Pequenas Cidades no Tempo: O ambiente e outros temas

In 2016, as a result of the synergies established between the Institute of Medieval Studies (NOVA FCSH) and the Castelo de Vide City Council, the 1st edition of the International Conference on the Middle Ages was held on the theme "Small towns in the construction of Medieval Europe". As part of this conference, the International Network of Small Towns in Time Working Group was set up, which sees itself as "a platform for collaboration between researchers, from any scientific field, and all entities that develop and/or promote research on small urban communities, approached in their historicity", driven not only by scientific but also societal purposes. Although in 2017 the first colloquium of the Small Towns Network was part of the Castelo de Vide Medieval Studies Week, there was a clear chronological mismatch between the two scientific events, and it was clear that the continuity of research into small urban communities necessarily implied an emancipation from the chronological and methodological boundaries of medieval studies. Already in the volume published as a result of the first meeting of the Jornadas, this need was expressed: "the hypothesis of crossing disciplines, points of observation, chronologies, scales of approach and horizons of questioning seems to us to be another auspicious step in the process, which we propose to continue, of investing in research on small towns, as an autonomized object of study".

Editors: IEM - Instituto de Estudos Medievais, Câmara Municipal de Castelo de Vide