Activities
During its 24-month duration the network will include a series of conferences, training activities, methodological workshops and short fellowships. The main events are:
1. The Meaning of Luxury: Network Planning Meeting
History Department, University of Warwick, 13 March 2013
This initial meeting will coincide with a week-long visit by Catherine Kovesi (University of Melbourne) who will give an inaugural lecture. A methodological workshop for students and staff will led by network partners Catherine Kovesi and Peter McNeil.
2. The Production of Luxury: Skills, Knowledge, and Ideas
Research Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, 4-5 July 2013
Does luxury production foster artisanal skills that would otherwise not survive? How does the value imparted by skill relate to other questions of value, whether putatively intrinsic (as in the use of precious materials) or socially-constructed? What is the role of imagery and the imaginary in shaping luxury?
3. The Regulation of Luxury: Morality, the State and the Law
Department of Medieval Studies, University of Bologna, 12-14 December 2013
Why is luxury a field of great interest for the State and the Law? Why is luxury heavily taxed? In which ways does this inform notions of greed, virtue and vice? What have been the key legal strategies to control the value of luxury and have they been successful? When is luxury undesirable? What can the law do today against illegal copies, fakes and smuggling?
4. The Geography of Luxury: East, West and Global Directions
Global History and Culture Centre, History Department, University of Warwick, 7-9 May 2014
What is the relationship between Western luxury and globalisation? Why for a long time were Oriental goods seen as luxurious in Europe? What are the challenges today of selling Western luxury to China, India and the Middle East? Why have certain nations had a key role in shaping the notion of luxury, and can we now talk of a ‘globalised’ or ‘cosmopolitan’ luxury?
5. Luxury and the Ethics of Greed in the Early Modern World
Villa I Tatti and European University Institute, Florence, 25-26 September 2014
The fourth workshop will be a forum for discussion and dissemination of the network’s results and future research activities. This event will be held in conjunction with the 2-day conference organised by Prof. Luca Molà (European University Institute) and Dr. Kovesi on ‘Luxury and Greed in the Renaissance’.