Social Class and Social Contexts: Defining artisans and traders in Europe, 1550-1650

    Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participant of a conference, workshop, session, tutorial or event

    Description

    This workshop focuses on the complex question of social class. It explores what occupations constituted the middling classes of artisans and shopkeepers, what their economic, social and professional status was, and how hierarchies were expressed both among their own social peers as well as in the society at large. Focusing on the social, political, economic and occupational structures across Italy, England, Denmark and Sweden-Finland, as well as on the attitudes that were expressed towards local artisans and shopkeepers in different regions and cities in early modern Europe, our aim is, first, to understand how the status of and definitions for the middling classes of artisans and small shopkeepers varied in different parts of Europe, and second, to identify the main problems and complexities that are associated with definitions when we deal with a vast class of people with variable and constantly changing conditions.
    Period6 Nov 2020
    Event typeWorkshop
    LocationEspoo, FinlandShow on map
    Degree of RecognitionInternational

    Keywords

    • Social class, social history, early modern period, renaissance, artisan, middling class

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