Peasant agency, collective action, and institutions in early medieval societies: an approach from NW Iberia

This paper engages critically with the idea that the individual household is the basic unit of social production and reproduction in peasant societies. Building upon a relational approach to agency and a critical approach to institutions, it argues that in order to develop a comprehensive theoretica...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Carvajal Castro, Álvaro
Tipo de recurso: capítulo de libro
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Salamanca (USAL)
Repositorio:GREDOS. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Salamanca
OAI Identifier:oai:gredos.usal.es:10366/162411
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10366/162411
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Peasants
Agency
Critical institutionalism
Early Middle Ages
Iberian Peninsula
Commons
5504.03 Historia Medieval
Descripción
Sumario:This paper engages critically with the idea that the individual household is the basic unit of social production and reproduction in peasant societies. Building upon a relational approach to agency and a critical approach to institutions, it argues that in order to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework on peasant agency in early medieval societies, we must account for the attested forms of collective action and consider the institutions that may have served as an interface between individual and collective agency. To demonstrate the potential of such approach, the paper addresses the role of property and commons as institutions mediating access to natural resources and conditioning individual agency. For this, the paper focuses on the extant written sources from NW Iberia. Ultimately, the aim is to explore avenues for dialogue between different disciplinary and methodological approaches to peasant agency in early medieval societies.