Middle Ages; Central Europe; society; church; power; kingdom; collective identity

Social order and the structure of medieval society has been a topic of research ever since the early studies in medieval history. A new modern approach has been, however, only slow to appear in historical books and articles. Similar to ?new? political history the recent approach does not disregard the power structures and relations in the society, but strives to include all other elements that form the human society in the Middle Ages. Thus, the approaches of the conference will be related to the analysis and comparison of cohesive forces that hold society together and, on the contrary, of disruptive powers and elements that have the potential of bringing changes to medieval society and its order. The analyses of such influences may focus on local or general level; they may concentrate on various components of the life of the society providing insights into the social order and its function. As a conference within the framework of Medieval Central Europe Research Network it will focus on medieval Europe in general, but most importantly on the region of medieval Central and East-Central Europe. Two approaches are desirable: 1) by concentrating on this region an analysis of the development of the above-mentioned elements could be elucidating the crucial tendencies in society; 2) by focusing on a wider geographical, social or temporal frame a comparison might also explain the changes, shifts and transformations in the society as well as its parts and sections. A general question ?How does medieval society work?? might be then transformed into ?How (and why, when, under what circumstances, how often) does medieval society (and its components) change?? And, even more importantly, ?What brings the changes of the society? How is the structure of society reflected in written or material sources??, and finally, ?What holds society together and what destructs the social cohesion