From Clio Infrastructure
Occupational Structure and Population
Data on occupational structure and population levels provide an extremely detailed and comprehensive quantitative description of an economy. From c.1870 most European states collected and published comprehensive data through national censuses which can therfore be digitised relatively cheaply. Pre-census data needs to be collected from manuscript sources and therefore requires a much greater investment of labour. So far, only the UK has a large-scale pre-census period project aimed at creating large nationally representative occupational datasets, through a project based at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure.
The initial aims of this hub will be to:
- Collect, standardise and disseminate machine-readable datasets of occupational census material, principally at national level (though at a more spatially disaggegated level where supplementary funding allows). The focus over the first three years will therefore be on the period from c.1870 to the present. Work on the pre-census period in the first three years will be limited to (a) making existing UK data available in a consistently coded format; (b) encouraging other researchers to apply for separate funding to undertake similar projects and make their data available to the hub; (c) some small scale funding for pilot projects (with a focus on the period c.1700 to c.1850).
- Collect, standardise and disseminate machine-readable datasets of census-derived population datasets at sub-national level (at a spatial level equivalent to the UK counties or French departments). Work on the pre-census period would be limited to (a) making existing UK datasets for the period 1761-1801 available (b) adding any other datasets made available by other scholars.
General background on research on occupational structure and population
Further details of plans for first three years
Longer term plans
The UK Project
Partner researchers
Visit the website of this hub.
Participant(s) involved
Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure
Sir William Hardy Building
Department of Geography
University of Cambridge
Downing Place
Cambridge
CB2 3EN
England
+44 1223 333181
http://www.hpss.geog.cam.ac.uk/
