International Conference POLITICAL RITUAL IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, 1700 - 2000 Organised by the German Association for the Study of British History and Politics (Arbeitskreis Deutsche England-Forschung) Date: 30 May - 1 June 2003 Venue: Mühlheim a

International Conference

POLITICAL RITUAL IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, 1700 - 2000

Organised by the
German Association for the Study of British History and Politics
(Arbeitskreis Deutsche England-Forschung)
Date: 30 May - 1 June 2003
Venue: Mühlheim an der Ruhr, Germany

Political rituals, ceremony and the symbolic representation of power and
government have played a prominent role in the history of the United
Kingdom. While many Britons take pride in the longstanding traditions
of political institutions like the House of Parliament or the monarchy,
most foreign observers would probably agree on the exceptional prominence
of traditional forms and rituals in Britain's political culture. However, in
1983 we were told that many of Britain's (and other countries') traditions
were not quite as longstanding as some would expect and that historians were
to follow the history of their inventions in order to understand their
meanings and their contexts. Twenty years after Eric Hobsbawm's and
Terence Ranger's _The Invention of Tradition_, the history of political
rituals in Britains still remains to be written. How are historians and
political scientists to account for phenomena as different as the wide
range of urban and civic ritual in the 17th and 18th century, the meaning
of changing electional rituals in the 19th century and the evolution and
development of parliamentary traditions? How do we understand recent
events like the funerals of Lady Di and Queen mother in the context of
the history of political rituals in the United Kingdom?

The German Association for the Study of British History and Politics will
address these questions in its annual meeting on 30 May - 1 June 2003
in Mühlheim an der Ruhr, Germany.


Programm:

Friday, May 30th, 2003

Opening Address

19:30 Frank O'Gorman (Manchester)
Political Ritual in Eighteenth-Century Britain


Saturday, May 31st, 2003

9:00 Jörg Neuheiser (Köln)/Michael Schaich (London)
Welcome and Introduction


I. Civic Ritual

Chair: Willibald Steinmetz (Bochum/Bremen)

9:30 Rosemary Sweet (Leicester)
Urban Political Ritual in Eighteenth-Century Britain

11:00 Andreas Fahrmeir (Frankfurt a. M.)
The Lord Mayor's Show in Nineteenth-Century London


II. Ritual and Popular Politics

Chair: Vera Nünning (Heidelberg)

14:00 Detlev Mares (Darmstadt)
The Importance of Being Earnest: Rituals in Victorian Popular Radicalism

14:30 Matthias Reiß (London)
National Hunger Marches in 1920s and 1930s Britain


III. Commemorative Rituals

Chair: Hans Kastendiek (Chemnitz)

16:00 Dominic Bryan (Belfast)
Orange Order Parades in Northern Ireland, 1960-2000

16:30 Gert Stratmann (Bochum)
The Golden Jubilee Celebrations

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All are welcome to participate.
The venue will be the conference center Die Wolfsburg, Falkenweg 6,
45478 Mühlheim an der Ruhr (www.bistum-essen.de/wolfsbu.htm).
For bookings please contact Ingrid Schilling (ischilli@uni-osnabrueck.de)
For further information please contact:
Michael Schaich (German Historical Institute London)
schaich@ghil.co.uk
or
Jörg Neuheiser (University of Cologne)
a2724898@smail.uni-koeln.de