• Water's worth. Urban society and subsidiarity in seventeenth-century Holland

    Author(s):
    Marianne Groep-Foncke (see profile)
    Date:
    2020
    Group(s):
    Environmental Humanities, Renaissance / Early Modern Studies, Science and Technology Studies (STS), Urban Studies
    Subject(s):
    Commons, Conflict management, Water
    Item Type:
    Dissertation
    Institution:
    University of Amsterdam
    Tag(s):
    Conflict resolution, Infrastructure, Urban history
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/xsa1-xz39
    Abstract:
    By taking water as a viewpoint, this dissertation reveals that the urban communities of seventeenth-century Holland were highly subsidiary in nature. Individual townspeople, men and women alike, knew how to fend for themselves, incidentally having recourse to other inhabitants, businessmen, corporations or magistrates. Together, they constituted a tiered society, wherein nearly each entity bore the responsibilities that fitted its capacities. For this PhD thesis, the reports of human encounters with water were used to evaluate the allocation of duties and responsibilities within Holland’s urban communities between 1600 and 1660. This was done by systematically examining the reports of water-related issues in (a) notarial records and (b) petitions to the urban magistrates, originating from the cities of Alkmaar, Haarlem, The Hague and Rotterdam. Additional archival sources, such as patent applications, tendering documents, and legal records helped to put the findings from the notarial records and petitions into perspective.
    Notes:
    CONTENTS 1) The meaning of water in urban Holland: Uncontainable force / Commodity / Conveyor / Burden / Spatial connotations / The underexposed meanings of water. 2) Subsidiarity: Negotiation: actors and programmes / Civil society / Ad hoc alliances / Arbitration / Task division within the community. 3) Public and private spheres: Rational and critical discourse / Spatial division / Urban services and the common good.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Book     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.5281/zenodo.4087858
    Pub. Date:
    2020
    ISBN:
    978 90 9033841 5
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    Attribution

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