We live in a world of growing debate about the meaning of Democracy. The rise of extreme right-wing parties around the world and the urgent need to discuss liberal democracies place our generations in a key historical moment. It seems to be up also to historians to rethink what we can understand through democratic participation in a collective effort, looking at the past through new points of view.

This event proposes a discussion of the forms of democratic participation encountered by the people of the urban world of the late Middle Ages (XIVth to XVIth centuries). Here lived and worked different social groups, distinguished by their economic and professional

status, but also by their greater or lesser capacity to intervene in the management of the res publica. For this purpose, we will host a roundtable discussion followed by a conference. In these events, we will count on the participation of 4 keynote speakers – distinguished historians within the European historiography on these themes – and 8 lecturers who will propose their papers.

The Call for Papers for The Voices of the People. Democratic participation in European Urban Centers in the Late Middle Ages is open to all researchers who study the Middle Ages from various perspectives: history, art history, archaeology, philosophy, literature, and sociology…

The conference will take place on the 25th and the 26th of May 2023 in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon. Each proposal will be evaluated by a scientific committee and the results will be announced by the end of March 2023.

All proposals should fall within one of the following thematic strands:

-Urban local government in late medieval Europe;

-The local governing elites;

-The political participation (formal or informal) of other social groups – the role of artisans/peasants/marginals;

-The role of women and/or ethnic-religious minorities in the management of urban community life;

-Administrative reforms on local power in the late Middle Ages;

-Movements/Moments of contestation/revolt in Europe of the late Middle Ages;

-The capacity of collective organization in medieval urban centers – confraternities and/or guilds;

-Defining concepts.

Please, send your proposal by accessing the following link: Call for Papers – The Voices of the People (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdLNrbuIPd5aaGIuurCiOBxiPBCwNimrdFg1cEYbyO8z0hN9w/viewform).

The deadline for submission of proposals is 31st January 2023. Each participant will be allowed a 20 minutes presentation followed by a discussion. The working languages are English (preferably), Portuguese, Castilian, and French.

For more information: https://thevoicesofthepeop.wixsite.com/welcome

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