Bert De Munck | University of Antwerp (original) (raw)

Books by Bert De Munck

ABSTRACT http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472439871

Journal of Design History, 2016

Knowledge and the Early Modern City: A History of Entanglements, 2019

Knowledge and the Early Modern City uses case studies from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centur... more Knowledge and the Early Modern City uses case studies from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries to examine the relationships between knowledge and the city and how these changed in a period when the nature and conception of both was drastically transformed.

Both knowledge formation and the European city were increasingly caught up in broader institutional structures and regional and global networks of trade and exchange during the early modern period. Moreover, new ideas about the relationship between nature and the transcendent, as well as technological transformations, impacted upon both considerably. This book addresses the entanglement between knowledge production and the early modern urban environment while incorporating approaches to the city and knowledge in which both are seen as emerging from hybrid networks in which human and non-human elements continually interact and acquire meaning. It highlights how new forms of knowledge and new conceptions of the urban co-emerged in highly contingent practices, shedding a new light on present day ideas about the impact of cities on knowledge production and innovation.

Providing the ideal starting point for those seeking to understand the role of urban institutions, actors and spaces in the production of knowledge and the development of the so-called ‘modern’ knowledge society, this is the perfect resource for students and scholars of early modern history and knowledge.

Urbanizing Nature. Actors and Agency (Dis)Connecting Cities and Nature Since 1500, 2019

The intro discusses issues of city-nature relationships in Europe in a long-term perspective. Aft... more The intro discusses issues of city-nature relationships in Europe in a long-term perspective. After an initial survey of current concepts of scholarship in urban environmental history or socio-ecological research notions of urban metabolism, of changes in the material base of such metabolism are discussed. The text particularly challenges the notion of a 'gap' between the pre-modern and the modern city and highlight continuities and persistent issues in city-nature relations across this supposed 'gap'. It focuses on the role of the city as actor in reshaping natural environments as well as on the role of technology in the development of large technical networks mediating material exchanges between city and country. The intro closes with 'A 'Manifesto' for the HIstory of Urban Nature'.

This book presents a new view on the relation between labour and community through a focus on cra... more This book presents a new view on the relation between labour and community through a focus on craft guilds. In the Southern Netherlands,
occupational guilds were both powerful and governed by manufacturing
masters, enabling the latter to imprint their mark upon urban society in an economic, socio-cultural and political way. While the urban community was deeply indebted to a corporative spirit and guild ethic originating in medieval Germanic and Christian traditions, guild-based artisans succeeded in being accepted as genuine political (and, hence, rational) actors—their political identity and agency being based upon their skills and trustworthiness.

In the long run, this corporative spirit and power inexorably waned, being
replaced by what has been called European modernity—i.e., proletarianisation and the emergence of a modern economy and modern economic and political thinking. This book shows that an adequate understanding thereof requires to take into account the fundamental entanglement and co-emergence of economic and political transformations with cultural, intellectual and epistemological ones. Corporatism became discredited in a process in which the economic was separated from the political, the individual from the social, and the transcendent from the material. In this context the guild-based artisans’ labour and skills became separated from the urban body politic again. While the religiously inspired corporative nature of the urban body politic waned, the urban artisans lost their credibility as political (and
rational) actors.

This volume critically challenges the current creative city debate from a historical perspective.... more This volume critically challenges the current creative city debate from a historical perspective. In the last two decades, urban studies has been engulfed by a creative city narrative in which concepts like the creative economy, the creative class or creative industries proclaim the status of the city as the primary site of human creativity and innovation. So far, however, nobody has challenged the core premise underlying this narrative, asking why we automatically have to look at cities as being the agents of change and innovation. What processes have been at work historically before the predominance of cities in nurturing creativity and innovation was established? In order to tackle this question, the editors of this volume have collected case studies ranging from Renaissance Firenze and sixteenth-century Antwerp to early modern Naples, Amsterdam, Bologna, Paris, to industrializing Sheffield and nineteenth-and twentieth century cities covering Scandinavian port towns, Venice, and London, up to the French techno-industrial city Grenoble. Jointly, these case studies show that a creative city is not an objective or ontological reality, but rather a complex and heterogenic "assemblage," in which material, infrastructural and spatial elements become historically entangled with power-laden discourses, narratives and imaginaries about the city and urban actor groups.

The dominance of economic repertories of value is a relatively new phenomenon, and one which dire... more The dominance of economic repertories of value is a relatively new phenomenon, and one which directly correlates to the steady advent of capitalism in early modern Europe. This volume brings together scholars with expertise in a variety of related fields, including economic history, the history of consumption and material culture, art history, and the history of collecting, to explore changing concepts of value from the early modern period to the nineteenth century and present a new view on the advent of modern economic practices. Jointly, they fundamentally challenge traditional historical narratives about the rise of our contemporary market economy and consumer society.

Papers by Bert De Munck

Theory and Society, 2021

This paper argues that historical research on late medieval and early modern craft guilds fails t... more This paper argues that historical research on late medieval and early modern craft guilds fails to escape teleological and anachronistic views, including when they are addressed as commons or ‘institutions for collective action’. These present-day conceptual lenses do not only create idealized views on guilds, but also of the contexts in which they operated, especially the state and the market. This is especially the case with neo-institutional views on the commons, which fall back on a transhistorical rational actor, who can choose between three options for the allocation of resources and surpluses, namely the state, the market and the common. The paper shows that guilds were fundamentally entangled with both the state and the market and that their ethic implied a less utilitarian and instrumental attitude towards natural resources. The consequence of this is that the history of the guilds offers different lessons to present-day commoners than those implied by present-day research....

Ecologists and environmentalists have tried to interfere in the debate about the COVID-19 pandemi... more Ecologists and environmentalists have tried to interfere in the debate about the COVID-19 pandemic with the aim of transcending the approaches of virologists and epidemiologists. While the views of...

Het broodje gebakken? Huwelijksstrategieën en partnerkeuze van bakkers(kinderen) te Brussel in de... more Het broodje gebakken? Huwelijksstrategieën en partnerkeuze van bakkers(kinderen) te Brussel in de overgang van het Ancien Régime naar de negentiende eeuw * Inleiding Huwelijksstrategieën, huwelijkspatronen, partnerkeuze, sociale mobiliteit, (sociale) endogamie en exogamie … allen werden al omstandig bestudeerd binnen zeer verscheiden geografi sche, chronologische en disciplinaire kaders. Vaak vertrekt het eerder gevoerde onderzoek daarbij van de consensus dat de keuze van een huwelijkspartner in de vroegmoderne periode niet in de eerste plaats door liefde was ingegeven, maar wel omwille van sociale en economische redenen ten behoeve van de familiale status en het in stand houden en overdragen van het eigen bedrijf. 1 Tot dusver werd echter voornamelijk gefocust op elitefamilies op het platteland waar de continuïteit van het familiefortuin voorop stond. De intergenerationele strategieën van stedelijke middengroepen werden meestal onderzocht vanuit het perspectief van de ambachten en de structurerende rol die deze zouden hebben gespeeld. 2 Meer en meer wordt echter duidelijk dat de rol van corporatieve organisaties niet mag worden overschat. 3 Recent onderzoek lijkt niet alleen uit te wijzen dat ze minder gesloten waren dan lang gedacht, 4 er zijn zelfs aanwijzingen dat de continuïteit van een bedrijf binnen eenzelfde familie meer een negentiende-eeuws ('bourgeois') dan een achttiende-eeuws fenomeen zou zijn. Zo was volgens Josef Ehmer occupational continuity net het gevolg van industrialisering en de toenemende concentratie van kapitaal in bepaalde sectoren. 5 Het kan daarom interessant zijn rechtstreeks te focussen op de huwelijksstrategieën van stedelijke middengroepen op het einde van het Ancien Régime en het begin van de negentiende eeuw. Welke strategieën hanteerden achttiende-en negentiende-eeuwse kleine producenten en kleinhandelaars in het doorgeven en veilig stellen van hun patri-* Dit artikel is gebaseerd op Ellen Burms licentiaatsthesis, die geschreven werd aan de vub in het academiejaar 2005-2006 (E. Burm, 'Van vader op zoon? Een prosopografi sch onderzoek naar de professionele continuïteit van bakkers te Brussel in de achttiende eeuw', Onuitgegeven licentiaatsverhandeling, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2006.) Onze dank gaat uit naar Hugo Soly, de promotor en inspirator van de thesis. 1 M. Mitterauer en R. Sieder, The European family. Patriarchy to partnership from the middle ages to the present (Oxford 1982) 122.

Historische Sozialforschung = Historical social research / Zentrum für Historische Sozialforschung, Köln in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Informationszentrum Sozialwissenschaften, Bonn

This articles addresses the issue of conventions from the perspective of the early modern guilds’... more This articles addresses the issue of conventions from the perspective of the early modern guilds’ regulations on product quality. Starting from the ideas of François Eymard-Duvernay one specific convention is identified, i.e. ‘intrinsic value’. This convention enabled guild-based artisans to locate product quality in their political standing and, hence, was intimately linked to the (urban) political context. While this may be familiar to the ideas on ‘justification’ of Boltanski and Thévenot, the historical analysis reveals fundamental conceptual problems. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, both the convention of intrinsic value and the guilds’ power to define product quality became obsolete because of epistemological transformations. While intrinsic value as a convention was connected to the idea of matter possessing mysterious, religious and creative powers in itself, natural philosophers and artisans naturalized matter from the seventeenth century on. As a result, value...

Historische Sozialforschung = Historical social research / Zentrum für Historische Sozialforschung, Köln in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Informationszentrum Sozialwissenschaften, Bonn

This essay proceeds from the field of tension between the synchronical approach of the economics ... more This essay proceeds from the field of tension between the synchronical approach of the economics of convention and the diachronical approach of economic anthropology (in the tradition of Karl Polanyi). It is argued that the economics of convention remain problematic to historians in that they fail to capture the long term transformations traditionally referred to as the emergence of modernity and the coming about of homo economicus. As a possible solution, the use of concepts and insights from Actor Network Theory is defended. While this cluster of theories enables an historical perspective without considering modernity as a natural process, it confronts changing relationships between subjects, objects and cultural systems of meaning head on.

Social Science History, 2017

Civil society is widely considered as a crucial element in contemporary society. Academics and po... more Civil society is widely considered as a crucial element in contemporary society. Academics and policy makers have traditionally associated it with voluntary associations and organizations, assuming that associational life is an ideal intermediary between citizens and government. While members of associations form large social networks, which they can mobilize at critical moments, the conviviality of group sociability fosters the development of a set of common values, such as a democratic political culture and other civic virtues. Its origins are generally situated in the eighteenth century, and are mostly attributed to secularization, Enlightenment thinking, the birth of the “public sphere,” and growing emancipation from oppressive structures such as the church and the state.

Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences

A clear definition of artisanal knowledge is difficult to present, as it is a contested field dur... more A clear definition of artisanal knowledge is difficult to present, as it is a contested field during the early modern period. Today artisanal knowledge is often referred to with the term "craft," but as Glenn Adamson (2013) has rightfully argued, this originates in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century, when craftsmanship was considered the "other" of "modernity," Following Adamson (2013: xiii), craft emerged as "a coherent idea" and as a "defined terrain" only in opposition to industrialization: "Craft was not a static backdrop against which industry emerged (.. .), the two were created alongside one another, each defined

Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences

Trajecta, 2008

The I9th century saw the laying of the foundations of contemporary monument conservation. The deb... more The I9th century saw the laying of the foundations of contemporary monument conservation. The debate arose around preserving and restoring patrimony, and words were put into action. Two important parties, each with their own views, opposed each other in the story ...

Conservar Património

The relationship between bibliographic and archival research, on the one hand, and object-based s... more The relationship between bibliographic and archival research, on the one hand, and object-based study, on the other, forms a very important basis for research into historical production techniques. Several written sources provide insight into the recipes for dyeing black in the past. Yet, this does not guarantee that these written recipes are representative of an entire society or were used in the dyers practice. The way to assess how closely practical dyeing and written sources are aligned entail the chemical analysis of historical textiles. This article focuses on the identification of the ingredients used to dye wool black in the case of well-preserved and dated (1650-1850) historical textiles from five Belgian archives and some remaining historical artefacts. The results are compared with the technical knowledge of dyeing and the ingredients mentioned in written sources from the same period. The aim is to refine the knowledge of the different black dye ingredients used in practice in Northwest Europe during the period. Resumo A relação entre a investigação bibliográfica e arquivística e a investigação baseada em objectos históricos constitui um ponto de partida fundamental para o estudo de antigas técnicas de produção. Várias fontes documentais dão uma imagem de como se tingia de preto no passado. Contudo, nada garante que estas receitas sejam representativas de uma sociedade no seu todo ou que fossem praticadas pelos próprios tintureiros. A análise química de têxteis históricos constitui um método eficaz para verificar a proximidade entre práticas de tingimento e fontes documentais. Este artigo foca-se na identificação dos ingredientes usados no tingimento de lã com cor preta num conjunto de têxteis históricos datados (1650-1850) e em excelente estado de conservação de cinco arquivos belgas e noutros objectos históricos. Os resultados são comparados com o saber tecnológico associado aos métodos de tingimento e aos ingredientes descritos segundo as fontes documentais da época. O objectivo é o de afinar o conhecimento sobre os ingredientes usados no tingimento de preto no noroeste da Europa durante o período em questão.

Geoforum

This paper proceeds from the observation that critical approaches to the present-day disparagemen... more This paper proceeds from the observation that critical approaches to the present-day disparagement of craftsmanship often invoke an idealized image of the early modern artisan as basically the other of modernity. While Richard Florida and others reduce talent and creativity to the cerebral capacity to invent cutting-edge products in the context of the global knowledge economy, the late medieval and early modern counterpart of this is considered to be an autonomous artisan focused on the quality of work for its own sake. This is unfortunate because the critical potential of the historical view thus remains untapped. Recent historical insights show that the intellectual and political claims implicit in the work and strategies of late medieval and early modern artisans have a far more radical potential. This becomes clear especially when considering not only the work of social and economic historians (focused on labour) and historians of technology, but also intellectual historians, art historians and historians of science. They have recently unearthed an 'artisanal epistemology' in which the creative capacity of late medieval artisans was not limited to the instrumental invention of new products and technologies but gave access to God's wisdom and truth and was akin to creating new ways of being. The political potential thereof is illustrated with the political struggles of manufacturing guilds, which in spite of contemporary ideologies sometimes succeeded in being accepted as valuable and rational political actors notwithstanding having to work with their hands. The most fruitful conceptual approaches emerging from this work are based on Foucauldian notions of power and governmentality, in which the economic, the political and the epistemological dimensions are considered to be intimately entangled.

ABSTRACT http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472439871

Journal of Design History, 2016

Knowledge and the Early Modern City: A History of Entanglements, 2019

Urbanizing Nature. Actors and Agency (Dis)Connecting Cities and Nature Since 1500, 2019

Theory and Society, 2021

Historische Sozialforschung = Historical social research / Zentrum für Historische Sozialforschung, Köln in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Informationszentrum Sozialwissenschaften, Bonn

Social Science History, 2017

Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences

Trajecta, 2008

Conservar Património

Geoforum

Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis/ The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History

De disciplinering van leerlingen onder het dak van Antwerpse ambachtsmeesters (1579-1680) 1 tijds... more De disciplinering van leerlingen onder het dak van Antwerpse ambachtsmeesters (1579-1680) 1 tijdschrift voor sociale en economische geschiedenis 1 [2004] nr. 3 pp. 3-30 1. Met dank voor de (anonieme) commentaren van de redactie op een eerdere versie van dit artikel. 2. Bijvoorbeeld M. Macdonald en T. Murphy, Sleepless souls: suicide in early modern England

Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine, 2007

Recevez des alertes automatiques relatives à cet article. ... Depuis une vingtaine d'années,... more Recevez des alertes automatiques relatives à cet article. ... Depuis une vingtaine d'années, on ne voit plus les corporations de métier comme des organisations régressives, fermées et anachroniques, mais plutôt comme des ensembles dynamiques et flexibles régulant les ...

Technologies of Learning, 2007

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 0030923010370303, Jul 28, 2006

ABSTRACT The transition from the Ancient Regime to the contemporary period was often regarded as ... more ABSTRACT The transition from the Ancient Regime to the contemporary period was often regarded as the transition from a “selective” to a “productive” mode of professional training. The problem, however, is that the product of education is imprisoned in arbitrary practices of signification and cannot be considered objectively. This theoretical conclusions result from researching the genesis of the Academy of fine arts in Antwerp. The creation of the academy in 1663 did not rise from a failed formation on the shop floor or the emergence of an “enlightened” conscience concerning the tranfer of abilities and knowledge. Via teachers, masters and professors, arbitrary and subjective appreciations–on art and the producers of art–were objectified. The difference between the formation offered by the academy and the formation in the corporative workshop had thus nothing to do with the advent of social mobility. Preliminary selection was more important than meritocratic tendencies, and the logic behind the evaluation of the pupils by means of contests aimed at creating or sharpening differences.*Avec mes remerciements sincères au professeur Carl van de Velde et aux évaluateurs anonymes de cette revue pour leurs commentaires sur une version antérieure du présent article.

This article contributes to the debate about the early modern craft guilds' rationale through the... more This article contributes to the debate about the early modern craft guilds' rationale through the lens of apprenticeship. Based on a case study of the Antwerp manufacturing guilds, it argues that apprenticeship should be understood from the perspective of 'distributional conflicts'. Fixed terms of service and masterpieces guarded the guilds' labour market monopsony, enabling masters to distribute the available skilled and unskilled labour among members (among other ways, through the restriction of the number of apprentices per master). Although from the perspective of product quality, this may have enabled masters to prevent adverse selection, the introduction of standardized apprenticeship requirements was the result of social and rent-seeking concerns.

Urban History, 2016

Few theories have left their mark on urban studies to the extent that Actor-Network Theory (ANT) ... more Few theories have left their mark on urban studies to the extent that Actor-Network Theory (ANT) has in the last few decades. Its background in Science and Technology Studies (STS), its critique of the explanatory value of such abstractions as ‘class’ and ‘society’ and its efforts to transcend society/nature and local/global binarisms inevitably challenged conventional views on cities, urbanization and urban phenomena. Economic and Marxist approaches to the city in particular have been challenged, at least to the extent that they invoke the explanatory force of the economy or capitalism as a global social system and, thus, fall back upon the binarisms under attack from ANT. The network approach questioned architectonic explanatory models (substructure vs. superstructure) and deepened our understanding of actors and agency (both emerging from networks of humans and non-humans). However, ANT has always been subject to criticism too.

Navigating History: Economy, Society, Knowledge, and Nature

Les gouvernements urbains soutiennent precocement un enseignement degage du monopole ecclesiastiq... more Les gouvernements urbains soutiennent precocement un enseignement degage du monopole ecclesiastique. Des ecoles de differents niveaux sont accessibles, diffusant une alphabetisation de base, y compris chez les filles. La connaissance des langues est repandue. Les ecoles pour pauvres disciplinent la jeunesse populaire. Les corporations surveillent l’apprentissage. Les groupes sociaux intermediaires s’approprient un humanisme en langue vulgaire grâce a l’activite des chambres de rhetorique.

... Inleiding. Koster, De, Margo; Munck, de, Bert; Greefs, Hilde; Willems, Bart; Winter, Anne (in... more ... Inleiding. Koster, De, Margo; Munck, de, Bert; Greefs, Hilde; Willems, Bart; Winter, Anne (in: Werken aan de stad : stedelijke actoren en structuren in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden, 1500-1900 : liber alumnorum Catharina Lis en Hugo Soly / Koster, De, Margo [edit.]; ea; 2011). ...

Concepts of Value in European Material Culture, 1500-1900, 2016

City and Society in the Low Countries, 1100–1600

A Cultural History of Work in the Renaissance (1450-1650) (London: Bloomsbury, 2018)., 2019

Cities and Creativity from the Renaissance to the Present

Ilja Van Damme, Bert De Munck and Andrew Miles (eds), Cities and Creativity from the Renaissance to the Present (New York: Routledge), 2017

It is often assumed by economic geographers and economic historians that cities foster innovation... more It is often assumed by economic geographers and economic historians that cities foster innovation and creativity on account of their very nature. Our chapter sets out to denaturalize and historicize this assumption by focusing on the way in which such views have emerged from the history of Renaissance cities. To that end, we will connect the history of Renaissance myth-making to the economic fate of the cities while taking into account the constructed and conventional character of product quality. Comparing Italian cities with cities in the Low Countries, we argue that the renown and fame of Renaissance artisans and artists resulted from discourses and power-knowledge formations in which urban actor groups claimed to be making superior products. These actor groups not only enforced urban monopolies on the production of high quality products in a military and political way, but they also constructed product quality by connecting it to the urban context in a material and discursive way. Thus, the skills and knowledge of the artisans and artists involved became intricately bound to the imagined qualities of the cities they worked and lived in. While the connection between urban ideology and economic self-understanding runs through the perception and assessment of the value of products, the perceived superiority of certain cities became inseparable from the perceived superiority of specific skills and talents of specific urban groups – and vice versa.

Introduction to the volume Ilja Van Damme, Bert De Munck and Andrew Miles (eds), Cities and Creat... more Introduction to the volume Ilja Van Damme, Bert De Munck and Andrew Miles (eds), Cities and Creativity from the Renaissance to the Present (New York: Routledge, 2017). In it, we analyze the historical fabrication of creative cities on both a discursive and material level, thus criticizing the often deterministic, a-historical and essentialist approaches of economists, economic geographers and political scientists.

This introduction to the book Concepts of Value in European Material Culture, 1500–1900 addresses... more This introduction to the book Concepts of Value in European Material Culture, 1500–1900 addresses the issue of ‘value’ from a broad multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary perspective, including concepts from economic sociology and anthropology. We plead for a pragmatic approach and the importance of such underused theories and concepts in economic history and the history of material culture as the economics of convention and actor-network theory. With the help of these concepts and the chapters in the book, we point at different conceptions of value emerging in different institutional contexts and in different economic networks. Ultimately, changing conceptions of value are connected to broader historical transformations from the late middle ages through the nineteenth century.

Historical Perspectives on Apprenticeships, 2007

This is the introduction to a volume on changing conceptions of value in the pre-industrial and i... more This is the introduction to a volume on changing conceptions of value in the pre-industrial and industrial period. To date, the issue of value has mostly been addressed by historians investigating material culture and consumer preferences, who tend to lean on sociological concepts like ‘emulation’, ‘conspicuous consumption’ and 'distinction'. These concepts often imply a shift from a situation in which material culture consolidates and reproduces the status quo of a society of orders, to a situation in which material culture, through innovation and fashion, helps dislodge these same orders. In anthropological terms, this is a shift from a patronage and gift economy to commodity exchange. Moreover, historical literature on material culture larges reduces value to a semiotic problem. The cultural turn, and post-structuralism in particular, has induced an approach in which objects are regarded as ‘signs’ and value is generally synonymous with meaning.
Either way, historical approaches risk constructing teleological views.
Our book therefore adopts a pragmatic approach and a focus on historically contingent repertoires and practices of evaluation. With the help of the economics of convention and actor-network theory we shed an entirely new light on the advent of modern market exchange and long term transformations related to the valuation of products and services. The introduction explains the added value of our approach and presents and assesses the results of the separate book chapters.

This chapter examines the poor relief provisions of the Antwerp guilds from the perspective of bo... more This chapter examines the poor relief provisions of the Antwerp guilds from the perspective of both Katherine Lynch’s ideas on community building and Antony Black’s insights into the so-called ‘guild ethos’ for a period in which market forces appear to have overpowered the egalitarian ideals of the guilds. It is analyzed whether installing poor boxes was part of a strategy to guard the ‘guild ethos’ and to preserve the guild as a community in this period of rupture. My argument is that the foundation of poor boxes by craft guilds does not fit into the frame of community building, at least not if we understand ‘community’ in terms of ‘brotherhood’ or ‘confraternity’. In my view, rather than a device aimed at materialising community building ideas, the guilds’ poor relief schemes were the result of a disappearing guild ethos – i.e., disappearing notions of confraternity and (especially) equality. In the end, mutuality seems to have been fiscalized (i.e., paid with revenues transferred from private individuals to a public fund), not simply as the result of state formation, but within the guilds itself – the guilds being part of the state apparatus on the urban level.

Late medieval and early modern cities are often depicted as cradles of artistic creativity and ho... more Late medieval and early modern cities are often depicted as cradles of artistic creativity and hotbeds of new material culture. Cities in Renaissance Italy and in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century northwestern Europe are the most obvious cases in point. But, how did this come about? Contributors to this volume set out to analyze whether, in what context and why regulation or deregulation influenced innovation and creativity in late medieval and early modern cities, and what the impact was of long-term changes in the political and economic sphere.

Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis/ The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, 2008

Met zijn bekroonde doctoraatsverhandeling over het zestiende-eeuwse Gent heeft Johan Dambruyne ee... more Met zijn bekroonde doctoraatsverhandeling over het zestiende-eeuwse Gent heeft Johan Dambruyne een lang bestaande lacune in het historisch onderzoek weten te vullen. Eerder verscheen al een doorwrochte economische analyse (in 2001 verscheen Mensen en centen. Het 16de-eeuwse Gent in demografisch en economisch perspectief), in de voorliggende turf wordt de Gentse ambachtswereld diepgaand onderzocht. Dambruyne streeft hierbij niet naar uitputtendheid maar wel synthese en bekijkt daartoe de zestiende-eeuwse Arteveldestad vanuit een dubbel perspectief: enerzijds en vooral de corporatieve middengroepen-of beter: de ambachten-anderzijds de fundamentele politiekinstitutionele transformaties uit die tijd. De vergelijking tussen de vier perioden afgebakend door de Concessio Carolina (1540) en de calvinistische republiek (1577-1584), die voor de niet-ingewijde lezer iets ruimer geduid had mogen worden, staat centraal in elk van de analyses. En dat zijn er wel wat, getuige de 221 tabellen, 44 grafieken en 39 bijlagen op liefst 884 pagina's. Gewapend met een groot aantal semi-prosopografische en uitgesproken kwantitatieve gegevens geeft Dambruyne originele en fundamentele bijdragen tot een beter begrip van de pre-industriële stedelijke samenleving. Achtereenvolgens werpt hij licht op de eenheid en (vooral) diversiteit binnen de ambachten op bedrijfstechnisch, financieel en materieel gebied (hoofdstuk 1); de steeds wisselende toegangsmogelijkheden tot het meester-en dekenschap (2); de Gentse fiscale stratificaties en strategieën (3); de politieke machtsverdeling en bestuurmobiliteit in de vele geledingen van het stadsbestuur (4); tot slot de politieke en sociale (in)stabiliteit binnen de ambachten en de bredere Gentse stedelijke maatschappij (5). Tegen deze achtergrond kan Corporatieve middengroepen als volgt in grote lijnen samengevat worden. In de eerste plaats kan de invloed van de keizerlijke bemoeienissen in de stad moeilijk overschat worden. Voor de ambachten, traditioneel particularistisch en bovendien ijzersterk politiek vertegenwoordigd in het welbekende regime der drie leden, betekende 1540 een fundamenteel breekpunt. Karel v versnipperde toen niet alleen de politieke macht van de meesters, ook het financiële en materiële kapitaal waarop zij hun identiteit en prestige grondvestten werd de ambachten onder de voeten weggemaaid. Dat de meest krachtdadige (re)acties tijdens de kortstondige calvinistische republiek op het conto van net de ambachtsmeesters geschreven kan worden, mag in dit licht dan ook niet verbazen. Deze transformatie betekende trouwens geenszins, zoals tot nu toe abuisievelijk aangenomen, dat de ambachten geen politieke macht meer uitoefenden na 1540. In de schepenbanken en lagere bestuursapparaten figureerden de meesters nog steeds prominent, vaak zelfs dominant. Naast de rechtstreekse afschaffing van het regime der drie leden, trachtte de Habsburgse

17 september, 2020

Het is tijd om de kritiek op het coronabeleid een plaats in het politieke landschap te geven en p... more Het is tijd om de kritiek op het coronabeleid een plaats in het politieke landschap te geven en politiek te vertolken, vindt Bert De Munck.

'Nu de meest acute corona-dreiging achter de rug lijkt, vragen steeds meer mensen zich af wat COV... more 'Nu de meest acute corona-dreiging achter de rug lijkt, vragen steeds meer mensen zich af wat COVID-19 nu precies aan onze samenleving veranderd zal hebben en of het een 'game changer' geweest zal zijn', schrijft professor Bert De Munck.

De huidige crisis toont aan dat onze hang naar zekerheid en naar controle over ziekte en gezondhe... more De huidige crisis toont aan dat onze hang naar zekerheid en naar controle over ziekte en gezondheid op z'n grenzen stoot, en veel weg heeft van therapeutische hardnekkigheid op collectief niveau', schrijft professor Bert De Munck.

De coronapandemie maakt volgens Bert De Munck pijnlijk duidelijk dat er grenzen zijn aan het voor... more De coronapandemie maakt volgens Bert De Munck pijnlijk duidelijk dat er grenzen zijn aan het vooruitgangsdenken en aan de strijd tegen ziekte en dood.

Het virus is geen natuurwet Een natuurlijk organisme als een virus maakte altijd deel uit van ons... more Het virus is geen natuurwet Een natuurlijk organisme als een virus maakte altijd deel uit van ons bestaan, schrijft Bert De Munck. Waarom zijn we virussen als collectieve vijand gaan ervaren?

BERT DE MUNCK Wie? Wetenschapshistoricus (UAntwerpen). Wat? We moeten weten-schappelijke logi... more BERT DE MUNCK

Wie? Wetenschapshistoricus (UAntwerpen).

Wat? We moeten weten-schappelijke logica's in vraag durven te stellen, zeker als ze leiden tot maatregelen die we als samenleving niet kunnen tolereren.

in: BERTELS, Inge, DE MUNCK, Bert en VAN GOETHEM, Herman (eds.), Antwerpen. Biografie van een stad, Antwerpen, Meulenhoff/Manteau, pp. 245-273., 2010

In dit hoofdstuk wordt het collectief verzet aan de Antwerpse haven gekaderd in een lange traditi... more In dit hoofdstuk wordt het collectief verzet aan de Antwerpse haven gekaderd in een lange traditie van sociale organisatie en collectieve actie, gaande van de ambachten en gezellenverenigingen in het ancien régime tot de moderne vakbonden. De rode draad van dit hoofdstuk is tweeledig. Enerzijds bekijken we wat de specificiteit van Antwerpen was en vergelijken we met andere steden, zowel in België als in het buitenland. Anderzijds gaan we na of er continuïteit was tussen het ancien régime en de moderne periode. De Franse revolutie kunnen we immers beschouwen als een radicaal breukmoment, maar verschillende structuren, praktijken en vertogen uit de ambachtswereld overleefden tot in de twintigste eeuw. Zo werden sommige ambachten en gezellenverenigingen opnieuw opgericht als hulpkassen voor onderlinge bijstand. In het discours van zowel de katholieke en de socialistische arbeidersbeweging als van de organisaties voor kleine zelfstandigen werd de middeleeuwse 'gildentijd' geïdealiseerd als een gouden tijdperk. Voor socialisten waren de ambachten een vorm van basisdemocratie waarmee arbeiders hun rechten verdedigden tegenover patriciërs (lokale bestuurders en handelaars). Hun interpretatie stond in het teken van de klassenstrijd. Het zogenaamde 'corporatisme' van de christelijke arbeidersbeweging daarentegen zag in de ambachten een vorm van klassenverzoening tussen werkgevers en werknemers. Zowel katholieken als socialisten gaven een nieuwe, moderne betekenis aan een oude praktijk met de bedoeling om zichzelf te legitimeren als de echte vertegenwoordigers van de arbeiders. Bij alle structuren, praktijken en vertogen uit de ambachtswereld die het ancien régime overleefden, moeten we ons dan ook de vraag stellen in hoeverre er reële continuïteit was tussen de laatste ambachten, gezellenverenigingen en naties (zoals de ambachten aan de Antwerpse haven heetten) vóór 1795 en de eerste hulpkassen erna. Jammer genoeg laat de huidige stand van het onderzoek niet toe deze vraag te beantwoorden. Wat wel kan, is speuren naar overeenkomsten en verschilpunten tussen enerzijds verenigingen van handwerkslieden in het ancien régime en anderzijds de moderne middenstands- en arbeidersbewegingen en het zogenaamde neo-corporatistische overlegmodel die in de negentiende en twintigste eeuw tot stand kwamen. In dit hoofdstuk geven we daar, met bijzondere aandacht voor Antwerpen, een aanzet toe.

This session examines the long term shift away from productive activities in cities in an interdi... more This session examines the long term shift away from productive activities in cities in an interdisciplinary and integrated way. The aim is to provide insight into the conditions of this shift beyond changing consumer preferences and economies of scale and agglomeration by taking into account transformations related to i.a. infrastructure, planning, policy making and technologies of governance.

While productive activities dominated the urban economic landscape in most of the pre-industrial period, modern (European) cities experienced a long term economic shift towards consumption, leisure, tourism, services and cultural industries from roughly the eighteenth century on. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the increasing dominance of non-productive activities in cities resulted in a rift between working and living and working and leisure, an increasing need for transport, spatial segregation, gentrification, etcetera. Today, urban policy makers and planners as well as other local urban stakeholders increasingly call for a return of physical production in the city. Proceeding from a preoccupation with sustainability and the short circuit economy, a more social economy and better labour market participation, they specifically point at the importance of such small-scale activities as craftsmanship and handwork, recycling and repairing, and urban farming and local food processing. The problem is that such a return is difficult to plan and steer, because it is contingent on many economic, geographic and infrastructural conditions.

Ideally, urban historians should be able to help out and provide insight, but they often fail to do so because they haven’t addressed these conditions head on. The shift towards consumption, leisure, services and cultural production is all too often seen as a natural process, resulting from changing consumer preferences (and the need for shops), technological evolutions (resulting in the concentration of productive activities in manufactories) or simply the penetration of Smithian economies of scale and agglomeration. Other such factors as infrastructure and architecture, transport systems, planning, and regulations and policy making have not been systematically addressed – and an integrated approach is altogether lacking. Our session therefore presents case studies in which the economic transformations in individual cities and urban districts are addressed with an eye at multi-causality, historical contingency and the broader issue of governmentality. Conceptually, we start from an approach in which such classic economic factors as consumer preferences, relative prices and the spatial distribution of capital are confronted with the city as a hybrid socio-technical and material-cultural assemblage in which economic transformations are deeply entangled with infrastructural, social, political, and cultural dimensions.

Journal of Social History

One of the standard objections against guilds in the premodern world has been their exclusiveness... more One of the standard objections against guilds in the premodern world has been their exclusiveness. Guilds have been portrayed as providing unfair advantages to the children of established masters and locals, over immigrants and other outsiders. Privileged access to certain professions and industries is seen as a source of inequality and a disincentive for technological progress. In this paper we examine this assumption by studying the composition of guild masters and apprentices from a large sample of European towns and cities from 1600 to 1800, focusing on the share who were children of masters or locals. This data offers an indirect measurement of the strength of guild barriers, and by implication their monopolies. We find very wide variation between guilds in practice, but most guild masters and apprentices were immigrants or unrelated locals: openness was much more common than closure, especially in larger centres. Our understanding of guild ‘monopolies’ and exclusivity is in need of serious revision.

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