Urban Network

Chairs

This network focuses on the rich subfield of urban history, operating under the premise that cities and towns - as a nexus of human interaction - serve as a helpful lens into broader social dynamics. We examine life in urban spaces, how communities within cities interact and coexist, as well as processes of city formation and urbanization. Many important social, economic, cultural, political and demographic processes, events and themes played out in urban environments, such as mobility, migration, social inequality, mortality, labour, gender, and sexuality. In this network, we especially welcome papers that explore how the urban also helped shape such historical processes and was in turn shaped by them. This network is also very much open to interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives on urban history.

Topics of interest: 

  • Urban social histories  
  • Space and social identity
  • The (historical) nature of cities – typology of cities
  • Processes of urbanization
  • The built and urban environment
  • Inter- and intra-urban social inequalities
  • Urban cultures, modernities and diversities
  • Mobility and migration
  • Power and governance​