Urban history in Portugal. Recent developments

Abstract

Despite its rich urban culture, the history of the town is afield of study which has not been greatly developed in Portugal. A long way has already been travelled from the tradition of the local history of the 19^th century to the most recent evolution of urban history, which is often studied in an academic context and is, therefore, theoretically more precise and has sounder methodological bases, and the panorama differs considerably. Nevertheless, the work done until now is patchy and Portuguese urban history is to a great extent yet to be written. The purpose of this study is to give an overview of the main study areas and approaches of Portuguese urban history in recent years. Apart from the lack of studies on many aspects of the history of Portuguese towns, there are methodological and epistemological problems which need to be considered. The lack of definition of the contents and objectives of urban history, of interdisciplinary studies, of quantitative studies and of detailed studies on towns are some of the main problems of current Portuguese urban history.