Collective Identities and Estate Society between Central and Southeastern Europe from the Invention of the Printing Press to the Emergence of National Movements

The term ‘collective identity’ refers to a social identity that includes cognitive, moral, and emotional connections to others. Slovenian historiography has not extensively researched the subject of collective identities in the Early Modern Period, as the identification with the former Habsburg lands has been discouraged since the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After World War II, historiography stopped researching the bourgeoisie, nobility, and clergy for ideological reasons. The Early Modern Period was also given a negative connotation as ‘the age of the temporary restoration of the feudal order.’ Therefore, this project is essential for Slovenian historiography and other humanities and social science disciplines dealing with the past.

The timeframe of the research project spans three centuries, from the end of the Middle Ages to the end of the Early Modern Period. The lower limit is represented by the invention of the printing press in the mid-15th century and the upper by the emergence of national movements and print capitalism at the end of the 18th century. Between the two communication revolutions that delimit the timeframe of the study, clear parallels can be drawn with the modern social media revolution, which has given rise to a multiplicity of collective identities. Territorially, the research focuses on the interface between Central and Southeastern Europe, geographically bounded by the Adriatic Sea, the Eastern Alps, and the Pannonian Plain. The project examines collective identities by analysing five categories: gender, place, social status, religion, and ethnicity.

Based on the concept of collective identity, research will be carried out to answer the following main questions:

1. What collective identities did people at the junction of Central and Southeastern Europe adopt between the mid-15th and the end of the 18th century?
2. Which categories in the field of collective identities have remained constant and which have varied? Or, rather, which categories have been less stable and which have been more stable?
3. How have historical processes affected the formation, change, and disappearance of collective identities?
4. How did the individual display his/her collective identities in the time and place in question?

The project aims to comprehensively address the issue through case studies. The case studies will be divided into five thematic clusters based on the categories mentioned above. These categories are:

• 1st cluster: Female collective identity as an expression of the category of gender
• 2nd cluster: Provincial collective identity as a form of territorial belonging
• 3rd cluster: Estate collective identities: noble, estate, and municipal affiliations
• 4th cluster: Confessional collective identity
• 5th cluster: Ethnolinguistic collective identities.

The research will draw on published and archival sources from Slovenian, Italian, Hungarian, Croatian, and German archives. The methodological approach will be based on qualitative methodology, namely, the sources will be analysed mainly employing the explicative method. The use of quantitative methodology will be limited to frequency analysis to determine the frequency of use of certain ethno- and linguonyms or other identity markers. In the final project phase, a comparative method will also be applied.

The project team comprises six distinguished researchers from two scientific institutions: the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana. They will disseminate their findings to both professional and general audiences through scientific articles, papers at national and international conferences, public lectures, and a final scientific monograph.