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作者

来源

JOURNAL OF URBAN HISTORY,Vol.44,Issue6,P.1062-1080

语言

英文

关键字

urbanity; rurality; place; place-making; social change; West Germany; ORAL-HISTORY

作者单位

[Thomas, Marcel] Univ Bristol, Hist, Bristol, Avon, England. Thomas, M (reprint author), Univ Bristol, Dept Hist, 11 Woodland Rd, Bristol BS8 1TB, Avon, England. E-Mail: marcel.thomas@bristol.ac.uk

标签

城市社会学,城市人口 | 德国

摘要

Histories of modern society have often relied on a static understanding of urbanity and rurality that views both terms as inherent characteristics of places, divided along the fault lines of modernity and tradition. This article uses the example of Ebersbach (Fils), a small town in Southwest Germany, to explore urbanity and rurality as discourses through which different societal actors tried to shape the development of localities. When Ebersbach tripled its population in the first two postwar decades, local planning elites tried to redefine the industrial village as urban to promote its role in the rapidly modernizing West German society. Local residents, however, often challenged these plans to stay in control of the transformation of their hometown. It will thus be demonstrated that what it meant to be urban or rural became a key question in contests over the direction and outcomes of social change in modern society.