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Mann and Men in a Medieval State: The Geographies of Power in the Middle Ages
Author(s) -
Jones Rhys
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
transactions of the institute of british geographers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.196
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1475-5661
pISSN - 0020-2754
DOI - 10.1111/j.0020-2754.1999.00065.x
Subject(s) - kinship , state (computer science) , power (physics) , welsh , middle ages , context (archaeology) , state formation , sociology , process (computing) , geography , economic geography , political science , anthropology , politics , law , archaeology , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science , operating system
The state‐making process represented a major institutional change, as societies moved from being organized according to notions of kinship to being ordered around the power exercised by kings over defined territories. The paper focuses on the medieval state‐making process, primarily in a Welsh context; building on Michael Mann's notion of power networks, it is suggested that the mapping of the geographies of power within a society may offer a powerful tool for demonstrating the tentative and gradual nature of this process. Such a methodology also stresses the importance of geography in such a major change in human history.