Gehonoreerde voorstellen Urbanisatie & Stadscultuur

27 maart 2006

De beoordelingscommissie Urbanisatie & Stadscultuur heeft dertien uitgewerkte aanvragen voor subsidie ter beoordeling voorgelegd gekregen. De beoordelingscommissie heeft in februari 2006 een advies uitgebracht aan de programmacommissie Urbanisatie & Stadscultuur. De programmacommissie heeft in de vergadering van 23 februari het advies van de adviescommissie in zijn geheel overgenomen en 5 van de 7 subsidiabel geachte voorstellen gehonoreerd, te weten:

Prof.dr. D.E. H. de Boer (RUG) & prof.dr. B.A.M. Ramakers
The town as a `body Social`, 1350-1650

This proposal combines the three thematic fields of civitas, topos, and urbs by studying the dynamics of society as a ´body social´, within the context of the rapidly growing and changing urban communities of the (Northern) Netherlands during the late medieval and early modern period, through a multidisciplinary approach, including historical, literary and archaeological projects. The main components of this analysis are 1. social structure, compartmenting, and interaction, division of wealth and accessibility of social and medical care, 2. the development and expression of civic morality, self-understanding and -image, and 3. the material aspects of social care, welfare and wealth, as revealed through architectural and archaeological sources combined with historical data, probate inventories etc. The project starts around the year 1350, as from that moment on urban society begins to mature, the organisation of social care becomes visible in its different forms and sources become  increasingly available. The final year of ca. 1650 is chosen as around the middle of the 17th century the compartmenting of urban society for religious and social reasons tends to change. In all three envisaged studies the question whether urban society was able to see and express itself as one social body will be a central topic.

Prof. dr. J.E. Bosma (VU) & prof.dr. C.A. Davids (VU)
Stedelijke nevel: metamorfose van de noordflank van de Randstad in de twintigste eeuw  Urban nebula: metamorphosis of the northernrim of the randstad in the 20th century

This research project aims to analyze and explain the origins and course of a sweeping metamorphosis in Dutch urban landscapes in the 20th century, viz. a change from compact, relatively sharply delineated areas into a kind of urban `nebula´, where city and country are to a large extent intertwined. This urban nebula is a layered phenomenon which comprises morphological, economic, socio-political as well as cultural features. It is physical, social as well as symbolic by nature. A degree of coherence in this nebulous structure is constructed by collective arrangements for the use of urban space (ranging from policy interventions and designs to investments and conventions in visual representation and everyday and ritual use of public space), which exhibit both an intentional and an unintentional character. The focus of the research project is on the metamorphosis of the northern rim of the Randstad Holland during the 20th century. Changes in collective arrangements for the urban space are studied from four interrelated points of view: planning concepts, infrastructural networks, spatial and morphological structures and urban culture.

Prof. dr. R.C. Kloosterman (UvA) & prof.dr. M.R. Prak (UU)
Places and their Culture. The evolution of Dutch Cultural Industries from an International Perspective, 1600-200

Cultural industries are becoming ever more important as sources of employment and income in post-industrial cities. To compete, these cultural industries have to be innovative. Processes of innovation are contingent on historically formed local institutional contexts. The proposed study will (1) explore, from an evolutionary socio-economic perspective, the continuities and critical junctures in the development of the main cultural industries in Dutch cities, from this moment of path creation in the 17th century to the present time, and (2) examine, from this perspective, the evolution of the spatial division of labour in the cultural industries (a) between cities in the Netherlands and (b) in an international context.

Prof. dr. ir. B.E.J. De Meulder & Dr. ir. C.H. Doevendans (TUE)
Children and Migrant Entrepreneurs in the Maelstrom of Repressive Tolerance:
an Alternative History of the Dutch City

This research project aims to study the place of children and ethnic entrepreneurs in the Dutch city. The project will study the role of 'other spaces' in shaping the place given to or claimed by children and ethnic entrepreneurs, thereby exploring the capacity of space to mediate between conflicting forces that drive urban development. Concrete case studies of such 'other spaces' will be developed as exemplary stepping stones for the construction of another history of the Dutch City.

Prof. dr. F.C.W.J. Theuws (UvA) & prof.dr. A.J.A. Bijsterveld (UvT)
New towns as instruments of political, economic and cultural policy.
The case of the duchy of Brabant in the high and late middle ages

The expansion of the Duchy of Brabant, one of the most powerful late medieval territorial principalities in the Low Countries, has most often been explained as a political and military process. However, the dukes may have pursued economic objectives as well, for instance to develop the economic position of the towns in the heartland of the duchy (Leuven, Brussels) by adding new territories from which surpluses could be extracted, such as grain from the south and wool from the north. The creation of new towns in both the northern and the southern part of the duchy appears to have been an important instrument in this policy. The towns founded in the northern region probably served several objectives: integrating local aristocracies, developing an economic infrastructure in a region living off a subsistence economy, promoting the circulation of coins, implementing a tax system, and changing the social structure of the region. The towns’ subsequent development and the region’s changing economy during the 13th century had a profound impact on the culture and mentalities of the rural population. However, recent archaeological research shows that this town-country relationship is two-sided: there is no development of towns without (prior?) development of the countryside. This contradicts the traditional idea of the inertia and conservatism of the countryside as opposed to the dynamism of the town.
Until now the process of town-formation and -development, in relation to state development and major changes in the economic system, was mainly analyzed by historians. Archaeology has a lot to add to our knowledge of the process of town-formation and town-development as well as to our understanding of the major transformations in economic, social and cultural structures of town and countryside in the Late Middle Ages. Adding an archaeological perspective to the existing one will certainly change the overall interpretations of the rise, the development and nature of late-medieval towns. The case of Brabant, a town-landscape in its own right, certainly constitutes an exemplary example to demonstrate the importance of an interdisciplinary debate on these themes.