Present At The Transition

In 2017, during a conference held at the Historical Institute of the University of Wrocław, Poland, an international group of early career researchers and PhD students had the opportunity to discuss the process of transition in cities from early modern times to the present day. This book, arising from the discussions of that meeting, focuses on the social, economic, political and structural transformations of some cities in Europe, the Near East and Asia from the seventeenth century up to the contemporary era. The first part of the text, entitled “Facing the Other: Perception, Relations, (Co)existence” explores the attitudes of the locals towards newcomers to a city, as well as the coexistence of different social, ethnic, religious and cultural groups, and their adaptation, assimilation, integration, and rejection. The second part “The Evolution of the Urban Space” concentrates on municipal and central authorities’ policies that, together with structural transformations in the urban tissue, had a direct impact on public space and the everyday life of the city dwellers. The volume will serve to contribute to the international discussion on the complexity of progressive urbanisation and its consequences from the early modern period onwards.