DFG Research Group 2337 Metropolitanism in the pre-modern era
Prof Dr Andreas Merkt is Principal Investigator of the RTG 2337 "Metropolitanism in the Pre-Modern Era" (duration: 2017-2026).
Research concept
Metropolises are the landmarks for urbanisation processes worldwide. The constitution and diversity of meaning of metropolises, their 'metropolitanity', is subject to specific historical and cultural conditions that have changed dramatically, especially in the last 150 years under the influence of industrialisation and globalization. While this latest development has been the subject of intensive research in metropolitan studies, urban sociology and urban studies right up to the present day, there is a lack of coherent and theory-led research for the pre-modern period. The formative effect of individual large urban centres already appears to be fully developed in the first known urban cultures in pre-Christian Asia. In Europe, the processes of urbanisation and metropolisation gained lasting momentum and significance in Greco-Roman antiquity. It is striking that it is precisely European cities that have the largest populations worldwide between the 16th and 18th centuries and that these metropolises almost without exception go back to Roman foundations. Based on this observation, the research programme outlined here examines the longue durée of the European metropolis, the constitution, impact and change of metropolitan status from ancient Greek and Roman times to the threshold of industrialisation. During this long period, new social and economic forms, techniques of rule and cultural codes were introduced in cities, which found their models and 'laboratories' in the metropolises. External exemplarity necessarily corresponds to metropolitan self-attributions internally. The claims to validity as a metropolis constituted by role models and self-image are closely interrelated with the formation and differentiation of metropolitan topography, society and communication. These are the guiding research perspectives of the proposed Research Training Group, which can only be explored on a multidisciplinary basis and by developing common methodological and thematic guidelines. According to the applicants' working hypothesis, metropolitanity is characterised by cities that become a symbolic and functional reference point for urbanisation processes in a large supra-regional area and at the same time offer residents and outsiders a surplus of meaning and potential for identification as a metropolis.
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