Session at the European Association for Urban History Conference: Cities in Motion 2020

This session studies the interaction between production and urban space in a longitudinal and comparative perspective. We are interested in the rationale  (eg. economic, environmental and safety reasons) behind industrial location and relocation, and its impact on urban space. We also investigate tensions between the actors involved (entrepreneurs, craft guilds, urban governments, citizens)

Economic change has always been an important trigger for urban transformations. In this session we would like to investigate the interaction between production and urban space in a longitudinal and comparative perspective.

From the middle ages onwards, there was a discrepancy between the representative location of guild houses in the city center and the areas where craftsmen were actually working and living. The latter were determined by the availability and affordability of space, access to water and transport, and the proximity of related businesses or workshops. In periods of organic urban growth, these zones were gradually encapsulated by residential housing and increasingly experienced as environmentally harmful (fire hazard, stench, noise, pollution, …). Therefore, when urban governments were planning new urban expansions, they stimulated or forced industries to relocate. The same could happen in periods of urban decline, when industries clustered together in abandoned areas, or simply dispersed across urban space. Apart from that, intrinsic changes in the production chain, new industrial processes or changes in transport networks or market functions could increase the need to better coordinate different phases of the production process or to integrate them in a different way than before, which could lead to relocation initiated by either craft guilds or by individual entrepreneurial families. Apart from causing tensions between entrepreneurs and/or craft guilds, this often required a different spatial location of workshops as well.

This session deals with the links between industrial production and spatial transformations of cities and their direct surroundings. On the one hand we are interested in papers that explain the actors and the rationale behind industrial location and relocation and the underlying government policies. On the other hand, we invite authors to map the production process, the environmental impact, and the spatial needs and setup of specific industries or groups of industries, from purchasing and storing raw materials to the production phase and the marketing of the finished product, with their trail through urban space and changes over time. We will especially welcome papers of a comparative nature, analyzing developments in different types of industry or in different cities through time.

  • Spokesperson: Heidi Deneweth, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
  • Co-organizer(s): Jaap Evert Abrahamse, Rijksdienst voor Cultureel Erfgoed, Amersfoort
  • Keywords: Industrial production | Location and relocation of industries | Urban transformations
  • Time period: Premodern period (covering more than one period)
  • Topic(s): Economic | Technology
  • Study area: Europe