Cultures of political participation in late medieval cities
<p>This thesis examines how late medieval urban societies responded to the fundamental problem of how to organise an increasingly complex and unequal society, and what role to give to the different and unequal agents of that society in the common enterprise of governance. It studies the logic...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English (sources in Castilian, French, and Latin) |
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2019
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| _version_ | 1797054997040463872 |
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| author | Gonzalez Martin, P |
| author2 | Skoda, H |
| author_facet | Skoda, H Gonzalez Martin, P |
| author_sort | Gonzalez Martin, P |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This thesis examines how late medieval urban societies responded to the fundamental problem of how to organise an increasingly complex and unequal society, and what role to give to the different and unequal agents of that society in the common enterprise of governance. It studies the logic behind political participation, why it happened, when it happened, and for what purposes. Using the towns of Burgos and Tournai in the period c.1380 – c.1520 as case studies, it considers the ways in which medieval urban societies organised and structured the participation of the different members of the body politic in ways that were imperfect and unstable, but also strikingly intelligent, creative, and nuanced. It proposes that these towns developed a political culture, which I have called corporate republicanism, which was based on a pragmatic logic of common duty toward the common good, corporatism as an organisational logic, deliberation as the basic tool for collective political action, and consensus as the main goal of political processes.</p>
<p>This thesis has three primary objectives. First, it re-assesses what political participation meant, what forms it could take, and what role it played in late medieval urban societies. Second, it challenges ideas on political inclusion and exclusion and proposes a much more inclusive view of institutional politics. Finally, through the choice of the case studies of Burgos and Tournai, this thesis also challenges the dichotomy, very present in urban studies, between the study of the ‘city-states’ of the Low Countries, Germany, and Italy, versus the royal towns of France, England, and Castile. Most importantly, it studies civic political cultures beyond ‘national’ frameworks in order to provide a model of understanding of urban politics that, although not universal, can be applied to different polities across Europe.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T19:05:13Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:14e62496-b63a-4a1e-8f21-f6891498f314 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English (sources in Castilian, French, and Latin) |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T19:05:13Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:14e62496-b63a-4a1e-8f21-f6891498f3142022-03-26T10:22:28ZCultures of political participation in late medieval citiesThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:14e62496-b63a-4a1e-8f21-f6891498f314Urban HistoryRepublicanismMedieval BurgosPolitical ParticipationMedieval TournaiSocial History of the Late Middle AgesCorporatismPolitical RepresentationPopular PoliticsEnglish (sources in Castilian, French, and Latin)ORA Deposit2019Gonzalez Martin, PSkoda, HLacey, HWatts, JHaemers, J<p>This thesis examines how late medieval urban societies responded to the fundamental problem of how to organise an increasingly complex and unequal society, and what role to give to the different and unequal agents of that society in the common enterprise of governance. It studies the logic behind political participation, why it happened, when it happened, and for what purposes. Using the towns of Burgos and Tournai in the period c.1380 – c.1520 as case studies, it considers the ways in which medieval urban societies organised and structured the participation of the different members of the body politic in ways that were imperfect and unstable, but also strikingly intelligent, creative, and nuanced. It proposes that these towns developed a political culture, which I have called corporate republicanism, which was based on a pragmatic logic of common duty toward the common good, corporatism as an organisational logic, deliberation as the basic tool for collective political action, and consensus as the main goal of political processes.</p> <p>This thesis has three primary objectives. First, it re-assesses what political participation meant, what forms it could take, and what role it played in late medieval urban societies. Second, it challenges ideas on political inclusion and exclusion and proposes a much more inclusive view of institutional politics. Finally, through the choice of the case studies of Burgos and Tournai, this thesis also challenges the dichotomy, very present in urban studies, between the study of the ‘city-states’ of the Low Countries, Germany, and Italy, versus the royal towns of France, England, and Castile. Most importantly, it studies civic political cultures beyond ‘national’ frameworks in order to provide a model of understanding of urban politics that, although not universal, can be applied to different polities across Europe.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Urban History Republicanism Medieval Burgos Political Participation Medieval Tournai Social History of the Late Middle Ages Corporatism Political Representation Popular Politics Gonzalez Martin, P Cultures of political participation in late medieval cities |
| title | Cultures of political participation in late medieval cities |
| title_full | Cultures of political participation in late medieval cities |
| title_fullStr | Cultures of political participation in late medieval cities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cultures of political participation in late medieval cities |
| title_short | Cultures of political participation in late medieval cities |
| title_sort | cultures of political participation in late medieval cities |
| topic | Urban History Republicanism Medieval Burgos Political Participation Medieval Tournai Social History of the Late Middle Ages Corporatism Political Representation Popular Politics |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT gonzalezmartinp culturesofpoliticalparticipationinlatemedievalcities |