Alexander Mayer

Universität der Bundeswehr

Egodocuments as a Source for the History of Meritocratic Attitudes and Aspirations to Social Mobility in the 19th and 20th Centuries 

This paper presents a methodological reflection based on experiences gained from a research project on the social and cultural history of meritocracy and social mobility (c. 1850–1975). This project aims to show how people from underprivileged social backgrounds came to believe that they or their children could achieve upward social mobility through their own efforts.

This research is based on 530 egodocuments from men and women originating from the working class and the lower middle class in German-speaking Central Europe. The sample comprises autobiographical texts, both published and unpublished, as well as pre-existing narrative interviews. The authors and interviewees were born mostly between 1830 and 1955. The paper shows how ego-documents can be employed to explain how aspirations to social mobility and meritocratic attitudes originated and spread throughout society by focusing on the role of reported expectations, hopes, and disappointments. I aim to show the advantages of working with a large number of ego-documents instead of a small number of case studies. A broad sample can be analysed by using qualitative data analysis software, which allows for the combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches