Trading Identities: Neomedievalism and the Urban Future

Abstract

The Middle Ages have for the last centuries been used as an object of fear and contrasted with the benefits of modernisation delivered by ever stronger nation-states. But this modernisation narrative of the nation-state has been challenged in the last decades. Globalisation has not only brought people in the world closer together, but has also challenged established certainties. Especially the project of the nation-state of national integration and national development has been challenged by globalisation. After the period of national integration we are now entering a period of renewed fragmentation, questioning the taken-for granted dominance of national territories. This has sparked a renewed interest in the Middle Ages, an era in which the nation-state was not so dominant. This essay focuses on the changing role of cities in the New Middle Ages. It discusses not only how cities and their urban networks tear the traditional fabric of the nation-state apart, but also to what extent urban networks and regions can play an important role in new forms of network based economic, political and civic integration in the future.