Search

My research has concentrated on three broad areas of social relations. The first chapter focuses on space and authority in the early modern city and the way in which spatial relations In the urban environment influenced structures of power and social control. The premise is that there were two conflicting mental maps of the city, the first, elite, comprising a rigid and hierarchical top-down view of the cityscape, reinforced in the physical symbolism of built structure, wealth, symbolism and social control. The second was popular, comprising fluid and complex zoning based on individual movement, occupation and religion. The two conceptions of the city were conflicting and can be analysed at their intersections in the records of conflict and the reinforcement of authority. The final section focuses on the impact of city space on gender relations, concentrating in particular upon public and private distinctions and a re-reading of gender within the perimeters of spatial theory.