INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER IN GALICIA AT THE END OF THE OLD REGIME (XVIII-XIXth centuries)

This work, an investigation of innovative theme, is part of a booming historiographic current such as the Information History. Through the study of political-administrative information practices, the author deals with the analysis of a peripheral territory such as the Kingdom of Galicia at the end of the Ancien Régime. This period stood out for the interest of the Administration towards the gathering of information through different inquiries. The analysis of these inquiries, of the territory, of the informative systems and practices demonstrates the notable complexity of the information gathering processes, their limits and resistances, which were conditioned by the own characteristics of the Ancien Regime model. All this is framed in a slow erosion of the old order, in the transformations in the relations of power and knowledge between rulers and ruled and in a long State-building process. This work, an investigation of innovative theme, is part of a booming historiographic current such as the Information History. Through the study of political-administrative information practices, the author deals with the analysis of a peripheral territory such as the Kingdom of Galicia at the end of the Ancien Régime.