Fluctuating Networks: The Constructive Role of Broken Bonds in the Medieval Mediterranean and Beyond

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Medieval Studies Research Group, Univ. of Lincoln

Organizer Name

Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo

Organizer Affiliation

School of History and Heritage, Univ. of Lincoln

Presider Name

Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo

Paper Title 1

The Peasant Parvenu: Social Climbing in Tenth-Century Spain

Presenter 1 Name

Robert Portass

Presenter 1 Affiliation

School of History and Heritage, Univ. of Lincoln

Paper Title 2

Noble Women and Their (Broken) Allegiances in Late Byzantium

Presenter 2 Name

Petra Melichar

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Slavonic Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

Paper Title 3

Studios: A Network of Alternative Power in Ninth-Century Constantinople

Presenter 3 Name

Arthur Robert Westwell

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of Cambridge

Start Date

15-5-2015 3:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1320

Description

The aim of this session is to re-consider theories and approaches to the study of medieval social, political, economic and cultural networks from multidisciplinary perspectives. The medieval Mediterranean, as a space of interaction and communication, offers a myriad of possibilities to explore, which increase even more when considering its connections with Europe and the rest of the known world.

In particular, we would welcome studies which examine how agents and circumstances, which in principle undermined and destroyed pre-existing bonds, in reality generated parallel structures and alternative webs of relatedness. Political conspiracy is a case in point. Similarly, betrayal could be read as an alteration of a system of trust, which simply shifted toward other individuals with whom new connections were established.

Through the analysis of textual and material sources, as well as visual art and architecture, this panel seeks to explore ideas and narratives of exclusion as potential seeds for new or renewed types of private and public networks. Ethnic, religious, political, economic, legal and cultural aspects were all at stake when de-constructing, while re-constructing, bonds between individuals and entire communities.

Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo

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May 15th, 3:30 PM

Fluctuating Networks: The Constructive Role of Broken Bonds in the Medieval Mediterranean and Beyond

Schneider 1320

The aim of this session is to re-consider theories and approaches to the study of medieval social, political, economic and cultural networks from multidisciplinary perspectives. The medieval Mediterranean, as a space of interaction and communication, offers a myriad of possibilities to explore, which increase even more when considering its connections with Europe and the rest of the known world.

In particular, we would welcome studies which examine how agents and circumstances, which in principle undermined and destroyed pre-existing bonds, in reality generated parallel structures and alternative webs of relatedness. Political conspiracy is a case in point. Similarly, betrayal could be read as an alteration of a system of trust, which simply shifted toward other individuals with whom new connections were established.

Through the analysis of textual and material sources, as well as visual art and architecture, this panel seeks to explore ideas and narratives of exclusion as potential seeds for new or renewed types of private and public networks. Ethnic, religious, political, economic, legal and cultural aspects were all at stake when de-constructing, while re-constructing, bonds between individuals and entire communities.

Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo