CALL FOR PAPERS

The conference is the second of three conferences dedicated to the topic of ‘towns and communication’, and will deal with different forms of communication between towns, and between towns and their hinterlands in the period up to the early twentieth century. We invite participants to give papers on different forms of travel and transport as well as non-physical forms of communication - written, oral, pictorial or electronic. The papers should also reflect on the consequences of these forms of communication between towns, and between towns and their hinterlands, on the forms and functions of towns in different periods.

Possible questions to be addressed include:

• directions and frequency of communication between towns in a given region
• the impact of hierarchy between towns on the intensity of communication
• the interrelation of market-systems and regional communication
• the impact of the mode of communication between towns on the form of the town itself, especially at the point of contact or entry (e.g. harbours, railway stations and caravan assembly sites), with respect to the places to which they provide connection
• alternative means of traffic and transport and choices between them (road vs. water, rail vs. road etc.)
• seasonality of communication (winter route vs. summer routes)
• costs of communication (town accounts, private reports)
• control of communication, restrictions and impediments including tolls, frontiers, fortifications etc
• communication and crime (smuggling, piracy, roadside robberies)
• journey times
• infrastructure (bridges, road building, inns, etc)
• military and naval aspects of communication (roads constructed for use by armies, relations between naval and other inter-urban marine communication etc)
• the culture of travel between towns (pilgrimage, ‘grand tours’, tramping artisans, caravans etc)

Contacts

For general arrangements and proposals for papers (up to 300 words):
Derek Keene: tel +44 (0)20 7862 8799)