Page 9 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

An Introduction to Long-Run Micro

Perspectives on Uplands

Aleksander Panjek
University of Primorska, Slovenia

© 2025 Aleksander Panjek
https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-486-6.7-12

This book addresses some key topics in rural history in the last decades,
such as the community, the family, spatial and social mobility and the vil-
lage elites. Its aim is to explore dynamism in rural societies in different
parts of Europe, with a predominant focus on mountain and upland ar-
eas. To do so,the idea wastocombine twotraditional methods, which
are not often used together other than in local histories: the microhistor-
ical and the long-term approach. With the microhistorical approach, we
intend the original methodology as it was developed in Italian historiog-
raphy, which is qualitative in nature and concentrates on individuals, fam-
ily groups and small communities as a way to challenge existing interpre-
tations at a macro level. In the past, the long-term approach was used to
underline structural continuity, while more recently it is often used in eco-
nomic history, mostly when dealing with quantitative evidence and tracing
trends. We are therefore making an unusual combination of two approach-
es, which appear to exclude each other, although microhistorians have al-
ready dealt with longer stories. We would like to show how bringing to-
gether the micro reality and the long time-span allows a clearer picture of
social and economic dynamics to emerge.
For this reason, the authors of the chapters in this book were asked to
concentrate on reconstructing histories at the level of families and village
communities, their elites and their mobility both in a social and geographi-
cal sense, while paying attention to individuals, considering them as actors
in history. The authors dedicate attention to their actors’ agency, network-
ing, alliance building, and ability in seizing opportunities and responding
to challenges represented by social, economic and political changes in the
long run. In their effort to unveil the dynamicity of rural society, the au-
thors keep an eye on traits of continuity, as well, and in doing so they reveal
dialectics between continuity and change.

Panjek,A.,ed.2025. Upland Families, Elites and Communities: Long-Run Micro
Perspectives on Persistence and Change. University of Primorska Press.