Urban Times

The life and shape of pre-modern cities were strongly influenced by different temporal phenomena. These include natural cycles such as the changes between day and night or shifting seasons, the timing and duration of human activities, the devices and conventions for measuring and structuring time, but also individual perceptions of time. These different forms of time manifested themselves in various urban spaces and gave rise to various rhythms and temporalities.

To understand urbanity and social life in a particular period or region, it is therefore fundamentally important to examine not only the spaces but also the times of cities. Temporal routines strongly shaped political, economic, religious and daily life. So far, however, the roles that different forms of time and their manifestations played in pre-modern cities remain largely unknown. Thus, the workshop aims at initiating an analysis and discussion of the temporal dimension of urbanity.