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Lacey Benjamin, Constructing communities: identification and self-understanding in the 12th-century north of England, (dir. A. Power, M. Staub, University of Sheffield)En cours depuis 2009/In preparation since 2009Résumé/abstract :This thesis examines the links that gave people a sense of identification with local communities. Much of this is based on the religious institutions in the area, looking at how they constructed their pasts, imagined their surroundings and thought about ritual and saints' cults in order to create a suitable image of who they were. In doing this, they often incorporated the local laity, which may have led to these institutions underpinning local 'communal' feeling beyond the immediate monastic group. This would have been strengthened through tenurial/patronage networks which included lay and monastic lands. My work aims to do more than just look at the communities that formed; I also hope to examine how these processes affected the relationship between the individual and the collective.[Source : http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/history/research/students/ben_lacey]