ABSTRACT

This article raises the question of how natural conditions and social practices interacted and provided groundbreaking premises for the development of the medieval urban physical environment. The main hypothesis is twofold: (a) that social practices in medieval urban communities are entangled with natural processes, (b) that mentality, knowledge and experience as elements in social practices are fundamental to the comprehension of the development of physical environment in medieval towns. The article introduces elements from social practice theory to outline a theoretical framework. The article also invokes a study of urban ecosystems in which the term ‘social-ecological system’ (SES) places intentions, meaning and symbolic constructions to the forefront of the study of urban environmental development. By using empirical examples from two medieval Norwegian towns, Trondheim and Bergen, I aim to elucidate how the urban population shared norms and concepts which were key prerequisites for how urban physical environment developed through the Middle Ages.

摘要

本文提出了自然条件和社会实践如何相互作用的问题，并为中世纪城市物理环境的发展提供了开创性的前提。主要假设是双重的：(a) 中世纪城市社区的社会实践与自然过程纠缠在一起，(b) 作为社会实践要素的心态、知识和经验对于理解中世纪城镇物理环境的发展至关重要. 文章引入了社会实践理论的要素，勾勒出一个理论框架。该文章还引用了一项城市生态系统研究，其中“社会生态系统”(SES) 一词将意图、意义和符号结构置于城市环境发展研究的前沿。