Cambio e Historia: necesidades y posibilidades del análisis historiográfico a través de las "experiencias de transformación"

Abstract

Resumen: El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo hacer una revisión de algunos problemas metodológicos del análisis historiográfico del cambio social. Se pre­tende superar la idea esencial de que las transfor­maciones sociales adoptan formas de transiciones entre modelos de sociedad, se quiere subrayar la complejidad de las mutaciones y se intenta recla­mar un examen de los cambios a través de una disección micro. Se propone lo que hemos deno­minado «experiencias de transformación» como un instrumento para indagar en los procesos de cambio y como un medio para abordar la com­plejidad de los factores que están en juego. Esto significa estudiar los cambios sociales desde los episodios micro de la vida social, es decir, analizar todos los momentos vividos en relación con ciertas mutaciones sociales en contextos determinados y las formas en que los individuos reaccionan, perci­ben, gestionan, negocian, promueven o, incluso, se resisten a los cambios. Aunque el trabajo no abor­da una cronología específica, gran parte de las re­flexiones proceden de los problemas que emergen en el estudio de los siglos XVIII y XIX.Palabras clave: cambio social, teoría, metodología, experien­cias de transformación, siglo XVIII, siglo XIX.Abstract: The main objective of this present paper is to review some methodological problems of the historical analysis of social change; the aim is to overcome the idea that postulates that social transformations adopt forms of transitions be­tween models of society. This works seeks to em­phasize the complexity of mutations and try to claim an examination through a micro dissection of changes. With this aims, it is proposed what has been called «experiences of transformation» as a way to investigate the processes of change and as a means to address the complexity of the fac­tors that were playing. This means studying social changes through the micro episodes of social life; that is, analyzing all the moments that individu­als lived in relation to certain social mutations in specific contexts and the ways in which they re­acted, perceived, managed, negotiated, promoted or even resisted changes. Although the work does not address a specific chronology, much of the re­flections come from the problems that emerge in the study of the eighteenth and nineteenth cen­turies.Key words: social change, theory, methodology, expe­riences of transformation, 18th century, 19th century.

The Changing Strength of Siblings

“…34 Naval officers suffered the most because the resources allocated to the naval institution were minimal; throughout the first third of the century, it was common for officers not to receive their salary in time-the payment of wages was often delayed, and complete defaults were not rare-and the pensions granted to widows and orphans were also problematic. 35 Horizontal relationships increased and reached maximum figures; 73 percent of the officers had links of reciprocity and trust with their siblings. It should be noted that the number of economic ties increased considerably-from 16.6 percent to 23.8 percent-and this can be explained by the precarious economic position in which the group lived.…”