ABSTRACT Studies of medieval social mobility have tended to focus upon the success of socially ambitious, generally male, careerists. Alongside this tendency to use social mobility as a synonym for upward mobility has been a tradition of assigning the most agency in creating economic change to ambitious entrepreneurs. This article redresses these imbalances by exploring status anxiety and the fear of downward mobility in late medieval England. Using the surviving letter collections of the fifteenth century together with medieval literature, this article explores not only the importance of gender and the life cycle in shaping these fears but also the subtle distinctions between status anxiety, which often accompanied positions of authority, and a fear of imminent social decline, generally precipitated by financial difficulties. Through a reconsideration of demesne lessees and fraternities and guilds, it also shows how such anxieties and fears could affect both rural and urban economic developments.

中文翻译：

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中世纪晚期英格兰对社会流动性下降的恐惧

摘要中世纪社会流动性研究倾向于集中于有雄心壮志的，通常是男性的职业主义者的成功。除了这种将社会流动性作为向上流动性的代名词的趋势之外，一直是在雄心勃勃的企业家中创造最大经济变革权的机构。本文通过探讨身份焦虑和对中世纪晚期英格兰的下迁恐惧感来纠正这些失衡。本文使用15世纪幸存的字母集以及中世纪文学作品，不仅探讨了性别和生命周期在形成这些恐惧感方面的重要性，而且还探讨了经常伴随着权威地位的地位焦虑与恐惧之间的细微区别。即将到来的社会衰落，通常是由于经济困难造成的。