About the conference

continues the tradition established by its two predecessors held in Seville (2019) and Basel (2022). The third edition investigates insurance as a crucial element of social development, economic progress, the globalization of financial services, and capitalism more broadly. It explores risk and the ways humanity has coped with it, from the earliest societies to the era of artificial intelligence, across local, regional, and global contexts, with a particular focus on Central and Eastern Europe. The global lens encourages the integration of wide-ranging global perspectives with micro-historical analyses. The conference brings together business professionals and academics from around the world.

Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the diffusion of marine insurance in nineteenth-century East Asia, insurance market developments, insurance and financial literacy education, the transition of market operations from analog to digital and towards artificial intelligence, and the history of insurance intermediaries.

Sessions and papers are invited to adopt either a comparative approach, contrasting different geographical contexts, or a generalizing, international perspective, examining, for example, the internationalization and globalization of insurance or the formation of international networks and organizations related to insurance (such as congresses, societies, and cartels). Contributions may explore the business environment, including competing forms of risk prevention and financial precaution in specific regions, the emergence of local, non-Western insurance industries, and the interactions between local and international companies. The conference theme also extends to areas of consumption, such as the social and ethnic patterns of insurance markets and the evolving perceptions of risk across different geographical and cultural contexts, particularly in light of the application of modern AI technologies.

Scholars are especially encouraged to cross traditional academic boundaries by offering insights into geographical interconnections or trans-epochal developments. The conference follows an interdisciplinary format, bringing together researchers from various disciplines interested in the history of insurance from a global perspective, notably Business History, International Business Studies, Global History, Consumer History, the History of Law, Historical Sociology, and practicing business professionals.

The conference will be held as a two-day event on 3–4 July 2025, organized by the Department of Risk and Insurance of the SGH Warsaw School of Economics in cooperation with the Department of Insurance of the Poznań University of Economics and Business.