Spatial and social mobility

This paper analyzes the relationship between spatial mobility and social mobility. It develops a two‐skill‐type spatial equilibrium model of two regions with location preferences where each region consists of an urban area that is home to workplaces and residences and an exclusively residential suburban area. The paper demonstrates that relative regional social mobility is negatively correlated with segregation and inequality. In the model, segregation, income inequality, and social mobility are driven by differences between urban and residential areas in commuting cost differences between high‐skilled and low‐skilled workers, and also by the magnitude of taste heterogeneity.     

The history and philosophy of social science

Carlo Ginzburg is best known as the author of a popular and widely commented work of microstoria Il formaggio e i vermi, published in 1976. Rather than focusing on Ginzburg's contributions to the genre of microstoria, or on the development of his long and very productive scholarly career, my aim in this article is to reflect on a set of themes that recur, with impressive persistence, in his work, from his earliest publications in the mid-1960s, to his most recent works. Above all, I suggest that two elements recur in his work, and that these, jointly, impart upon it its defining character. They are the concern with epistemological issues of knowing, and the ethical conception of the historian's work, which Ginzburg expressess and defends with urelenting rigour.     

金文女性称谓中的古姓

周代金文的女性称谓中大多嵌“姓”。所谓“姓”,即姓氏合一之前的古姓。考察金文女性称谓中的古姓,对于周代历史、女性生活、中国姓氏研究等都是不可或缺的极其重要的一环。古姓及有关问题,倍受古今学者关注。近现代学者将甲骨金文资料应用于古姓研究,     

The fear of downward social mobility in late medieval England

ABSTRACT

Studies of medieval social mobility have tended to focus upon the success of socially ambitious, generally male, careerists. Alongside this tendency to use social mobility as a synonym for upward mobility has been a tradition of assigning the most agency in creating economic change to ambitious entrepreneurs. This article redresses these imbalances by exploring status anxiety and the fear of downward mobility in late medieval England. Using the surviving letter collections of the fifteenth century together with medieval literature, this article explores not only the importance of gender and the life cycle in shaping these fears but also the subtle distinctions between status anxiety, which often accompanied positions of authority, and a fear of imminent social decline, generally precipitated by financial difficulties. Through a reconsideration of demesne lessees and fraternities and guilds, it also shows how such anxieties and fears could affect both rural and urban economic developments.     

Senators and social mobility in sixth-century Gaul

In the historical and hagiographical writings of Gregory of Tours and in the poetry of Venantius Fortunatus we encounter a group of men who make the claim that they are descendants of the Roman senators of an earlier time. This paper sets out to examine the status of this group in the light of the suggestion by Frank D. Gilliard that in the imprecise Latin of Gregory of Tours the word senator was often used to denote someone who was merely a large landowner. Since Gilliard has suggested that the blanket term senator may mask the parvenus in sixth-century society, discussion of the status of sixth-century senators has here been set in the wider context of social mobility in Merovingian church and state. It is the suggestion of this paper that it was a claim to senatorial family background, rather than the possession of wealth or land, that qualified one, in Gregory's eyes as a senator. Further, there is such ample evidence of upward social mobility, to positions of power and prestige outside the senatorial ranks, and often in royal service, that the conclusion is drawn that for the ambitious in Merovingian society, the patronage of the Frankish kings may have come to mean more than the much vaunted illustrious descent of the senators.     

International student mobility: the role of social networks

Building upon recent work on higher education mobility, this paper contends that social networks of friendship and kinship are critical determinants for students deciding to study overseas, not just, as has hitherto been suggested, a complementary factor. It uses original data collected through interviews and focus groups with thirty-eight higher education international students studying at three UK universities and argues that students who choose to study overseas do not operate within a vacuum but rather draw upon extended networks of individuals who have chosen to do so themselves or advocate studying abroad. While this encouragement may be of an explicit and unequivocal nature – telling students that they ought to study overseas – for the majority it is rather more implicit. The students interviewed invariably related that higher education overseas or mobility more generally was an accepted practice among their peers, thereby leading to a normalisation of the mobility process. The paper concludes that international students come to accept mobility as a taken for granted stage within the life course, and, whether intentionally or not, this is often the driving force behind their decision to study overseas.     

The past 20 years of modern Chinese social history

Modern Chinese social history has played an important role in the general revival of Chinese social history. This essay will provide an overview of the major achievements of past 20 years with particular emphasis upon the field of modern social history, the growth of regional social history, and the new research that draws upon field studies. It will also consider the recent debates on “re‐examining political history” and provide an introduction to new works in medical history and environmental/ecological history.     

先秦文献所见古姓考

保存到中国先秦时代的古姓并不多,然而这原本为数不多的古姓却出于字音的讹误和字形的变迁等原因而使前人对它们的统计多有误差,本旨在借助先秦献和古字材料,对先秦古姓的概貌进行廓清,以期对先秦姓氏制度研究有所裨益。     

明代社会流动性初探

本文从官方的户籍控制,人口的分化与等级制度的解体,以及客籍、附籍的出现诸方面,对明代中期以后的社会流动性进行了考察.文章认为,明代社会是一个具有相当流动性的社会.社会流动的形式,既有地域之间的人口流动,又有社会阶层之间的流动,而这种社会阶层之间的流动,又包括向上与向下两种流动方式.社会流动的加剧,则显示出晚明社会正好处于一个转型时期.     

Reinterpreting the economic and social history of Spanish South America

Haciendas and ‘Ayllus’: Rural Society in the Bolivian Andes in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. By Herbert S. Klein. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993. Pp. xvi, 230.

Colombia before Independence: Economy, Society and Politics under Bourbon Rule. By Anthony McFarlane. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pp. xiv, 399.

Encomienda y encomenderos en el Perú. Estudio social y político de una institución colonial. By Jose De La Puente Brunke. Seville: Excma. Diputación Provincial, 1992. Pp. 536.

Deudas olvidadas. Instrumentos de crédito en la economía colonial peruana 1750–1820. By Alfonso W. Quiroz. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 1993. Pp. 233.

Coercion and Market: Silver Mining in Colonial Potosí, 1692–1826. By Enrique Tandeter. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993. Pp. xiv, 332.     

陈独秀与近代上海社会的变迁

陈独秀与上海社会联系密切。上海是他认识半殖民地半封建社会的窗口。他的革命生涯从上海开始,一生主要时光在上海度过,革命生涯最辉煌的业绩在上海实现。他对上海社会有着比较深刻的研究和十分复杂的感情,总体上说还是一分为二的。近代上海造就了陈独秀的崇高声望,陈独秀也给上海留下丰富的思想文化遗产。今天的上海已经成为中国经济发展、社会进步、文化先进、教育发达的中心城市,其作为全国思想文化中心的地位,无疑是从新文化运动的发起开始确立的。