The conference aims to show that even at the apex of the modern State trajectory, hybrid practices not only persisted, but rather represented fully sanctioned courses of action across Europe. Observed through the prism of hybrid groups like civic militias, security agencies as well as volunteer armed corps, the well-established dichotomy between public and private appears to be less clear-cut than it is usually believed to be. In between these two poles of publicness and privateness, a vast grey area emerges.

Argument

Across the 19th and 20th century, modern States have progressively established their control on most aspects of public life thanks to a combined process of legal codification and institutional reinforcement. At the same time, according to widely prevailing narratives, they have consolidated their monopoly on the use of legitimate violence through the implementation of a series of measures that dramatically redesigned the relationship between institutions and citizenry: the creation of professional police forces; the recruitment of standing armies; the limitations on private gun ownership, among others.

Over the past few decades, reflections on the consolidation and the reach of the modern State in contemporary Europe have taken center stage in the historical debate. However, the progressive affirmation of the State monopoly on legitimate violence, a pivotal factor in its evolution, has usually been taken for granted. In fact, there has been a considerable lack of comparative studies, failing to address the development of practices that move past the rigid dichotomy between the public and private spheres in the monopoly-related fields of law enforcement, defence of public order and military action.

Beyond this rigid theoretical framework, shared practices of control persisted on the ground long after the affirmation of a more restrictive connotation of State authority. Whenever in need of external additional support, European States routinely resorted to the enrolment of private citizens in forms of mutual protection. This was particularly true when confronting crucial issues such as the defence of private property, the support to the management of public order and military action. At the same time, private citizens adopted models of self-organisation, establishing volunteermovements with the objective of making up for the lack of adequate defence provided by Stateagencies. During those years, hybrid practices of shared monopoly persisted in the pivotal field of public security, and significant sectors of civil society were involved in the efforts to protect the established order during and in the aftermath of social unrest and armed conflicts.

This conference aims to widen the focus on these subjects following their development across the entire European continent, so as to trace and reconstruct private-public hybrid practices relating to three main areas in which the State monopoly has traditionally been applied:

1. the involvement of private citizens in State-sanctioned practices in the enforcement of public order; 
2. the flourishing of private security firms for the protection of private property; 
3. the recruitment of volunteers in national or transnational armed conflicts, especially within the framework of the colonial dimension.

Some of these interactions culminated in legally-recognised groups such as militias or private security agencies; others resulted in less structured, sporadic initiatives like night watchers, vigilante groups and citizens’ patrols; still others took the shape of volunteers joining in support of the regular army in military expeditions abroad, eliciting mixed responses from the authorities.

With such variety and pervasiveness of experiences in mind, the conference aims to show that even at the apex of the modern State trajectory, hybrid practices not only persisted, but rather represented fully sanctioned courses of action across Europe. Observed through the prism of hybrid groups like civic militias, security agencies as well as volunteer armed corps, the well-established dichotomy between public and private appears to be less clear-cut than it is usually believed to be. In between these two poles of publicness and privateness, a vast grey area emerges.

We are looking for proposals dealing with the following three fields:

• practices (services provided by these hybrid groups, their social background, models of organization, use of armed violence);
• legal framework (norms and legal provisions that allowed such practices to be exercised, juridical debates on such issues);
• political cultures (beliefs that motivated such hybrid practices, the role of social emotions andperceptions, conceptions of State authority and class dynamics that shaped these groups).

Proposal might therefore explore related topics such as:

• experiences of citizen militias and/or private armed police;
• government regulations on civilian support for law enforcement activities and agencies;
• State attitude towards the devolution of public policing into the hands of private armed groups;
• practices and cultures of organized private gun ownership;
• juridical conceptions of limits and margins of State monopoly on violence;
• gun cultures and gun sociability among citizenry;
• female experiences of gun ownership and participation in armed groups;
• social and cultural relevance of armed self-defence

How to apply

The conference will be held in Department of Political Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, 18-19 September 2025

Please submit a 300-word abstract and a brief academic CV to marcomaria.aterrano@unina.it

by 15 May 2025.

The outcome of the application will be notified by 30 May 2025.

• The working language of the event will be English.
• All selected participants will be provided accommodation for two nights; meals throughout the duration of the conference will also be provided by the hosting University.
• Some additional funding might become available at a later date to cover part of the travel expenses.
• Please address any further questions to Marco Maria Aterrano at marcomaria.aterrano@unina.it

Convenors

• Marco Maria Aterrano (University of Naples Federico II)
• Matteo Millan (University of Padua)
• Enrico Acciai (University of Rome Tor Vergata)