Beyond Life Cycle and Inheritance Strategies: The Rise of a Middling Social Group in an Ancien Régime Society (Catalonia, Eighteenth Century)
dc.contributor.author
dc.date.accessioned
2016-05-03T06:39:54Z
dc.date.available
2016-05-03T06:39:54Z
dc.date.issued
2016
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0022-4529
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dc.description.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
dc.description.sponsorship
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
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application/pdf
dc.language.iso
eng
dc.publisher
Oxford University Press
dc.relation
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/
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Reproducció digital del document publicat a: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shv056
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© Journal of Social History, 2016, vol. 49, núm. 3, p. 617-646
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Articles publicats (D-H)
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Tots els drets reservats
dc.title
Beyond Life Cycle and Inheritance Strategies: The Rise of a Middling Social Group in an Ancien Régime Society (Catalonia, Eighteenth Century)
dc.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.rights.accessRights
info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess
dc.embargo.terms
Cap
dc.date.embargoEndDate
info:eu-repo/date/embargoEnd/2026-01-01
dc.type.version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.identifier.doi
dc.identifier.idgrec
023768
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dc.relation.ProjectAcronym
dc.identifier.eissn
1527-1897