This paper engages critically with the idea that the individual household is the basic unit of social production and reproduction in peasant societies. Building upon a relational approach to agency and a critical approach to institutions, it argues that in order to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework on peasant agency in early medieval societies, we must account for the attested forms of collective action and consider the institutions that may have served as an interface between individual and collective agency. To demonstrate the potential of such approach, the paper addresses the role of property and commons as institutions mediating access to natural resources and conditioning individual agency. For this, the paper focuses on the extant written sources from NW Iberia. Ultimately, the aim is to explore avenues for dialogue between different disciplinary and methodological approaches to peasant agency in early medieval societies.
University of Salamanca, Spain - ORCID: 0000-0003-3216-503X
Chapter Title
Peasant agency, collective action, and institutions in early medieval societies: an approach from NW Iberia
Authors
Álvaro Carvajal Castro
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0562-7.02
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2024
Copyright Information
© 2024 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Local Societies and Peasantry Agencies in Medieval Iberia
Editors
Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
304
Publication Year
2024
Copyright Information
© 2024 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0562-7
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0561-0
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0562-7
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0564-1
Series Title
Reti Medievali E-Book
Series ISSN
2704-6362
Series E-ISSN
2704-6079