Research project Feeding Capitalism and Facing its Consequences? Upland Pastoralism in Ireland and Sweden, 1350-1850
This project by Eugene Costello is funded by a a Humanities and Social Sciences Project Grant from the Swedish Research Council and will run until 2025.
This project has developed out of Eugene Costello's doctoral and postdoctoral research on the history and archaeology of hill farming in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe, in particular the practice of transhumance (i.e. seasonal movement of people and livestock). It also builds on Costello's work in environmental humanities at Stockholm University, as part of which he explored the potential role of historical ecology in upland management and conservation.
Project description
The research project seeks to develop an approach which can determine the role of livestock-rearing communities in the emergence of capitalism in north-west Europe (circa 1350-1850). With their extensive tracts of pasture, upland regions such as western Ireland and inland Scandinavia offer a window into the role of meat and dairy production in (literally) feeding crucial aspects of early modern capitalism, for example, the provisioning of New World colonies and the supply of industrial mining towns in Sweden. However, there is a conceptual gap between recent archaeological and palaeoecological research on uplands, and the mainstream research in early modern history.
This project will bridge the gap by integrating old and new sources in a landscape framework, and analysing change at three levels therein: 1) pastoral use of uplands; 2) community adaptability; 3) market links and impacts. This multi-level approach will allow us to reconceptualise 'peripheral' upland farmers as knowledgeable agents in commercialisation, and it will lay down a roadmap for tracking the influence of upland communities elsewhere in early-modern Europe.
Moreover, the landscape-based nature of the project means that it will reveal the socio-ecological consequences of economic adaptation for upland pastoralists in the long run. We will present these findings at community events in Ireland and Sweden and discuss how historical lessons on grazing and social change can inform local land-use planning today.
The research project began in 2020 and will run until 2025. It is funded by a Humanities and Social Sciences Project Grant from the Swedish Research Council (Project number: 2020-01948. Amount: 4 360 000 kr).
Project members
Project managers
Members
Sigrún Dögg Eddudóttir
Benjamin Gearey
More about this project
To facilitate public impact, Costello is co-operating with the National Parks and Wildlife Service in Ireland and the EU-funded habitat conservation scheme, Wild Atlantic Nature. He is also increasingly co-operating with Prof Karl-Johan Lindholm in the Global Historical Ecology cluster at Uppsala University, and the IHOPE and SKÅNK networks.
Media attention:
Sveriges Radio: Ny forskning undersöker medeltida pollen i myrar i Jämtlands län
RTÉ Brainstorm: The lost art of 'booleying' in Ireland