Monopolies of the Built Environment and Architectural Production in
Ireland and the Empire, 1700-1900

Session at PCCBS - The Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies,
Riverside, California, 7-9 March 2014

Proposals due by 15 October 2013

This session seeks to bring together scholars whose work relates to
monopolies - whether material, political, religious, spatial, or
temporal - and how they affected the built environment and the methods
by which urban spaces developed. Economic historians have long seen the
centrality of monopolies to Georgian and Victorian society, especially
in colonial scenarios, but those dealing with aspects of architectural
production have been more likely to focus on stylistic developments or
the achievements of remarkable individuals at the expense of the high
proportion of the built environment controlled by large monopolies.
Often these discussions have been framed within a false dichotomy of
'core' vs. 'periphery,' which has served to obscure the political
importance of the built environment outside the metropolis. Papers might
address monopolies in terms of their protagonists, beneficiaries, the
mechanics which sustained them, and also protest and counter-attempts to
disenfranchise and disempower them, within the framework of how these
histories affected the built environment and architectural production,
from approaches including but not limited to architectural, economic,
gender and urban history. Studies should be situated in the period
1700-1900; those concerning less studied parts of the Empire would be
especially welcome.

Please e-mail a 200-word proposal and a CV to rjb201cam.ac.uk by 15
October 2013 (the complete panel will need to be submitted together in
mid-November).