Power and Urban Space in Pre-Modern Holland

Arenas of Appropriation in the Netherlands, 1500-1850

Clé Lesger

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781350412378
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350412392
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early Modern History
• Index: History

Cities and urban societies have many faces. In this study, the pre-modern cities of Holland are presented as arenas where power relations between social classes are expressed in a more or less permanent appropriation of physical space and through discursive strategies. The continuity of the power relations in the cities of Holland, spanning centuries, makes it urgent to look not only at the assumption of urban space as an expression of power relations within society, but also at the contribution of this appropriation to the acceptance and continuity of the existing power relations in pre-modern Holland.

Within this broad area, extensive attention is paid to: the very prominent and enduring appropriation of urban space in the field of housing; the less permanent, but violent appropriation of urban space during the public execution of scaffold punishments; the maintenance of public order by civic militias; and appropriation during riots and revolts. In addition, city descriptions, maps and pictures of the pre-modern cities of Holland are scrutinised for what they can reveal about the appropriation of urban spaces. These themes each have an extensive historiography, but they have never been brought together in an interpretative framework that fits in with Pierre Bourdieu's model of society and the work – of especially John Allen – on power until now.

Table of contents

• Cover\
• Half-Title\
• Dedication\
• Title\
• Contents\
• List of Figures\
• List of Maps\
• List of Tables\
• Preface\
• Acknowledgements\
• Introduction: Resources, power and the appropriation of urban space in pre-modern Holland\
• 1 Inequality and power relations in the cities of Holland\
• 2 Residential appropriation of urban space in the first half of the nineteenth century\
• 3 Resources, power and residential appropriation of urban space\
• 4 Power, theatrical violence and ephemeral appropriation of urban space\
• 5 Discursive appropriation of urban space\
• Conclusion: Power relations and appropriation of urban space in pre-modern Holland\
• Appendix: Patterns of residential differentiation in the cities of Holland, fourteenth–nineteenth centuries\
• Notes\
• Bibliography\
• Index\
• Copyright\