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Beyond Life Cycle and Inheritance Strategies: The Rise of a Middling Social Group in an Ancien Régime Society (Catalonia, Eighteenth Century)

In this article we propose to study social change that took place in the eighteenth century, a period of demographic growth in which increasing difficulties of access to land could have led to greater downward mobility and proletarization. However, our hypothesis is that this was also a period of middle class emergence in some rural regions. In the studied case (the Girona region in north-eastern Catalonia), after significant growth of the number of treballadors (literally rural labourers), supposedly the humblest and poorest group, dowries and probate inventories indicate that some of them could have improved their positions significantly. This idea clashes with the traditional view of social historians for two reasons. Firstly, because it is often assumed that Ancien Régime societies experienced few important structural changes and, even less so, the emergence of middle groups from the working class. Secondly, because even though it is accepted that a general improvement in living standards could have occurred in some areas of Europe, the historiography tends to exclude regions of southern Europe from this process

This study was carried out within the framework of research projects HAR2011-25077 and HAR2014-54891-P, financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation

Oxford University Press

Manager: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Espanya)
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Espanya)
Author: Congost, Rosa
Ros Massana, Rosa
Saguer i Hom, Enric
Date: 2016
Abstract: In this article we propose to study social change that took place in the eighteenth century, a period of demographic growth in which increasing difficulties of access to land could have led to greater downward mobility and proletarization. However, our hypothesis is that this was also a period of middle class emergence in some rural regions. In the studied case (the Girona region in north-eastern Catalonia), after significant growth of the number of treballadors (literally rural labourers), supposedly the humblest and poorest group, dowries and probate inventories indicate that some of them could have improved their positions significantly. This idea clashes with the traditional view of social historians for two reasons. Firstly, because it is often assumed that Ancien Régime societies experienced few important structural changes and, even less so, the emergence of middle groups from the working class. Secondly, because even though it is accepted that a general improvement in living standards could have occurred in some areas of Europe, the historiography tends to exclude regions of southern Europe from this process
This study was carried out within the framework of research projects HAR2011-25077 and HAR2014-54891-P, financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation
Format: application/pdf
Document access: http://hdl.handle.net/10256/12370
Language: eng
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Collection: info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1093/jsh/shv056
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/0022-4529
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/eissn/1527-1897
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MICINN//HAR2011-25077/ES/LOS PROCESOS DE EMPOBRECIMIENTO Y DE ENRIQUECIMIENTO EN SOCIEDADES RURALES. UNA VIA DE ANALISIS DE LAS DINAMICAS SOCIALES EN LA HISTORIA/
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MINECO//HAR2014-54891-P/ES/NI ELITES NI POBRES. CLASES MEDIAS Y CAMBIO SOCIAL PERSPECTIVA HISTORICA/
Rights: Tots els drets reservats
Subject: Canvi social -- S.XVIII- Catalunya
Social change -- 18th century -- Catalonia
Title: Beyond Life Cycle and Inheritance Strategies: The Rise of a Middling Social Group in an Ancien Régime Society (Catalonia, Eighteenth Century)
Type: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Repository: DUGiDocs

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