Pogingen tot planning in de Nederlandse geschiedbeoefening, 1827-2022

Abstract

The recently published Dutch Sectorplan for the Humanities can be considered as the latest offshoot within the genre of historiographical planning. This genre, which has existed since at least the first half of the nineteenth century, is the topic of this article. Analyzing this rather specific genre of texts brings together two domains, science policy and science itself. In historiography these two domains have usually been studied separately. Through the study of four different plans (from 1827, 1904, 1974, and 2008), it becomes clear to what extent historiographical ambitions were formulated in terms of existing administrative infrastructures. This runs from king William I’s autocratic rule leading to the prize contest for one national historian in 1827, to the highly professionalized and market-oriented report on the sustainability of the humanities in 2008. Taken together, these four moments form a broad outline of the history of the changing future of Dutch historiography.