Assessing the transforming social values of cities in the longue durée: analysis of a Florence neighbourhood from the Middle Ages to the present

Abstract

This article illustrates an approach that draws on topo-stratigraphic building archaeology, architectural anthropology and heritage studies to assess transforming social values of urban built heritage in the longue duree. These three research traditions are closely related, but often pursued for the study of urban environments at the exclusion of each other. Here we discuss the value of their joint implementation through the analysis of a specific case study, a neighbourhood in the city of Florence (11th–21st centuries). We argue that the proposed approach enables a more in-depth understanding of and negotiation between the variable meanings emerging from the relationships between people, architecture and urban space. In this way, it aids the contemporary critical curation of ‘deep cities’.