Ronald Kroeze (Vrije Universitet Amsterdam): Banking on history: how banks use their past?

Many corporate organizations make references to their history. Especially banks make use of history and have large ‘historical’ or ‘archival’ departments, which are often well funded. Banks archive records, produce jubilee book and actively use their heritage in communication and public relations activities (‘trusted since….’). In this presentation several questions will be discussed. How do banks understand history (writing) and heritage? How do they represent the past? What kind of similarities and differences can be established? These questioned will be answered by looking at Dutch and (West-)European banks.

Thursday, April 3, 2014 - 13:00 to 14:30

Banking on history: how banks use their past

Many corporate organizations make references to their history. Especially banks make use of history and have large ‘historical’ or ‘archival’ departments, which are often well funded. Banks archive records, produce jubilee book and actively use their heritage in communication and public relations activities (‘trusted since….’). In this presentation several questions will be discussed. How do banks understand history (writing) and heritage? How do they represent the past? What kind of similarities and differences can be established? These questioned will be answered by looking at Dutch and (West-)European banks.

Dr. Ronald Kroeze is an assistant-professor at the History Department of the Faculty of Arts, VU University Amsterdam. His research concentrates on modern Europe’s history of politics, (good) governance and corruption as well as business, management and organization history. He co-edited ‘Corruption and Modern Politics’ (special issue of Journal for Modern European History, 2013, vol. 11), and published ‘Understanding Management Gurus and Historical Narratives’, MOH, 2012, 7(2), 171-189 and ‘Leading a multinational is history in practice’, Business History, 55(1), 1-23 (both together with S.J. Keulen).

The page was last edited by: Department of Business Humanities and Law // 01/25/2024