Susanne Rau

History and religion : narrating a religious past

This volume is the first systematic scholarly study that analyses the complex relationship between history and religion. It considers religious groups as both producers of historical narratives and topics of historiography. From different disciplinary perspectives, the authors explore how religions are historicised. In so doing, they address the biases and elisions of current analytical and descriptive frames in the history of religion.

Mapping Spatial Relations, Their Perceptions and Dynamics

Maps and Technology.- Lyon and Barcelona - two Case-Studies.- Mapping Humanities.- Comment.

Writing Spatial Relations and Dynamics: Movements in Urban Space (Barcelona, 16th–19th Century)

In this contribution, I intend firstly to show at a theoretical level and then demonstrate in a practical way the advantages of viewing urban space from the perspective of the historical actors. Here we are more concerned with applying urban space dynamically, which means we no longer view the perceived and described spaces as something given nor do we set them in rigid maps. Moreover, our view is focused, firstly more upon the perception of movement in urban spaces, or changes in this area, and secondly, on the awareness of hierarchies in urban spaces (in dichotomies such as centre–periphery, old–new, inner–outer) and, if appropriate, hierarchical changes during the course of time. Finally, in this context, the following question arises: is it at all possible to map movements within urban space or to map the perceptions of urban spatial transformations including urban hierarchies together with any concomitant changes?