1. Public Works, Spatial Strategies, and Mobility in Late Medieval Ghent
- Author
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Janna Coomans, Léa Hermenault, University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam] (UvA), Archéologies environnementales, Archéologies et Sciences de l'Antiquité (ArScAn), Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UP1)-Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis (UP8)-Université Paris Nanterre (UPN)-Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (MCC)-Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (Inrap)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UP1)-Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis (UP8)-Université Paris Nanterre (UPN)-Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (MCC)-Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (Inrap)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UP1)-Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis (UP8)-Université Paris Nanterre (UPN)-Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (MCC)-Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (Inrap)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Work, Economy and Organizations ,History ,[SHS.ARCHEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory ,Sociology and Political Science ,BodoArXiv|Digital Scholarship ,BodoArXiv|Time Periods|15th Century ,bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Political Science ,bepress|Arts and Humanities|Digital Humanities ,BodoArXiv|Time Periods|14th Century ,bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|International and Area Studies ,bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Environmental Studies ,[SHS.STAT]Humanities and Social Sciences/Methods and statistics ,bepress|Arts and Humanities|Medieval Studies ,[SHS.GEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Geography ,bepress|Arts and Humanities|European Languages and Societies ,BodoArXiv|Areas or Regions ,BodoArXiv|Time Periods ,bepress|Arts and Humanities|History|Medieval History ,Urban Studies ,BodoArXiv|Medieval Studies|Environment ,BodoArXiv|Medieval Studies|Politics ,bepress|Arts and Humanities|History ,BodoArXiv|Medieval Studies|Economy and Trade ,BodoArXiv|Areas or Regions|Low Countries (with Luxemburg) ,[SHS.HIST]Humanities and Social Sciences/History ,BodoArXiv|Medieval Studies - Abstract
International audience; This article argues that medieval urban authorities developed nodal spatial strategies to mitigate various risks—from accidents, floods, and military vulnerability to sickness and scarcity. Using digital methods (Geographic Information System [GIS]) to map public works during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in one large city (Ghent), it offers a fuller understanding of urban governance in dialogue with a city’s topography and environmental and sociopolitical challenges. Ghent’s authorities invested in gates, bridges, markets, thoroughfares, key buildings, and waterworks. Tracing their interventions reveals the city as an interconnected, moving system, an economy of movement. Attention concentrated on these points because several types of interests related to communal well-being converged there. The city was thus capable of absorbing shocks (war, floods) through regular maintenance and monitoring. Tracing public works that promoted mobility can therefore tell us much about power dynamics and how communities functioned in practice.
- Published
- 2022
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