Chapter Towards a new history of old mobility: obstacles and prospects

Abstract

A new wave of empirical and data-driven studies on the history of social mobility in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period has been emerging in recent years. This trend bears some resemblance to the wave of historical inequality studies that successfully changed the consensus of long-run trends in inequality in the past decade. In this short reflection, I argue that there are important obstacles to overcome before a similar consensus in the field of historical mobility studies can be reached. Pre-modern historians should be careful to distinguish between different types of mobility, should take contemporary perceptions of social ambition or fear into account, and should Always specify which social groups their results apply to.