This research project aims at investigating social mobility in late medieval Italy through the analysis of both written and material sources. The research will mainly
focus on central and northern Italy, with regional in-depth analyses on some crucial issues (Rome and the papal curia as channel for social mobility; Tuscany as a
laboratory for the social renewal related to the economy and to brokering activities; Lombardy to investigate the role of political and institutional factors in social
mobility).
Medieval social mobility has only rarely been considered as a specific theme, a first move forward being La mobilità sociale nel medioevo (S. Carocci ed., Rome,
2010). Therefore, the project has a first general goal: while concretely developing extensive and specific research, it aims in fact to confront the methodological and
theoretical issues related to social mobility as a whole. Such a theme is crucial to the full understanding of medieval societies, but it remains still neglected at a
European level.
The members of the group have identified five starting hypothesis. (a) The decades from the end of the 13th to the beginning of the 14th centuries would be seen as
the key-moment of an inversion of relevance between socio-economic and political-institutional dynamics in determining the ways and features of social mobility. (b)
The link between this change and a stiffening of the dynamics of mobility. (c) More broadly, the existence of a structural medieval tendency towards a descending
mobility. (d) The emergence at the end of the Middle Ages of a complex society characterised on the one hand by the development of phenomena of class closure, and
on the other hand by various processes of further separation and differentiation of roles and social functions. (e) The identification of phases in which experiences of
social mobility and processes of spatial mobility taking place at the supra-local and supra-regional level connected and interacted.
Complementarily, three sub-topics will be investigated: 1) The links between social mobility and long-term economic change from the 12th to the 15th cent.; 2) the
relationships between social mobility and institutional change; 3) some specific channels of social mobility. As a result, we aim at proposing a picture of the social
mobility in late medieval Italy as a process in which economic and politico-institutional factors did not operate separately, but interacted in determining the movement
of individuals, families and groups along the social hierarchy. In order to do so, taking into account the fundamental role of social representations, ideological
material, and political idioms proves crucial. As recent sociological research suggests, every social move operates within a discursive framework and by producing
languages interpreting and performative of the social and political reality.
focus on central and northern Italy, with regional in-depth analyses on some crucial issues (Rome and the papal curia as channel for social mobility; Tuscany as a
laboratory for the social renewal related to the economy and to brokering activities; Lombardy to investigate the role of political and institutional factors in social
mobility).
Medieval social mobility has only rarely been considered as a specific theme, a first move forward being La mobilità sociale nel medioevo (S. Carocci ed., Rome,
2010). Therefore, the project has a first general goal: while concretely developing extensive and specific research, it aims in fact to confront the methodological and
theoretical issues related to social mobility as a whole. Such a theme is crucial to the full understanding of medieval societies, but it remains still neglected at a
European level.
The members of the group have identified five starting hypothesis. (a) The decades from the end of the 13th to the beginning of the 14th centuries would be seen as
the key-moment of an inversion of relevance between socio-economic and political-institutional dynamics in determining the ways and features of social mobility. (b)
The link between this change and a stiffening of the dynamics of mobility. (c) More broadly, the existence of a structural medieval tendency towards a descending
mobility. (d) The emergence at the end of the Middle Ages of a complex society characterised on the one hand by the development of phenomena of class closure, and
on the other hand by various processes of further separation and differentiation of roles and social functions. (e) The identification of phases in which experiences of
social mobility and processes of spatial mobility taking place at the supra-local and supra-regional level connected and interacted.
Complementarily, three sub-topics will be investigated: 1) The links between social mobility and long-term economic change from the 12th to the 15th cent.; 2) the
relationships between social mobility and institutional change; 3) some specific channels of social mobility. As a result, we aim at proposing a picture of the social
mobility in late medieval Italy as a process in which economic and politico-institutional factors did not operate separately, but interacted in determining the movement
of individuals, families and groups along the social hierarchy. In order to do so, taking into account the fundamental role of social representations, ideological
material, and political idioms proves crucial. As recent sociological research suggests, every social move operates within a discursive framework and by producing
languages interpreting and performative of the social and political reality.