Session co-organized by the ICC – European Association of Urban History (EAUH) conference

Dr. Michał Wiśniewski and Marek Świdrak, representing the MCK, are co-organizing one of the sessions of next year's conference of the European Association of Urban History, which will take place on September 2–5, 2026, in Barcelona. We encourage you to submit your proposals for presentations by 17 November 2025.

The theme of the session will be: “Local urban community networks and peripheral modernisation in the modern times (ca. 1850-1939)”. Its aim will be to look at urban community networks as key social forces that played an autonomous role in the modernization of European peripheries. The session proposes to look at various non-mutually-excluding social groupings that formed urban society by building inner-city (sometimes also inter-city) networks that bound together different people and employed various ideas. This will give voice to people bound by their: social status, religion, professional affiliation or ethnic origin.

The session will be held as part of the 17th edition of the European Association for Urban History (EAUH) conference. During the event in Barcelona in 2026, 100 sessions are planned, which will be organized in groups to support the interests, contacts, and choices of participants. The main theme of the conference will be “City Networks in Europe and Beyond”.

In addition to representatives of the the International Cultural Centre, the co-organizers of session No. 51, “Local urban community networks and peripheral modernisation in the modern times (ca. 1850-1939)” also include:

• Michał Wiśniewski, Dr., International Cultural Centre in Krakow
• Marek Świdrak, MA., International Cultural Centre in Krakow
• Rafał Matyja, Professor, Cracow University of Economics, Department of Economic and Social History
• Andrzej Laskowski, Professor, Cracow University of Economics, Department of Economic and Social History
• Aleksander Łupienko, Associate Professor, T. Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Kamil Śmiechowski, Associate Professor, University of Łódź
• Agata Łysakowska-Trzoss, Dr., T. Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences

We warmly encourage you to submit proposals for presentations for our session no. 51. The deadline for submissions is 17 November. 


More information about the session
Submission rules