Changing geographies of governance and group identities in the Middle Ages: the role of societal interaction and conflict

Abstract

In this paper the author explores processes associated with two of the major changes which affected medieval societies, namely the changes in governance linked to the state-making process and the increased definition of group senses of identity. Drawing on empirical evidence from Wales between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, the paper focuses on the role of societal interaction and conflict (in its widest sense) in promoting these changes. In the context of the state-making process, the author suggests that we should explore the uneven geographies of distributive and collective power that exist at the interface between two societies and which lead to changes in methods of governance within the lesser developed society. With respect to group senses of identity, the author stresses the need to explore the role of processes of othering that were occurring during the period. The author then continues to present a modified version of the argument which is more attuned to the complex political geographies of the medieval period. The paper concludes by arguing that much may be gained from a more theoretical conceptualisation of the processes of societal interaction that led to changes in governance and group senses of identity in the Middle Ages.