Het Verenigingsleven op het Hagelandse Platteland. Sociale Polarisatie en Middenveldparticipatie in de 17e En 18e Eeuw

Abstract

__Abstract__ \n \nThis article aims at examining lay clubs and religious associations in rural seventeenth \nand eighteenth century Brabant, by testing some recent sociological \nconclusions concerning present social life. While the structures of lay clubs where \nmore democratic, religious clubs were less open. All members of lay clubs were \nenabled to participate in the administration of their association. Also, frequent \nsocial interaction in such societies promoted horizontal values among their \nmembers. In religious clubs, interactions between board and members where \nbased on hierarchal relations, and only vertical relations where stimulated. \nMembership of lay associations was limited in a way as well: a refined pattern of \nmanners distinguished members of lay societies already in the fifteenth century. \nThis social separation was consolidated in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, \nas poor inhabitants were excluded from the lay societies