Guilds, Labour and the Urban Body Politic

Fabricating Community in the Southern Netherlands, 1300-1800

Nonfiction, History, European General
Cover of the book Guilds, Labour and the Urban Body Politic by Bert De Munck, Taylor and Francis
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Bert De Munck ISBN: 9781351245760
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Publication: December 1, 2017
Imprint: Routledge Language: English
Author: Bert De Munck
ISBN: 9781351245760
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Publication: December 1, 2017
Imprint: Routledge
Language: English

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. Yet this book shows that an adequate understanding of the development of European modernity – i.e., proletarianisation and the emergence of a modern economy and modern economic and political thinking – requires taking seriously the ruins upon which it is build. These histories can actually be recounted as purifications of sorts, in which the economic was separated from the political, the individual from the social, and the transcendent from the material. While the religiously inspired corporative nature of the urban body politic waned, the urban artisans lost their credibility as political (and rational) actors.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

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. Yet this book shows that an adequate understanding of the development of European modernity – i.e., proletarianisation and the emergence of a modern economy and modern economic and political thinking – requires taking seriously the ruins upon which it is build. These histories can actually be recounted as purifications of sorts, in which the economic was separated from the political, the individual from the social, and the transcendent from the material. While the religiously inspired corporative nature of the urban body politic waned, the urban artisans lost their credibility as political (and rational) actors.

More books from Taylor and Francis

Cover of the book Connecting Inquiry and Professional Learning in Education by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book A Ruler’s Consort in Early Modern Germany by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book The Poems of Shelley: Volume Two by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book The Routledge Companion to Music, Technology, and Education by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book Teaching, Learning & Assessment Together by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book New Rich, New Poor, New Russia: Winners and Losers on the Russian Road to Capitalism by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book Working with Families of Children with Special Needs by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book The Routledge Handbook of Identity and the Environment in the Classical and Medieval Worlds by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book The Medicalization of Marijuana by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book Museums and Migration by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book News As Discourse by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book Reinventing Accounting and Finance Education by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book The Politics and Economics of Britain's Foreign Aid by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book The Metaphysics of Love by Bert De Munck
Cover of the book Screening America by Bert De Munck
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy