The MEDHISMO research group is the result of a long researcher career, founded thorugh competitive research projects of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and coordinated from the Department of Modern History of the Universitat de València, thanks to the management work carried out by several of its members.
The research work carried out focuses on social history research, incorporating the methodological innovation that have yielded the best results in recent years. Instead of considering social groups as static wholes over the long term, it gives priority attention to the study of the relationships and strategies adopted by individuals in pursuit of their personal, family or collective goals.
As a result of the group’s research work, various databases have been compiled (from knights in the habit of a military order to craftsmen), and the individual careers of members of the various social categories have been traced. This is a task that requires continuity, as the aim is to study in greater depth the new perspectives opened up by the work already carried out.
The methodology to be applied will combine the use of macro and micro-historical approaches. But its main added value is the use of the comparative method, analysing the trajectory of the Hispanic Mediterranean territories in a comparative framework, both nationally and internationally, especially in the Kingdom of Valencia and Sardinia. The dynamism experienced by both geographical areas favoured the process of social mobility, despite the restrictions derived from the dominant value system in the estates’ society, although its frequency and intensity was very different depending on the different opportunities and conditions that existed in each of them. Obviously, mobility was not only upward, since the aforementioned transformations were detrimental to several sectors that experienced a process of social regression and deterioration of their living conditions, which stimulated their resistance to the changes that were being experienced.
The variety of lines of research addressed by the different approaches of the project members has allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of the social, economic, political and cultural transformations in these regions; in short, the historical evolution of the territories on the Mediterranean periphery of the Hispanic Monarchy, within a comparative framework, which needs to be further explored.
The group’s research activity is carried out within the framework of three main lines of study:
- Labour and market relations in the urban world.
- The study of social elites and their relationship to service to the monarchy.
- Minorities, the marginalised and the conflicts associated with them.
- Analysis of the historical evolution of the Hispanic Mediterranean territories during the modern period from a comparative perspective.
- Minorities, marginalised and social conflict
The Moorish minority in the Kingdom of Valencia, before and after the explusion, resistance to acculturation, their involvement in banditry and in the nobiliary factions. Captives and slaves. Frenc immigration. The persistence of manifestations of popular culture and its repression.
- Social elites and their relationship with service to the monarchy
Analysis of the trajectories and lineages of the Valencian and Sardinian elites. Social conflict between the estates and the monarchy. Officials and magistrates at the service of the King and the Monarchy. Social implications of the defensive policy in the Mediterranean.
- Labour and Market Relations in the Urban World
Study of the labour market and urban manufacturing in Mediterranean cities. The impact of the commercial rivalry between Valencia and Alicante on the configuration of the urban network. Foreign mercantile diasporas and changes in consumption and marketing patterns.
- FRANCH BENAVENT, RICARDO
- PDI-Catedratic/a d'Universitat
- BENITEZ SANCHEZ-BLANCO, RAFAEL
- PDI-Emerit/a Universitat
- CATALA SANZ, JORGE A
- PDI-Titular d'Universitat
- Coordinador/a de Programa de Doctorat
- FELIPO ORTS, AMPARO
- PDI-Catedratic/a d'Universitat
- PARDO MOLERO, JUAN FRANCISCO
- PDI-Titular d'Universitat
- PEREZ GARCIA, PABLO
- PDI-Catedratic/a d'Universitat
- BOLUFER PERUGA, MONICA
- PDI-Catedratic/a d'Universitat
- POMARA -, BRUNO
- PDI-Titular d'Universitat
- SAN RUPERTO ALBERT, JOSE
- Alumn.-Servei de Formacio Permanent
- Coordinador/a Curs
Contributor/s
- Josep Cerdà I Ballester - Provincial Council of Valencia.
Blasco Ibáñez Campus
Av. Blasco Ibáñez, 28
46010 València (Valencia)
- FRANCH BENAVENT, RICARDO
- PDI-Catedratic/a d'Universitat
