Skip to main content

IMC 2010: Sessions

Session 1306: Forces and Structures of Community-Building in Medieval Europe, II: The North Sea-Region

Wednesday 14 July 2010, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Vorarlberger Landesarchiv
Organiser:Mathias Moosbrugger, Institut für Systematische Theologie, Universität Innsbruck
Moderator/Chair:Brigitte Resl, School of Histories, Languages & Cultures, University of Liverpool
Paper 1306-aPeasant Community-Building in Scandinavia between State and Landowners
(Language: English)
Arnved Nedkvitne, Institutt for arkeologi, konservering og historie, Universitetet i Oslo
Index terms: Literacy and Orality, Social History
Paper 1306-bManor, Community, and Individual: Rights and Writing in Late Medieval Rural England
(Language: English)
Charlotte Harrison, School of History, University of Liverpool
Index terms: Literacy and Orality, Social History
Paper 1306-c'The law of all Frisians': Law as an Instrument of Community Building in the Medieval Frisian Coastal Area
(Language: English)
Han Nijdam, Fryske Akademy, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)
Index terms: Law, Social History
Abstract

A striking phenomenon of European history in the late Middle Ages is the emergence of local communities with considerable influence in social, political, and economic affairs. The most important theoretical impact on how to understand the development of such communal entities in the last decades has been caused by Peter Blickle's concept of 'communalism', interpreting (especially rural) communities as being created by peasants themselves. These two sessions reconstruct various examples of community-building in medieval Europe and thus aim to critically discuss the theory of 'communalism' and to suggest new heuristic and hermeneutical approaches to this matter.