The city of the medieval West and the dynamics of capitalism

Abstract

Following the hypothesis that modern capitalism flourished when large cities were absorbed by modern states, more capable of controlling territories and transforming them into coherent economic spaces, this article seeks to trace the relationship between the origins of western medieval cities and the dynamics of capitalism, as a point of intersection of norms, flows, infrastructures, and subjects. With this, the idea is discussed that industrial capitalism did not imply the strengthening of the city, but rather led it to its virtual disappearance as a relatively autonomous institutional social system, organized around objective and specific needs, which today seem to take up again in the urban struggles and resistances.