Knocking Down the Walls. From Urban History to Urban Studies with Historical Perspective: Theoretical and Methodological Proposals from an Interdisciplinary Dialogue

Abstract

Urban history has naturally been linked with several fields of knowledge, such as architecture, urbanism, sociology or anthropology. In spite of this, it seems pertinent to underline the need of urban studies to continue to expand dialogues and become a common field, in which the city as object of study, overturns disciplinary and conceptual walls and the historical perspective becomes more relevant. It is also important for historians to attend issues of the history of cities with more energy and with better methodological tools. The article offers a series of proposals applied to work with sources and theoretical reflections to overcome obstacles, to strengthen the dialogue between disciplines and to escape the labyrinths in which urban history and many other fields of specialization have been enclosed to.