Neighbours and strangers. Local societies in early medieval Europe

This book explores social cohesion in rural settlements in western Europe from 700-1050, asking to what extent settlements, or districts, constituted units of social organisation. It focuses on the interactions, interconnections and networks of people who lived side by side - neighbours. Drawing evidence from most of the current western European countries, the book plots and interrogates the very different practices of this wide range of regions in a systematically comparative framework. It considers the variety of local responses to the supra-local agents of landlords and rulers and the impact, such as it was, of those agents on the small-scale residential group. It also assesses the impact on local societies of the values, instructions and demands of the wider literate world of Christianity, as delivered by local priests.

Il volume indaga la coesione sociale degli insediamenti rurali nell'Europa occidentale tra il 700 e il 1050, chiedendosi fino a che punto gli insediamenti o le circoscrizioni hanno costituito delle unità di organizzazione sociale. Il volume si interroga sui vari livelli di interazione, interconnessione e networks che hanno agito sugli individui a livello personale nei rapporti di vicinato.