News, thoughts and perspectives

from the Fate of Nations Research Group

While the importance of copper for the modern industrial world and global economic development is undisputed, a broader overview and synthesis of the historical conditions and circumstances under which copper was extracted, traded and consumed remains up until now absent. Organised by Robrecht Declercq (University of Ghent), Hans Otto Frøland...

The author's workshop for the planned edited volume "A Global History of Copper" is due to commence in Trondheim on August 15, with fifteen papers presented over two days. To see the full program, click the link bellow.

Full program

Chile, with its long history of natural resource dependent economy, from salitre to el cobre, was an eminently suitable place to discuss the divergence between the economies of Latin America and Scandinavia. Despite their many differences, Sweden, Finland and Norway all started the 20th century as economies with similar levels of resource...

Thanks to El Niño, Papua New Guinea was experiencing an intense heatwave and prolonged drought when I arrived in the capital early December 2018. Coming from a longer research stay in Australia, I was visiting Port Moresby in order to gather archive material for my PhD project about the country's mining history.

The new Fate of Nations anthology "The Political Economy of Resource Regulation: An international and comparative history, 1850-2015" was published on UBC Press April 1. To celebrate this little milestone, the group organized a book launch through the "Stay on Campus" lecture series on April 10, with presentations by editors Andreas R.D. Sanders,...

The prestigious Business History Conference took place on 14-16th of March, in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Cartagena de Indias. This was not just the first time the conference was held in Latin America, but was also among the best ever attended BHC conferences. The theme of the conference was "Globalization and De-Globalization: Shifts of...

Hans Otto Frøland and Robrecht Declercq have just anounced a Call for contributions to their planned edited volume, provisionally titled "A global history of copper" (see below)

The forthcoming edited volume titled The Political Economy of Resource Regulation: An International and Comparative History, 1850-2015 is now available for pre-order at UBC Press. The volume is edited by Andreas R.D. Sanders, Pål T. Sandvik and Espen Storli, and contains case studies spanning seven continents and both advanced and developing...

The Fate of Nations project is currently looking for two prospective postdoctoral reseachers and one PhD researcher.

One of the Fate of Nations pillar leaders Espen Storli has been promoted to full professor, effective from September 15. In accordance with long established academic traditions, the Fate of Nations group has presented the new professor with a cake worthy of a man of his stature and position.

Congratulations!