Preliminary Programme

Are socio-spatial patterns in urban environments really as rigid and invariable over time as previously believed? Using the case of Antwerp 1600-1800, we question this 'law' in a direct confrontation with earlier research, e.g. for Amsterdam.

Research by Lesger et al., studying residential segregation in Amsterdam between 1585 and 1850, shows that socio-spatial patterns that emerged during the sixteenth and seventeenth century urban expansions could persist well into the nineteenth century. A phenomenon that is far from unique for Amsterdam. Political and economic elites were best placed expansion through influence on or participation in administrative power, to realize their housing preferences during urban expansion. In addition, retailers (especially in 'shopping goods') became increasingly involved in competition on the real estate market because they benefited pre-eminently from an easily accessible location. The segregated living patterns that arose in this way were then unchangeable for a long time, not least because social groups used their influence and/or money out of self-interest to maintain the status quo, among other things to protect status, accessibility, living environment and the strongly related value of their possessions.

However, our Antwerp case questions this socio-spatial rigidity by turning to advanced spatial analysis. This paper is fully grasping the opportunities provided by the GIStorical Antwerp project, which was completed last year. GIStorical Antwerp created a historical ‘laboratory’ in which four centuries of socio-spatial information about the city of Antwerp was brought together on the level of individual households or houses. It allows us to investigate socio-spatial patterns throughout the entire early modern period (1584-1834) using the power of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) which is unleashed on tens of thousands of individual ‘spatialized’ historical records. Using spatial analysis in micro-level spatial data will move beyond earlier studies using aggregated social data (e.g. on ward level) and allow the detection of contrasts and shift on a (sub-) neighborhood scale, therefore truly revealing the internal spatial dynamics of an early modern city.

First outcomes of these analysis indicate that socio-spatial patterns can change indeed (and opposite to the ‘law’ as stated above), even in a city in which economic stagnation and the lack of natural or man-made disasters ensured the absence of major morphological interventions. This paper will elaborate on these first results and look for small-scale dynamics that have, when combined, a profound impact on inter-urban socio-spatial patterns. We are hypothesizing that the same factors mentioned in previous studies in order to explain the stabilization of socio-spatial patterns may just as well explain shifts in these patterns. Economic, social and cultural factors appear to be able to profoundly change the preferences of individual city dwellers and the associated valuation of locations.

This paper will shed new light on early modern urban dynamics and will, at the same time, put spatial infrastructures as the GIStorical ‘laboratory’ to the test. (Show less)

The early modern town was the testing ground for social mobility processes. The aim of this paper is to present the process of social promotion and degradation of town’s dwellers using quantitative and spatial analysis.
As the example we use data from Kraków in the 18th century (mostly from the end of the century), the former capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. With the general scarcity of the good quality sources for quantitative research from the early modern period Kraków with vast city archives could be an exception. We base our research on the mass sources such as population censuses, ownership’s registers, tax records linked with the geographic information. By applying GIS we created the interactive map (and the database) of the town. In this way we can track changes in the social and spatial structures as people are assigned to their places of residence (or work).
By comparing records from few years we plan to discover how often people changed their settlements in the past. Moreover we determine patterns of social mobility – how places of residence changed with social status and occupation, where poor and wealthy dwellers lived, how new immigrants established their place in the social structure. (Show less)

In my paper I would like to discuss one of the factors, that were shaping a socio-spatial relations in the space of small pre-industrial town, namely: family ties. As it is shown by modern researchers of residential mobility, such as William A.V. Clark, the physical proximity to the family members’ places of residence is one of the main factors taken into account when changing one’s place of residence. This observation inspires me to look for similar dependencies in the past urban space of pre-industrial small town.
In my paper I would like to point out the differentation of attitudes regarding the choice of place of residence of townspeople from first half of the 17th century through the prism of family relationships and it’s closeness. I would like to present results of my investigation on the example of Dolsk, small town in the western part of former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and modern day Poland with circa 900–950 inhabitants in the period 1601–1650 and relatively small urban system with marketplace and seven streets. Even in such a small place, one can notice various attitudes related to the issue raised, such as, for example, living in the same place for subsequent generations or living on the other side of the town. In my presentation I would like to discuss results of source and cartographic analysis in more detailed way. (Show less)