The Second Conference of the Black Sea Project, The Economic and Social Development of the Port–Cities of the Northern Black Sea Coast, Late 18th – Beginning of the 20th century will take place in Constanţa in late May 2014 (27 May – 1 June). The sessions of the conference will take place in the Faculty of History and Political Science of the Ovidius University of Constanţa. The sessions will be followed by a two days scientific visit to Varna.

The project “The Black Sea and its port-cities from the 18th to the 20th century. Development, convergence and linkages with the global economy” is included in the Thalis Programme “Reinforcement of the Interdisciplinary and/or inter-institutional Research and Innovation” of the operational action “Education and Life Long Learning” which is co-sponsored by the E.U. and the Greek Min-istry of Education.

The aim of the conference is to present the results of the research in the project and to present papers related to its themes. The project seeks the identification, analysis and synthesis of the economic and social development of 20 port-cities of the Black Sea that formed an integrated market that became the larger grain-exporting area in the world in the nineteenth century until the beginning of the twentieth century. By placing in the centre of the analysis the sea and its ports, the analysis penetrates in the economic activities of the port-cities, the coastal area and the hinterland, the integration of markets and their inter-linkages with the global economy, beyond political boundaries and divisions. The linkages with the global economy triggered development and convergence of regional markets. Papers are related to the subject of the project along the following six axes:

1. The Black Sea as a unit of research. Marine environment and six port systems
2. Six maritime regions. Economic and social development of twenty port-cities.
3. The form of the cities. City-planning and architecture
4. Macro-analysis. Formation of macro-economic statistical series. Comparison with world economy.
5. Micro-analysis. Entrepreneurial elites and major Greek business families
6. Linkages with the Mediterranean and the Atlantic

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The papers in the Conference will focus on the port-cities of the Western Black Sea (Romanian and Bulgarian) and will be based both on new archival sources and related analytic and synthetic approaches that draw upon the documentation presented and critical approaches to bibliography, published works and historiography.

The working language of the conference will be basically English, yet papers in Romanian and Bulgarian will also be presented accompanied by an extended summary and detailed Power Point presentation in English.

For more information please write to:
Constantin.Ardeleanu@ugal.ro (Member of the Scientific Research Group for Romania)
lyberatos@gmail.com (Thalis Scientific Director of the Research in Bulgaria)

The Organising Committee:

Professor Gelina Harlaftis (project coordinator, Ionian University)
Andreas Lyberatos (Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FORTH)
Constantin Ardeleanu (Lower Danube University of Galaţi)
Emanuel Plopeanu (Ovidius University of Constanţa)

Secretariat

Dr Alexandra Papadopoulou (Researcher, Ionian University)
Maria Konstantinidi (Researcher, Ionian University)
Κοstas Karalis (Administrator, Ionian University)