Economic Development And Social Change In Sicily

Late medeival Sicily is shown to have been neither underdeveloped nor dependent on foreign trade.

Italy. Sociological study, based on a questionnaire survey, attempting to show how the social structure and public opinion and attitudes (behaviour) in 3 selected rural areas in western sicily combine to from an obstacle to economic development and social change - examines the role of the Church and the effect of education, age (age group), social status and social participation on ideological orientation and discusses suggestions as to how a structure promoting progress could be created. References and statistical tables.

A study carried out in 1963-64 in a small village in the Sicilian interior focusing on how people could improve their living standard through co-operation. In 1988-89, two persons who worked on the original study returned to the same village. Troina has 2,000 fewer inhabitants, no factory exists, and unemployment is still high. However, new houses have been built, cars are to be seen everywhere. Miseria (extreme poverty) is a thing of the past. Despite this, locals still consider the future with insecurity, and the younger generation see no alternative to emigration. The present study explores this contradiction.

Historical study of the impact of economic development on the social structure of Italy - covers political problems, changes in the standard of living, the effects of industrialization and urbanization on the social status of Italian workers, social change and the strategies of political parties and various social movements, etc. Bibliography pp. 187 to 194, and statistical tables.

This bibliographical guide contains 10,000 references to the economic and social history of 30 European countries during the period 1700-1939. More than 3000 periodicals have been consulted to obtain references, as well as books, edited collections and conference proceedings. The information is listed in categories such as industry, agriculture, finance, migration, labour conditions, urban communities and organizations. Full publication details are included, so that references may be located easily.

This volume aims to investigate the complex theme of social mobility in medieval Italy both by comparing Italian research to contemporary international studies in various European contexts, and by analysing a broad range of themes and specific case studies. Medieval social mobility as a European phenomenon, in fact, still awaits a systematic analysis, and has seldom been investigated iuxta propria principia in social, political and economic history. The essays in the book deal with a number of crucial problems: how is social mobility investigated in European and Mediterranean contexts? How did classic mobility channels such as the Church, officialdom, trade, the law, the lordship or diplomacy contribute to shaping the many variables at play in late medieval societies, and to changing – and challenging – inequality? How did movements and changes in social spaces become visible, and what were their markers? What were the dynamics at the heart of the processes of social mobility in the many territorial contexts of the Italian peninsula?