Institute for Mediterranean Studies

Department of Mediterranean and Global Economic and Social History

The Research Group on Global and Mediterranean Economic and Social History studies the development, structure and transformations of the economies and societies of the Mediterranean, as well as their interaction with and integration into the larger globalizing world in the modern and contemporary eras. It undertakes the comparative study of economic development in different areas and time periods, and focuses on the economic, social, institutional and cultural change during the period of transition from the pre-industrial to the industrial world. Research is focusing on the living and work conditions of the Mediterranean populations and their social and geographical movements; the formation of land settlement and rural and social landscape patterns; the labour and the entrepreneurship in this world in movement; both big and small business, as well as formation and regulation of the markets, public policies and development of modern state institutions; innovation and inertia, technological and cultural transfers and their social preconditions.

Researchers pursue an interdisciplinary approach combining economic and social history with economics and economic geography, political and cultural theory and history, as well as labour and business history. Overall, the Department intends to foster a kind of history that pays equal attention to structures and actors -including class, gender and ethnic-national collective subjects.

In its field of interests, the Section on Global and Mediterranean Economic and Social History organises research projects, conferences, seminar courses and lectures and provides publications and open-access databases. In collaboration with University Departments it will organize and offer Programs of Postgraduate and Doctoral Studies.

People

Nikos Potamianos

Nikos Potamianos

Principal Researcher
Curriculum vitae
Andreas Lyberatos

Andreas Lyberatos

Assistant Professor of Social and Economic History of the Modern Balkans
Department of Political Science and History, Panteion University (Athens)
Curriculum vitae
Leda Papastefanaki

Leda Papastefanaki

Professor of Greek Economic and Social History
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Ioannina
Socrates Petmezas

Socrates Petmezas

Professor of Economic and Social Modern History
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete
Curriculum vitae
Dilek Akyalçın Kaya

Dilek Akyalçın Kaya

Postdoctoral researcher
Curriculum vitae
Giorgos Kostelenos

Giorgos Kostelenos

Research Associate
Christos Hadziiossif

Christos Hadziiossif

FORTH Distinguished member, Professor Emeritus of Modern and Contemporary History
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete
Christos Loukos

Christos Loukos

IMS Honorary Fellow, Professor Emeritus
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete
Curriculum vitae

Alumni

  • Aglaia Kasdagli
  • Juan Carmona-Zabala
  • Sakis Dimitriadis
  • Giorgos Gassias
  • Eleni Kaklamanou
  • Eleni Kyramargiou
  • Tryfonas Lemonotzoglou
  • Nikolaos Alexis
  • Dimitris Angelis Dimakis
  • Yannis Gonatidis
  • Konstantinos Lamprakis
  • Nikos Leonidakis
  • Daphne Papadaki
  • Maria Pappa
  • Dimitrios Stergiopoulos
  • Vasilis Georgakis

Research Projects

Olimed

At the Crossroads of History, Industry, and Technology: Olive Oil Production in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Nineteenth Century

The last twenty years have witnessed an increase in the production of olive oil The last twenty years have witnessed an increase in the production of olive oil in the Mediterranean as a consequence of the campaigns of the International Olive Oil Council. The proposed research aims at bringing forth an original contribution to this dynamic field by adopting a comparative perspective that concentrates on the history of olive oil production in several most important olive and olive oil producing regions of the Eastern Mediterranean. 

VCAT-Gr

A Value Chain Analysis of Tobacco in Greece (1949-1981)

The purpose of this research project is to produce a historical account of the evolution of Greece’s tobacco sector in the period that spans between the end of the Greek Civil War (1949) and the country’s accession into the EEC in 1981.

GeSuLaQ

Geography of Surveillance. Lazarettos and Quarantine Services in the Greek State, 1821-1923

The aim of the research program is to record the lazarettos and the quarantine services that operated in the Greek state from the declaration of the Greek Revolution in 1821 to 1923, when its borders were finalized after a decade of wars (1912-1922). The research will focus on lazarettos, quarantine services and health stations which were established and operated by the central administration, as well as on those constructed by municipalities, mainly islanders, in an effort to protect their population on one hand and their economics operations on the other hand.

UNLPUBLISHED LAND REGISTERS

Land Ownership and Family Farm Income in Nineteenth-Century Greece: The Unpublished Land “Registers” of the Kapodistrian Period (1830)

The aim of the research project “Land Ownership and Family Farm Income in Nineteenth-Century Greece: The Unpublished Land “Registers” of the Kapodistrian Period (1830)” is to study a number of local agricultural statistics produced during the tenure of President Ioannis Kapodistrias (1828-1831) and hitherto unknown in the literature, and to utilise them in order to draw conclusions about the distribution of wealth and farm income in rural Greece at the end of the War of Independence.

MorEc

Moral Economy

 

METOPO (WP4)

Mining Landscapes in Greece, 19th-20th c.

Scientific coordinator: Leda Papastefanaki

This research project aims at deepening the understanding in the history of mining activities and the formation of the mining landscapes in Greece during 19th-20th centuries.