Summary
This cluster will focus on the present as an imperative for political action, determining a before and an after, in societies traditionally seen as frozen and driven by a single-minded desire to revive a glorious, biblical past. Confronted with the demands and accelerations of an era rich in political, religious and socio-economic upheavals, rulers and ruled alike were eager to innovate and adapt, both in terms of urban customs and imperial chancellery.
Description
How has present time become an imperative for political decision-making at different levels of power ? This is the central question addressed by the third research area of the project. By virtue of the changes — and even ruptures — it implies, innovation arouses the interest or mistrust of rulers and governed alike, particularly in centuries when novelty, often synonymous with new taxes, appears to be a word that negatively designates anything that disturbs customs and habits. Traditionally, novelty was seen as something negative, even as an insult to Creation and the Bible. From this perspective, Innovation could only be a reform, seen as a restoration of the old. And yet, the study of practices proves that this theological thinking does not prevent people from innovating and introducing new tools to perfect their techniques and achieve their ambitions. Using all kinds of tricks to make the old new, societies have assumed, especially in times of crisis, the need to innovate so that nothing changes. Questions of political validation, of the discourses that dress up these processes of change, and of the implications of the mastery of time in strategies of domination will be at the heart of research carried out in the context of the ancient Low Countries between the 14th and 16th centuries. Three lines of inquiry will be developed, enabling us to grasp the development of politics in its relationship to time at the local level of the city, within the framework of state construction at the time of the Burgundian-Habsburg princes, and finally on a transoceanic imperial scale from the reign of Emperor Charles V onwards.
Current Research Projects
Innovating Without Saying So? Reforming the City in the Ancient Low Countries in the 15th Century
Doctoral thesis conducted by Anne-Frédérique Provou under the supervision of Elodie Lecuppre-Desjardin
Reform and Renewal: The Impact of the Present on Political Discourse
Marie-Hélène Méresse under the supervision of Estelle Doudet and Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin
Creating a time of Empire in the Age of Charles V
Alexandre Gorderniaux & Maxim Hoffman under the supervision of Thalia Brero and Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin
Expressing and Mastering the Temporalities of Power (Late Middle Ages to Early Modernity)
Elodie Lecuppre-Desjardin & Jan Blanc with a postdoctoral researcher (position opening in 2025)
