From the extraction of data to spatial analysis.
Humanities Conference, University of Iceland, 19 September 2020
A Nation in crisis. The dearth at the turn of the 18th century and its consequences. Session organized by the research team. Five papers were presented: Guðmundur Jónsson, “Vulnerabilities and resilience in food crises”; Árni Daníel Júlíusson, ” The famine of 1696-1701″; Sigríður H. Jörundsdóttir, “Poor relief in upheaval”, Ólöf Garðarsdóttir, “Population, household types and poor relief in Árnes county according to the censuses of 1703 and 1729” Óskar Guðlaugsson, “Food reserves? Peasant livestock after the dearth”.
Research Project Workshop, University of Iceland, 13–14 May 2019
A one-day workshop with presentations from the team members. Two invited experts, John Ragnar Myking Professor emeritus in medieval and early modern history, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and Cormac Ó Grada, professor emeritus, University College Dublin, gave valuable input to the workshop discussion. A seminar was held with John Ragnar Myking discussing the topic of Norwegian tenants in a Scandinavian and European perspective. Professor Cormac Ó Grada gave a public lecture titled A disaster waiting to happen? Ireland’s Great Famine.
Humanities Conference, University of Iceland, 9 March 2019
Family and household economy at the beginning of the 18th century. Session organized by the research team with three papers: Óskar Guðlaugsson and Guðmundur Jónsson, „A look at farm household budgets. Estimates of farm income and expenditure in 1703.; Árni Daníel Júlíusson and Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir, “Manors at close inspection. An analysis of manors using HGIS“; Ólöf Garðarsdóttir and Sigríður Hjördís Jörundsdóttir, „The transition to adulthood in light of the West European family structure. What do the sources say about transition between stages in the life course?
Social Science History Association Conference, Phoenix, Arizona, November 2018
Sigríður Hjördís Jörundsdóttir presented a paper titled „Linking population sources from early 18th century Iceland. Possibilities and challenges.“
Spatial Humanities Conference, Lancaster, England, September 2018
Óskar Guðlaugsson gave presentation titled „Household economy in Iceland in 1703“.
European Social Science History Conference, Belfast 4-7 April 2018
Sigríður Hjördís Jörundsdóttir presented a paper with Ólöf Garðarsdóttir: “Coming of Age in an Early 18th Century Agrarian Society. The Case of Iceland“. In another session, Óskar Guðlaugsson and Guðmundur Jónsson presented a joint paper, „The household economy of early 18th century Iceland“.
Congress of Nordic Historians in Aalborg, Denmark, 15-18 August 2017
Guðmundur Jónsson gave a paper on the project titled “The pillars of rural society: Family and household economy in early eighteenth century Iceland“. In the same session Óskar Guðlaugsson gave the paper “The Icelandic farm household at the beginning of the 18th century”, focusing on the use of GIS in the project.
Research Project Workshop, University of Iceland, 22 August 2017
A one-day kick-off workshop marking the start of the project and bringing all the participants together to focus on the work ahead. Participants discussed their research topics with two invited experts who provided valuable comments and input to the discussion: Ian Gregory Professor of Digital Humanities at Lancaster University and Evan Roberts Assistant Professor of Population Studies, University of Minnesota.