The area I primarily use to test my ideas is pre-industrial Northwestern Europe, although I recently extended the geographical comparison to other parts of Europe and the Middle East, and have also become more interested in extending my research lines into the modern period. Why are some societies capable of adapting their organisational structure to new challenges, and undergoing a successful transition of economy and society, while others lack this capability or experience a painful or unsustainable transition? This success can be measured economically, in GDP per capita or wealth, but also in ways which include the social aspects, such as equity and welfare, and the resilience to shocks and disasters, and the ecological ones, such as sustainable use of resources. Together with the young researchers working on my projects, I aim to find out why some societal arrangements are successful and others are not, and what drives the formation of these arrangements. Bas (B.J.P.) van Bavel Section Economic and Social History Department of History and Art History Faculty of Humanities Utrecht University (NL) Phone: Address: Drift BS Utrecht, the Netherlands RESEARCH PROFILE Through my research, I want to understand how societies develop in the long run and explain the striking differences we observe in their developmental path.
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