TY - CHAP
T1 - Social class mobility in the early modern Europe
T2 - A first international comparison
AU - van Leeuwen, Marco
AU - Maas, Ineke
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - This article explores intergenerational social mobility in the preindustrial era, analyzing data from France, Germany, and Sweden. Using uniform coding schemes (HISCO, HISCLASS, HISCAM), the study examines total, upward, downward, and sectoral mobility, addressing two main questions: (1) How did social mobility change over time? (2) Are there variations between countries and regions? The findings reveal that in France, mobility increased irregularly from the 1720s to 1850, while data for Germany and Sweden are more fragmented. Sweden stands out for high downward mobility, often involving farmers' sons becoming laborers, but also shows surprising upward mobility into farming. The study concludes that premodern social structures were less stable than theorized and that revolutionary events, like the French Revolution, did not significantly impact male mobility (no Sorokin effect).
AB - This article explores intergenerational social mobility in the preindustrial era, analyzing data from France, Germany, and Sweden. Using uniform coding schemes (HISCO, HISCLASS, HISCAM), the study examines total, upward, downward, and sectoral mobility, addressing two main questions: (1) How did social mobility change over time? (2) Are there variations between countries and regions? The findings reveal that in France, mobility increased irregularly from the 1720s to 1850, while data for Germany and Sweden are more fragmented. Sweden stands out for high downward mobility, often involving farmers' sons becoming laborers, but also shows surprising upward mobility into farming. The study concludes that premodern social structures were less stable than theorized and that revolutionary events, like the French Revolution, did not significantly impact male mobility (no Sorokin effect).
KW - intergenerational social mobility
KW - modernisation
KW - status maintenance
KW - wars and revolutions
KW - comparison by coding comparatively
U2 - 10.36253/979-12-215-0667-9.11
DO - 10.36253/979-12-215-0667-9.11
M3 - Chapter
SN - 979-12-215-0666-2
T3 - Datini Studies in Economic History
SP - 175
EP - 203
BT - La mobilità sociale nelle società preindustriali: tendenze, cause ed effetti (secc. XIII-XVIII)/Social mobility in pre-industrial societies: tendencies, causes and effects (13th-18th centuries
A2 - Orlandi, Angela
PB - Firenze University Press
CY - Firenze
ER -