Marrying out of the lower classes in nineteenth-century Belgium
نویسنده
چکیده
In this article we address one of the most prominent questions in historical sociology: did economic modernization in the nineteenth century lead to societal openness? In an attempt to answer the question we examine the chances for lowerclass grooms of marrying upwardly in five Belgian cities (Aalst, Leuven, Ghent, Verviers, and Liège). Our findings show that there is no support for a meritocracy hypothesis. The chances of marrying out of the lower classes did not increase, in either absolute or relative terms. Social closure strategies were efficient in that they apparently prevented upward marital mobility for lower-class grooms. As these findings were measured in a highly advanced economic context, this study casts strong doubts on the relationship between economic modernization, meritocracy, and marital mobility, at least for the nineteenth century. Searching for happiness, finding security, contracting an alliance, conforming to social norms, the choice of a marriage partner is a key moment in each individual’s life. But most important for this study is that through marriage, group boundaries are reinforced, so that the study of marriage offers the possibility of examining the claim that economic modernization has led to societal openness. That means that achieved positions – such as one’s own social position – rather than ascribed positions – such as one’s social origin – are used to evaluate people. In this article we shall examine openness in terms of the social origin of grooms and brides, and we shall distinguish among five classes: the unskilled, the * Department of Sociology, Ghent University. # Department of Economic History and Laboratory of Demography and Family Studies, University of Geneva. $Center for Sociological Research, Catholic University of Leuven. Continuity and Change 24 (3), 2009, 421–453. f Cambridge University Press 2009 doi:10.1017/S0268416009990154
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