Agenda
International Workshop ‘The Fragmented City in Premodern Europe’
On 25 January 2024, the Centre for Urban History of the University of Antwerp, supported by the N.W. Posthumus Institute, will host the International Workshop ‘The Fragmented City in Premodern Europe’. Organisers are Posthumus PhD Bente Marschall and Posthumus fellow Professor Peter Stabel.
This workshop wants to explore the notion of the fragmented city. It can be defined as urban settlements with multiple and often various political, legal, cultural or social entities operating in the same space, in which the local (urban) government lacked control over the entire territory or did not encompass all social relations within the city limits. Premodern European cities were defined by a patchwork of distinct enclaves with far-reaching implications that influenced the economic, political, juridical and cultural lives of their residents. By analysing patterns of fragmentation, the workshop aims to bring together early career and advanced scholars to trace the effects of these divisions on urban cohesion and urban agency.It starts from the idea that cities did not constitute a unified whole, either as an economic unit, a political body or a cultural scene ry. It is now more widely accepted that the medieval city was polycentric, encompassing multiple power centres and distinct legal frameworks. While the subject has been predominantly explored from a political perspective, there is an increasing number of studies emphasising the social and economic consequences of extra-territoriality.
