Occupational titles? Hard to eat, easy to catch

Economic modernisation in the 19 and 20 century and the (almost) concomitant rise of modern science intensified the debates on the nature and the change of social stratification. Since then, measuring social positions is a central task of almost any researcher who examines the past. Both the theories and data sources that are today used by historians and sociologists to measure social positions have their roots in this period.