The civilising offensive : new perspectives on social and educational reform in 19th-century Belgium

'This volume offers a multifaceted selection of studies on 19th-century Belgian reformers and initiatives they instigated to solve the ‘social question'by ‘civilising'and moralising the lower classes. Around 1850 Belgium was continental Europe's most heavily industrialised state. From the mid-century until the Belle Époque many international social reform associations were based in Belgium, as well as their main international actors. This book aims to place the history of social, moral and educational reform in Belgium during the long 19th century within a broader European perspective. This collection of contributions by both young and established scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds not only fills some gaps in Belgian historiography, but also offers a better understanding of broad epochal processes such as the bourgeois civilising offensive, the expansion of educational action and the historical growth of welfare states. Frontmatter --Table of Contents --1. New Perspectives on Social and Educational Reform during the Long Nineteenth Century. An Introduction /De Spiegeleer, Christoph --Part I. Social-Pedagogical Perspectives on Social and Educational Reform --2. "On voit bien que c'est un petit malheureux des Hospices". The Child, the Body and the Bath in Nineteenth-Century Belgium: a Cure for the Future? /De Wilde, Lieselot / Vanobbergen, Bruno / Vandenbroeck, Michel --3. The Social Question as an Urban Question. A Social-Pedagogical Analysis of Participatory Initiatives in Rabot (Ghent) during the Nineteenth Century /Deceur, Evelyne / Bouverne-De Bie, Maria / Van Gorp, Angelo --Part II. New Topics in the History of Social and Educational Reform --4. Catholic Fundraising to Educate the Poor. The History of the Société Civile du Crédit de la Charité (1855-1878) /Van de Perre, Stijn --5. Putting the Rural World on the Road of Progress? Experiences of Failure by Local Activists of the Belgian Education League (c. 1865-1884) /Reimann, Christina --6. Schools of Decency and Discipline. Social Reform and People's Restaurants in the Low Countries (1860s-1914) /Tyssens, Jeffrey --Part III. Transnational Connections and Circulations --7. The Opposite of Dante's Hell? The Transfer of Ideas for Social Housing at International Congresses in the 1850s- 1860s /Van Praet, Carmen --8. (Re-)educational Internationalism in the Low Countries, 1850-1914 /Thiry, Amandine / D'haeninck, Thomas / Verbruggen, Christophe --9. The Intellectual Mobility of Auguste Wagener (1829-1896) in a Transnational Network of Social Reform. A Cross-Border History /D'haeninck, Thomas --Notes on Authors --Index of Names "This volume offers a multifaceted selection of studies on 19th-century Belgian reformers and initiatives they instigated to solve the 'social question' by 'civilising' and moralising the lower classes. Around 1850 Belgium was continental Europe's most heavily industrialised state. From the mid-century until the Belle Époque many international social reform associations were based in Belgium, as well as their main international actors. This book aims to place the history of social, moral and educational reform in Belgium during the long 19th century within a broader European perspective. This collection of contributions by both young and established scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds not only fills some gaps in Belgian historiography, but also offers a better understanding of broad epochal processes such as the bourgeois civilising offensive, the expansion of educational action and the historical growth of welfare states

'New Perspectives on the History of Liberalism and Freethought' is a peer-reviewed series devoted to the results of international scientific workshops and colloquia organised by Liberas/Liberaal Archief, the central archive and documentation centre of the liberal movement in Belgium/Flanders. As a research institute, Liberas/Liberaal Archief wishes to stimulate research into the 19 th - and 20th-century history of liberalism and freethought in a broad sense, in Belgium and abroad.

Around 1850 Belgium was continental Europe?s most heavily industrialised state. From the mid-century until the Belle Époque many international social reform associations were based in Belgium. This book will stimulate the debate between historians & social pedagogues on the 19th-century bourgeois?civilising offensive? and place the history of social, moral and educational reform in Belgium within a broader European perspective