FP6 priority

1.1.7   Citizens and Governance in a Knowledge-based society

1.7.2

Title of the proposal

Cities as Places of Religious and Social Changes in Early Modern and Modern Europe

Institute

Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Historical Sciences
Klemensova 19, 81364 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Contact

Research subject for a potential FP6 project

Cities and towns became in Early modern and Modern Europe the places where the great deal of religious , social, economic and cultural changes occurred. Among various types of cities (capitals, residential cities, commercial centres etc) those in the region of Central Europe have not belonged to the most influential ones with a crucial impact on the developments of the whole area. However, even though they were very small in term of the growth they all together created a complex system with the specific institutional framework (like the free royal or mine cities in Hungary), specific political influence (during the controversies between the rulers and estates in 16^th-17^th centuries), culture or even self-consciousness (evident e.g. in the structures of the religious life). Taking the situation of the Habsburg monarchy in 16^th till 19^th centuries into account we can admit that despite the economic and political weakness of the towns within the society and political system they had a chance to become the means in the hands of the state to re-organize the social or political life. This process was evident in the forms of interferences of the state institutions into the religious life and map through the ownership of the „urban soil“ by the ruler and manipulating the process of creation of the city councils, implementing the specific laws or theories, establishing the new school system etc. On the other hand, the density of the places with the city rights is remarkable even in the circumstances of Central Europe and it would be of interest to compare the situation with the results of the similar research in other regions.

The cities were places where the urbanization and the exchange of the population (religious emigrants, immigrants from the countryside including the nobility) have taken place since 16th century as well. In other words the cities became the centres of the social mobility with its various cultural, institutional and mental connotations. The aim of the project would be to compare the developments in the various regions of Europe in the indicated period and to distinguish the place of those in Central Europe.

Recent international cooperation of the research team

Austrian Academy of Sciences/Historical Commission, Vienna, Austria
Institute of Historical Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

Proposer´s relevant publications related to the research subject

-Evanjelicke a.v. spolocenstvo v 18. storoci. Hlavne problemy jeho vyvoja a fungovania v spolocnosti (The Evangelical A.C. Community in 18^th Century. The Main Problems of Its Development and Functioning within the Society). Bratislava, Veda 2001, 220 pp
-Statne ludove skolstvo na Slovensku na prelome 18. a 19. storocia (The State Public School System on the Eve of 19th Century). Bratislava, Veda 1987, 184 pp
-A Concise History of Slovakia. Ed. by Elena Mannova. Bratislava, Veda 2000, pp. 159-184-Bratislava a pociatky slovenskeho narodneho obrodenia (Bratislava and the Beginnings of the Slovak National Revival). Ed. by Jan Hucko and others (as co-editor).