urban history

人们常说，城市商业和工业成为中世纪和近代早期西欧早熟的经济增长的推动力，但我们的理解可以通过在公民社会的更广泛的社会背景下分析它们来进一步丰富。这个研究项目探讨了民间社会的起源，特别是影响欧洲主要城市中心公共和商业机构形成的正式和非正式力量。该项目的目的是加深我们对城市进程的历史理解，这种进程在快速工业化时代之前就已经出现了。

It is a commonplace to say that urban commerce and industry became the driving force of the precocious economic growth of Western Europe in the medieval and early modern periods, but our understanding can be further enriched by analysing them in the much wider social context of civic society. This research project explores the origins of civic society with particular reference to the formal and informal forces which affected the formation of public and commercial institutions in major urban centres in Europe. The aim of the project is to further our historical understanding of the urban process which emerged well before the age of rapid industrialization.