The social networks of the Buckinghamshire gentry in the thirteenth century

This empirical study offers a contribution to a continuing debate about the county community and the significance of feudal ties by analysing the contacts of twenty small and middling knightly families. It explores their geographical range and the relative significance of horizontal and vertical ties. The evidence indicates a world dominated by local connections, stretching five to ten miles from a family manor. Nonetheless, the gentry were not necessarily restricted by county boundaries in their connections, as patterns of monastic patronage show. Nor were their social networks always limited to their neighbourhood. The search for good marriages mobilised wider networks, while financial pressures led families to look to towns like Oxford and London for credit. Ties with feudal superiors were rare, except for tenants of the honor of Wallingford, who had links with the earls of Cornwall. Horizontal ties with other gentry families and family members significantly outnumbered those with any other groups, and this applied both to supportive relationships and conflictual ones. Placing this study in the context of other gentry studies, I conclude by emphasising the prevalence of local ties mainly with those on the same social level or below. Although there is evidence to suggest that wealthier families with several manors had wider ranging connections, the everyday world of these men was apparently a fairly parochial one.     

Communities of kin and English landed gentry families of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

This article focuses on the kinship networks of the landed gentry of Devon, Lincolnshire and Hertfordshire in the modern period. Using national census household returns, the visitors’ books of a Devon gentry family and correspondence the article reveals dense and meaningful kinship networks centred on the main country house but also woven into the wider familial world of the gentry. Whenever possible, the inheritance of landed estates passed through the male line. But kin networks were bilateral, founded on both birth and marriage, on relations both through the male and the female line. Kin relations provided a range of services within a culture of visiting, epistolary practice and affection, which generated close and cherished family ties.     

Transnational families,religious participation and gender dynamics: Filipino,Sao Tomean and Indo-Mozambican immigrant women in Lisbon,Portugal

In addition to being the object of policy and legal initiatives, families of migrant origin have become a focus of debate concerning differences and its limits. Migrants themselves, however, are also reflecting on how to manage family relationships in a changing world in which migration is mostly transnational. This article aims to discuss the influence of religious participation on the reconfiguration of processes of family dynamics promoted by three groups of migrant women who, while settled in Lisbon, maintain transnational ties with their countries of origin and with various diasporic spaces. Guiding research questions are: to what extent does religious participation provide migrant women with connections, networks and other intangible resources? How are these resources mobilised as ‘bonding' and ‘bridging' social capitals? Can such capitals become a conduit for the redefinition of family relations and female self-narratives? Comparative analysis confirms that the three groups discussed not only mobilise religious belonging and ties to generate resources, but also convert these connections into social (and other forms of) capital, thus triggering desired changes that affect the lives of their children and families in both the short and long term. While migration does not alter long-standing patterns provided by their own respective sociocultural frames of belonging, our findings reveal that the three groups of interlocutors use religious participation to explore tactics, social capitals and mobility spaces and, further, to negotiate, without subverting, specific family inequality dynamics.     

Local Histories in Global Perspective: A Local Elite Fellowship in the Port City of Quanzhou in Seventeenth-Century China

The Great Mosque of Quanzhou, as a distinctive community center, bound its residents through religious, professional, and educational ties; it also linked the mosque community to other communities with bonds of shared Muslim identity and minority status. The Great Mosque was rebuilt in 1609 under the supervision of the Confucian scholar Li Guangjin. This significant event is evidence of a local elite fellowship in seventeenth-century Quanzhou consisting of three well-known Confucian scholars—Li Zhi, Li Guangjin, and He Qiaoyuan—who had close ties to their Muslim neighbors. They left meticulous records of merchants, particularly Muslim traders. This paper focuses on the fellowship among the three men in order to investigate Quanzhou’s connections to the broader world of global commercial and religious networks and to look more closely at local community life.     

Benefactors of the Greyfriars in York: Alms from Testators, 1530–1538

Abstract

The prominent role of the gentry in late medieval local administration has long been acknowledged, and studies of officeholding have been central to the identification and understanding of that social group. Local administration in the liberty of Durham, however, was very different. The liberty's constitutional peculiarities meant that fewer prestigious offices were available to local gentry; furthermore, local office was controlled not by the king, but by the bishop of Durham, who was free to appoint men of relatively low status for extended terms. As a result, many of the liberty's gentry, and the majority of its greater families, had little formal involvement in its administration, which was dominated instead by a small corps of professionals for whom office provided rapid advancement in local society. This paper provides a detailed account of a family that produced several such professionals, who were extremely prominent in the liberty's administration in the first half of the fourteenth century. Their careers illuminate the workings of patronage and lordship in the liberty, and demonstrate the substantial impact of the liberty's distinctive administration on the structure and identity of the local political community. They also suggest some tentative wider conclusions about the relationship between officeholding and gentility.     

The Role of Lesser Aristocratic Women in Twelfth-century Yorkshire Society — The Rumilly,Arches, and St Quentin Charters*

This article argues that lesser aristocratic women were an active part of twelfth-century society and that as landholders and alienators they were able to significantly shape and mould local monastic society, family wealth and relationships, and other secular social networks. The influence women could have on these areas was on the material and physical geography of the land as well as on the social relationships. As landholders, women could and did maintain social networks with the ecclesiastical and secular societies. This was, however, limited by the geographic location of their landholding and thus demonstrates a social world that is defined by localities and regions. The three families of Rumilly, Arches and St Quentin provide cases whereby women’s activities can be evidenced in a range of events and actions. They also demonstrate a level of independence in women’s agency that did not rely on their male kin before land alienations or grants could be made. The available charter evidence for the three families studied is also illustrative of the existing charter material that can be identified for lesser aristocratic women and allows the paper to address twelfth-century women outwith the traditionally studied groups of royal and comital women or religious women.     

Illegitimacy and Authority in the North of England,c. 1450–1640

Abstract

This article explores the impact of illegitimacy upon the social, judicial and political landscape of the North of England, from the late medieval period to the eve of the English Civil War. Historiographies of the gentry and of marriage might suggest that irregular unions and resulting bastardy were increasingly frowned upon and of declining significance. At a time when civil strife and Reformation settlements altered the political structures of the North of England and provided alternative approaches to office holding, social and religious commentators expressed concern about the ordering of society at elite levels. In the face of that, this article considers some of the evidence which suggests the extent of bastard-bearing among the elite throughout the period. It further demonstrates the degree of acceptance of this phenomenon among gentry families, including the inheritance of land, property and goods, and involvement in informal political networks, and demonstrates that base-born sons of the nobility and gentry were often accepted into the Church and ranks of northern officialdom, holding highly localised but strategically important offices as Wardens of the Marches in the far North and acting as Justices of the Peace.     

Shifting Ties: Social Networks in the Surgical Instrument Cluster of Sialkot,Pakistan

The paradox in the industrial district model is understanding how the divergent tendencies of local competition and co-operation are mediated. Social networks are said to provide mechanisms that regulate inter-firm relations and facilitate the flow of knowledge within the confines of the district. Empirical evidence of this, particularly from the South, is limited. This article draws on the case of the export-oriented surgical instrument cluster of Sialkot in Pakistan. It shows how social networks, based on kinship, family and localness, influence production relations, and how the impact of these interlinked local social networks have changed over time. The economic and social reputation that comes from being local is central to vertical and horizontal inter-firm relations within the cluster. Building social and economic ties with external agents is, however, also becoming important, especially to acquire the technical know-how necessary to remain competitive in global markets.     

从土官到缙绅:高其倬在云南的和平改土归流

改土归流是土司制度发展到一定阶段后中央王朝采取的必然措施 ,但清雍正朝以前 ,被改流的多是对抗中央王朝或已造成割据威胁的土司 ,改流浪潮始终未波及那些认同和支持中央王朝统治、汉文化程度较高的土司。随着封建中央集权统治的发展及土司制的没落 ,对这些土司的改流成为必然。雍正初年的云贵总督高其倬抓住时机 ,采取适当措施 ,用和平的方式完成对云南汉化土司改流的历史重任 ,并将其妥善安置 ,使之转变成为封建地主阶级中的一员 ,促成了边疆民族土官到封建缙绅的历史转变 ,具有深远的历史意义。     

The rotten apple and the good apples: Orthodox,Catholics, and Turks in Philippe de Mézières' crusading propaganda

The late medieval English gentry are now receiving the attention they deserve. The higher levels of gentry society are, however, the usual (though by no means the exclusive) focus of this attention and this tends to make them appear a social caste aloof from their fellows. This article questions whether the upper gentry were very far removed from their social inferiors. It also supports those historians of later medieval England who have questioned the validity of the ‘county community’, a fashionable concept in recent English historiography, if hitherto primarily the hobbyhorse of several seventeenth-century scholars.     

谭克敏与抗战时期贵州的新县制改革

国民政府于1935年结束地方军绅势力长期控制贵州的局面,随后在县以下推行保甲制,加大国家权力向地方社会渗透的力度,希望将基层社会全面纳入国民政府的掌控之中,但收效甚微。1940年,谭克敏就任贵州省政府民政厅长后,开始大力推行新县制,内容包括整理行政区域、调整行政机构、创建民意机关、训练基层干部等诸多方面。谭克敏作为贵州出生的本土官员,其主持的民政厅成为贯彻中央意志和协调地方利益的关键机构。在人才缺乏、经费拮据的情况下,通过新县制的实施,国家权力在贵州基层社会以前所未有的力度向下渗透。     

The cosmos of the Paris apartment: working-class family life in the nineteenth century

Drawing on Bachelard's notion of “cosmicity” this article investigates the living conditions of Parisian working-class families in the second half of the nineteenth century. Nineteenth-century social critics claimed that the lack of privacy in urban apartments made decent family life impossible. However, evidence from judicial dossiers concerning attentat à la pudeur (intimate assault against children) illuminates the lived experience of children and their families in Paris apartments. Rather than a sharp divide between public and private, children experienced their apartment homes as the core of a social and spatial world under the surveillance of parents, neighbors, and other children.     

Opportunistic Ports and Spaces of Exchange in Late Roman Cyprus

Ports served not only as interfaces between land and sea, but as central gathering spaces for economic and cultural exchange. Drawing on case studies from the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, this paper situates opportunistic ports lacking built facilities within a broader socioeconomic context of diverse maritime communications, expanding rural settlement, and increased agricultural productivity during late antiquity. Though simple, these sites served as active agents in the development of new maritime networks as well as local markets throughout their hinterlands, adding flexibility and dynamism to the economic ties between city, countryside, and the wider late Roman world.     

官治与自治之问：清末州县劝学所述评

内容提要 在清末的兴学热潮中,州县出现了一个新机构——劝学所。劝学所总董和劝学员由本地人担任,办学经费主要是自筹,职权上包揽地方一切办学事务,具有很强的自治特点。但是,由于当时地方自治并未成立,劝学所更多的是秉承提学使指令,并在地方官的监督下开展工作,所以只是一个半官治半自治的机构。随着劝学所的出现,州县社会中出现了一个劝学绅董群体,他们的权力直接来源于官府的札委,职责范围涉及官办学务和自治学务两个方面。虽然他们并没有被纳入正式官员的行列,但却具有正式权力,成为半官半绅、亦官亦绅的双面人物。劝学所的这一特点充分反映了清末地方机构改革中新旧交替的内在矛盾和基本特征。     

Grassroots authority in rural Guangdong during late Qing and early Republican times

Gongju, or public offices, controlled by the local gentry class, were the grassroots authorities in rural Guangdong during the late Qing. These offices maintained their own armed forces and usually had powers of administration, tax collection, and self-defense, as well as judicial powers. They were considered the extension of prefecture and county governments. With the authorization of the prefecture and county governments, these offices had the power to deal with important legal cases. Although they came under attack during the 1911 Revolution, these offices were able to recover quickly in different forms. In the late Qing era, local gentry with official titles earned in middle-level or lower-level civil service examinations took the leadership roles in such grassroots offices, but they were replaced by people who had direct control over the armed forces during Republican times.     

Assessing the Importance of Local Supporting Organizations in the Automotive Industry: A Hybrid Dynamic Framework of Innovation Networks

Abstract

The advancement of knowledge on networks entails acknowledging the heterogeneity of their participants, more precisely, the organizations that lie beyond the scope of the activities of firms. Adopting a dynamic perspective of networks, and considering different types of innovation exchanges, we propose a hybrid and wider notion of industry which implies taking account of a set of local supporting organizations (LSOs) in domains such as research and technology, production factors, consultancy and training, and public support. Based on a rich data set built from face-to-face interviews with Portuguese automotive organizations, which resulted in a network comprising 867 organizations, we apply social network analysis techniques to analyse the structure, content and dynamics of the networks. The evidence gathered unveiled huge industry turbulence and significant changes in the boundaries of the Portuguese automotive networks over a 20-year period, with the emergence (and decline) of different prominent organizations. Specifically, following AutoEuropa major foreign direct investment (in 1995), the analyses reflect a clear increase in connectivity within the industry (from 524, before 1995, up to 2327 connections after 1995), with greater involvement among suppliers and between suppliers and LSOs, with the latter achieving top positions in the ranking of innovation networks.     

Alone or together in the neighbourhood? School choice and families’ access to local social networks

This study explores how the everyday geographies of city life and families’ access to social networks in the neighbourhood influence families’ school choices. The data consist of thematic interviews with parents of 8–14-year-old children (n?=?170) in three urban areas located in the cities of Paris (France), Milan (Italy) and Espoo (Finland) and are analysed via qualitative content analysis. The findings indicate that the families’ access to local social networks influences the reasoning behind school choice to the local school. The children’s relationships with other children and adults in the neighbourhood are considered important, but additionally, the parents’ networks with other parents in the area, mediated by the school, play their role. School choices as practices should therefore be analysed not merely as choices of an institution, as they comprise various aspects concerning the surrounding neighbourhood as a physical and social space.     

Geographies of migration and relatedness: transmigrancy in open transnational adoptive parenting

Current transnational adoptive parenting is characterized by ambiguous practices of (1) discursively distancing adoptive children from immigrants, while (2) symbolically or actually reconnecting newly constituted families to children's birth countries through charity and culture work. This ambiguity reveals the ubiquity of contradictory and essentialist understandings of categories of familial and national belonging. However, adoptive parents’ strategies for accommodating their children's sense of belonging may also open up space for rethinking care and family building in transnational contexts. Using the case of a Belgian family who adopted a 12-year-old girl from Ethiopia, decided to maintain strong connections with the child's biological family, engage in charity work in Ethiopia and forge strong ties with immigrant communities in Belgium, the article explores how the concept of ‘transmigration’ may further our understanding of identity configurations within adoptive families. Furthermore, this particular case of ‘open’ transnational adoptive parenting testifies to adoptive parents’ efforts to escape from essentialist and exclusionary frameworks and create counter-spaces of multiplicity and transmigrancy in a context of severe social and economic inequality.     

清末民初地方社会整合格局的变化

晚清以降,在内忧外患交侵之下,乡族自治传统下的地方社会秩序陷入困境。随着国家扩张权力需要的增强和地方资产阶级化新兴士绅的倔起,一种以国家与新型地方精英的合作为基础的新的地方权力格局呼之欲出。当然,由于传统势力的牵制以及国家权力与地方精英权力之间的张力,清末民初的地方权力重建过程充满了复杂的纠葛与冲突。     

Das andere Zuhause

Cities are increasingly addressing high-skilled migrants. Our contribution examines the factors that shape how this group relates to places and why cities provide different conditions for this. We draw on empirical data from an explorative case study with highly qualified migrants in the university city of Münster. First, we look at the place ties at the new place of residence and thereby focus on their local social networks and their sense of belonging. Second, we turn to the place-specific characteristics, in particular the role of “connections” and “urban opportunity structures”. Based on our findings we discuss how urban policy-making may influence the place attachment of this desired group.