Post-Crisis Recovery

We would like to invite you to the international conference Post-Crisis Recovery, which will take place on 25 and 26 September 2025 at the National Archives, with the possibility of online contributions by speakers abroad.

International Conference is organised by Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences); National Archives, Faculty of Arts, Charles University; Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences; Pécsi Tudományegyetem (University of Pécs) with the support of Strategy AV21 of the Czech Academy of Sciences, research programme “Resilient Society for the 21st Century. Crisis Potentials and Effective Transformation".

Idea of the conference

Every crisis ends at some time, whether a devastating war, a tragic natural disaster, sudden economic collapse, widespread epidemic, devastating industrial accident, or social breakdown. However, the end of such destructive situations immediately brings the need to ensure basic needs for survival, meaning at least the restoration of the standard of before in the period that follows – housing, infrastructure, supplies, social standard, economy and, of course, public services (transport, education, health care, and the elementary level of security and law enforcement, including punishment of the crimes and unlawful actions of individuals, organised groups, states and alliances causing or taking advantage of the difficulties of others). Most crises can be prepared for in some way – by building up stocks, specialised emergency structures, crisis plans, subsequent exchange or provision of the goods, food, raw materials, knowledge and experts required for recovery, or even better for onward development, taking into account the experience gained from past crises and preparing for possible crises in the future, which will (despite every effort to prevent them) eventually arrive. The conference will focus geographically and chronologically on Central Europe, particularly in the 20th century, its aim being to examine how preparations for post-crisis recovery have been made in the past, and how recovery itself has been carried out in the following areas at local-government, national, and international level:

1. Legislation, contracts and agreements
2. The preparation of reconstruction plans
3. The establishment of specialised agencies, authorities and departments, professional and voluntary emergency services and cooperation among them
4. The course of recovery and reconstruction projects (buildings and infrastructure networks)
5. Corruption and client politics in recovery projects
6. The end of the crisis and its aftermath as an opportunity to innovate production processes, modernise equipment, and set new organisational procedures in industry and public administration and stimulate new research
7. The restoration of public services – security, transport, justice, education, healthcare, etc.
8. Personal, cultural, and media collective memory of post-crisis recovery

Call for Papers

Participants can register until 1st June 2025 at the following email address: david.hubeny@na.gov.cz.

Please state the title of your paper and an abstract of up to 300 words in the application. Please also specify where you work and provide a brief scientific CV (up to 10 lines). The conference organisers reserve the right to select papers for the conference programme.

Participants will be informed by 30th June 2025 of whether their proposed papers have been accepted and with the programme. The papers submitted that undergo peer review will be published in Paginae Historiae, the journal of the National Archives.

Organising Committee: Emil Voráček (Institute of History of the CAS) / David Hubený (National Archives) / Jaroslav Valkoun (Faculty of Arts, Charles University) / Jan Kober (Institute of State and Law of the CAS) / Krisztián Bene (University of Pécs)