城市与空间--欧洲中世纪城市史研究的新进展

City and Space: New Advances in the Study of Urban History in Medieval Europe

欧洲中世纪城市史研究的奠基者亨利·皮朗和马克斯·韦伯于20世纪初提出了城市商业起源论和中世纪城市自由说,在20世纪里发挥了极大的影响力,后世学者们多遵循着两位先驱的阐释展开研究。直至20世纪末,西方的研究者们方开始注重从空间维度进行城市史研究,考察城市发展背后的权力要素。这主要是受到后现代主义,特别是列斐伏尔的"空间生产"理论的影响,城市空间与权力的关系受到重视,学者们着重挖掘城市景观的深层含义。权力对城市空间的渗透、景观塑造的内涵、节日仪式等,都成为21世纪以来西方中世纪城市史研究的主题。在宏观层面,出现了从区域角度对早期现代国家兴起和建构的研究,全球化带来的跨区域的、全球的流动性元素亦体现在城市空间中,本地的和全球的要素亦构成了城市空间中彼此矛盾却又相辅相成的一对景观。本文试图阐述近二十年来从空间维度研究欧洲中世纪城市史的历程、进展和特点。

In the early 20^(th) century,Henri Pirenne and Max Weber put forth their theses on the rise of cities and towns in late medieval Europe,in which they argued that the cities originated from commercial activities and city and town dwellers enjoyed more liberty than did the peasants in the countryside.Through the century,scholars more or less followed and expanded their theories.Thanks to the influence of postmodernism,especially Henri Lefebvre's seminal work on'spatial production,'however,new research began to appear toward the end of the 20^(th) century,focusing on examining the relationship between space and power in urban history study.From the 21^(st) century,more research has been done on exploring the underlying meaning of urban landscape,the infiltration and manifestation of power in urban space,holidays and ceremonies,all of which have become major and popular topics among urban historians.At the macro level,there have appeared studies of the rise of early modern states viewed through a case in local history.There are also attempts to analyze how the trans-regional and global circulation brought by globalization was reflected in urban space,creating a mixture of the local and the global in urban landscape.In sum,this article documents the new advances in urban history study and explains the value of studying cities and town in late medieval Europe from the perspective of space.