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Home, marriage and family in the early modern period

The thematic focus of home and family deals with the research into the structure and development of the house(hold) and family during the early modern period. The social and economic community represents a central social and political basic unit in early modern society, both in regard to the social and economic practices and notions of order and the legal and political. The Marburg researchers take into special consideration the crossovers between individual, collective and societal frames of reference and ask to what extent the everyday life practices and notions of societal and political order correspond and to what extent these go together or collide with authoritarian techniques for regulation. In this respect, the significance of gender-specific models of order and action areas play a central role, as well as the interaction with the social environment of neighbourhoods, relationships, business and community. In the centre of focus is the political - i.e., the collectively binding - significance of social practices: in the households of urban and rural subjects as well as in the “houses” of the great European dynasties.