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

Abstract

This article aims at examining lay clubs and religious associations in rural seventeenth and eighteenth century Brabant, by testing some recent sociological conclusions concerning present social life. While the structures of lay clubs where more democratic, religious clubs were less open. All members of lay clubs were enabled to participate in the administration of their association. Also, frequent social interaction in such societies promoted horizontal values among their members. In religious clubs, interactions between board and members where based on hierarchal relations, and only vertical relations where stimulated. Membership of lay associations was limited in a way as well: a refined pattern of manners distinguished members of lay societies already in the fifteenth century. This social separation was consolidated in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, as poor inhabitants were excluded from the lay societies.