Early modern Edinburgh : identifying spatial and social relationships through the symbolic dimension of the built environment
Date
2017
Authors
Stauffer, Lois Rae
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science
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Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : Universtiy of Lethbridge, Department of History
Abstract
This thesis explores how the Scottish people of early modern Edinburgh
understood the physical construction of this walled city, and will focus on how
Edinburgh’s inhabitants saw, knew, and understood specific places. It will look at the
symbolic dimension of the built environment and how it directly affected the
development of individual and group identity, and their power, spatial, and social
relationships. Edinburgh was more than just a backdrop for historical events. It helped to
define social and spatial relations, and the inhabitants’ sense of public and private. The
subjectivity of these places affected how different people used them and interacted with
others in them. Places should not be seen as an absolute. Their cultural and spatial
relationships depended on how people used them, saw them, understood them; and that
understanding was created by a person’s age, gender, and status in the culture.
Description
Keywords
built environment , Edinburgh , Scotland , space , symbolism