Social advancement in the late medieval city. An analysis of social mobility in Cologne's urban society in the 14th century

The project focusses on the possibilities of social mobility in pre-modern times based on the example of four families of 14th century urban society in Cologne.

The criteria for social mobility were based on Bourdieu's capital theory and analysed in terms of their interplay, their accumulation and their compensation. On this basis, it was not only possible to show that medieval actors were able to use their capitals to reach higher social ranks, but also to analyse the economic, political, social, cultural and religious potentials of individual actors and their effects in historical reality.

Within the research discussion on the question of firmly established class boundaries, this thesis argues that the respective actors with the greatest power constantly reshaped the social spaces they dominated and thus restructured the class barriers and conditions for social mobility.

Since 2018: Lecturer at the Romance Department, faculty of philology, of the Ruhr University Bochum

• French language practice
• German language practice for French students as part of the DAAD exchange programme L. E. A. (Langue Etrangère Appliquée)

Publications

• Social advancement in the late medieval city. An analysis of social mobility in Cologne's urban society in the 14th century (in German)