20 February 2026| Eu-Guns/GlobArms/Centre d’histoire du XIXe siècle Joint Workshop – Le prix de l’autodéfense. Acteurs et actrices, armes et dispositifs de sécurité privée en France et en Italie (19e-21e siècle)
Le prix de l’autodéfense. Acteurs et actrices, armes et dispositifs de sécurité privée en France et en Italie (19e-21e siècle)
Salle des Fresques – Centre Sorbonne – 17, rue de la Sorbonne
Self-defense phenomena, and more broadly private security practices, have attracted renewed interest within the social sciences over the past few decades. More recently, the issue of the commodification of security—until now largely neglected by historians—has allowed for moving beyond a simplified view of state-building as the mere acquisition of a monopoly on legitimate security. The 19th and 20th centuries represent a central period for the expansion of public powers, but they are also those of the proliferation of the security market, which offers services ranging from the purchase of handguns for self-defense, to guarding services, and the hiring of private police. What has been the cost of this market’s prosperity?
This study day, organized by Eu-Guns, GlobArms, and the Centre d’Histoire du XIXe siècle, with the support of the Université Franco-Italienne, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and the Università degli Studi di Padova, proposes a dialogue between French and Italian historiographies, both of which have long overshadowed the importance of private forms of security within countries known for their centralized state model.
