Sociabilité urbaine et criminalisation étatique

The study of violence under its different forms and its regulation in a town of the Low Countries, namely Namur, between the second half of the 14th century and the first half of the 16th century provides a renewed perspective on the problematic of the transition between “urban sociability” and “state criminalisation”. Urban communities developed institutions and original methods of regulation to control aggressiveness. Violent behaviours and the safeguard of peace between their members were the main focus of these communities. Later on, central authorities, in the framework of a developing State, brought their own means of framing violence. Violence gradually became the monopoly of authorities. This “legitimate” violence of the State became a way to discriminate the violence of populations. The violence in the town and its framing is a privileged field to address the construction of the Modern State, one of the main supports of which is justice.