CAPAS RESEARCH PROJECT - KATIE BARCLAY HOW TO FEEL SAFE AT THE END OF THE WORLD: SAFETY AND SECURITY FOR EARLY MODERN FAMILIES
This project aims to understand how early modern communities created conditions to feel safe during times of significant and existential crisis, revealing how ideas of safety, security and hope for the future were conceived and enacted in practice. It does this using a case study of early modern European families, considering how families and children imagined futures for themselves during events like famine, plague, war, the ‘Little Ice Age’, and as part of millenarian movements (groups who believed the end of the world was nigh). It brings methodologies from the History of Emotions to consider the emotional and wellbeing dimensions of living through uncertainty and imagining safety and security. A key research focus I show families persisted in challenging times and built resilience within the next generation. The project also explores how this cultural history can inform parents, teachers, children and youth to manage anxiety, build hope and improve their life opportunities. This historical perspective on a contemporary problem has the benefit of supporting families struggling with today’s changing world. Findings will be disseminated through a monograph, and a series of articles and book chapters.