Dr. Donald Weber

Historical researcher, worked as an assistant at Ghent University in 1992-1996. Since then researcher affiliated to Amsab-Institute of Social History. Research director of Amsab-ISH since 2015.

Amsab-ISH Research Policy Vision Statement

[McKinsey 7-S Framework Shared Values]

• Research has always been a core activity of the institution.
• Open view: historiography, but also social sciences in general including political science, sociology, communication studies, etc.
• Social history perspective: we believe that everything in society is interconnected and should be analyzed within a large context, and that macro-perspective and longue durée matter.
• Conflict perspective: we also believe that not everyone in society has equal opportunities, that there are groups and individuals that defend their interests against other groups and individuals, and that conflict and consent analysis should be an integral part of any research perspective.
• People's history perspective: we find that no matter how important the dynamics of structures and organizations are, the human perspective should always eventually emerge: in the end social history is about people, not about concepts or objects. We like history from below, people's history, Alltagsgeschichte, histoire des mentalités, new social history.
• Labour history perspective: within social history, we have long standing expertise on labour history that we will continue to expand, but we also agree with the premises of new social history: cultural and economic themes are as relevant as political or social ones.
• Within social history we focus on four domains: labour, new social movements, ecology, migration. Yet we are open to invite new themes, e.g. social welfare.
• We work on a Flemish and Belgian level, but we reach out internationally through research into Global Labour History, the anti-globalist movement, migration history, etc.
• Archival sciences and Public History research are practiced in other parts of the institution, always in close collaboration with the research staff.

Personal Research: The Advent of The Automobile in Belgium, 1895-1940

• Full text article [Ghent University only] Donald Weber, 'Safety or Efficiency? Strategies and Conflicting Interests in Belgian Road-Safety Policy, 1920-1940', Technology and Culture, 56(2015)2: 394-419.
• Full text PhD dissertation [in Dutch] Donald Weber, Automobilisering en de overheid in België voor 1940: Besluitvormingsprocessen bij de ontwikkeling van een conflictbeheersingssysteem [Motorisation and Government in Belgium Before 1940: Policy Making Processes During the Development of a Conflict Management System]. Ghent University, 2008.