Neo-Medievalism and the Anchoring of New Spatial Identities: Linking New Regional and Urban Identities with Medieval Memories

Abstract

Although the Middle Ages are long gone, the memory of the Middle Ages is still used by academics and politicians. Some academics use their interpretation of the Middle Ages to theorise about the current social and spatial order. Initially the Middle Ages were used as the Dark Ages from which man has liberated himself. Especially modernisation theory regarded the Middle Ages as the archetype of the unchanging traditional society from which man has struggled to liberated himself. After the liberation from these traditional shackles human development could ‘take-off’ and progress through the different stages of modernisation (Rostow 1960). This linear development model of the modernisation theory was popular after the Second World War, but was challenged by the current period of economic and political problems which started at the end of the 20th century. This paper starts by discussing some aspects of these economic and political crises which challenge the nation-state. Then attention focusses on the ideas of Immanuel Wallerstein and Saskia Sassen who use the Middle Ages to better understand the current transformations of the societal and spatial order. We then focus on how the legitimation of the political order centre on the nationstate is challenged through the undermining of national identities due to globalisation and individualisation. We end this paper by discussing how new spatial identities are stabilised through positioning them between the future and the past. This shows how the memory of the Middle Ages is used to strengthen the legitimation of the political systems in these globalising and individualising times.