070312 LK Lecture course to the introduction into Austrian History (2017W)

This class offers a broad introduction to scholarly debates, different methodological approaches and current research trends at the intersection of urban and social history, focusing on several thematic aspects of high and late medieval Central and Southeast European regions (Austrian, Bohemian, Hungarian, Croatian, Dalmatian, Serbian and Bosnian territories, etc.). Against this background, the course aims at further increasing the students’ capacities for critical thinking, research and analysis within the framework of common discussions of selected publications (articles, chapters from monographs, and unpublished documents) and individual presentations by the seminar participants. On the one hand, the readings deal with the criteria of urbanity, medieval urban development and communication networks, as well as regional similarities and peculiarities. On the other hand, the discussion focuses on different legal, administrative, economic, religious, ethnic and social dimensions of community (and community building), as well as practical aspects of communal life in urban context (solidarity and conflict, ceremony and ritual, religious and communal endowment practice, criminality and sexuality).