Assemblage theory and town foundation in Medieval England

Jervis, Ben ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5295-0647 2016. Assemblage theory and town foundation in Medieval England. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 26 (3) , pp. 381-395. 10.1017/S0959774316000159

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Abstract

It is proposed that our understanding of medieval town foundation is limited by a failure to appreciate that ‘town’ is a relational category. It is argued that urban character emerges from social relations, with some sets of social relationship revealing urbanity and others not, as places develop along distinctive, but related, trajectories. This argument is developed through the application of assemblage theory to the development of towns in thirteenth-century southern England. The outcome is a proposal that, by focusing on the social relations through which towns are revealed as a distinctive category of place, we can better comprehend why and how towns mattered in medieval society and develop a greater understanding of the relationship of urbanization to other social processes such as commercialization and associated changes in the countryside.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D111 Medieval History D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	0959-7743
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	14 February 2016
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2024 04:18
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/88257

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