DR, Research Fellow Tiina Miettinen
The focus of the research is on employees and landless families and particularly the emergence of a landless population in Western Finland, especially in the Häme and Pirkanmaa areas from the 18th to the 19th centuries. Miettinen has conducted a lot of research on Western Finland’s manor houses from the 17th to the 19th century, as well as local changes in the demographic structure caused by the creation of large estates. The large estates of the nobility created a new kind of social rotation, which increased the growth of landlessness while at the same time employing the local population. Changes in local habits, storytelling and traditions are often related to the creation of manor houses and changes in the social structure of the surrounding area.
Because of the increased birth rate, many farm owners’ children ended up landless in the late 18th century and the early 19th century. An important target for research are young adults who left their home and moved from one place to another looking for a job before they got married. Miettinen also examines differences, disabled women and their role in a peasant community, where, according to traditional beliefs, the ability to work defined one’s position and their whole survival.
The increase in landlessness affected women, whose status was dependent on the husband’s social class and status. Marriage was an important factor, because it provided a woman with appreciation and economic security. The illegitimate birth rate rose to a high level in the late 18th century because of the social structure, as social class was the key factor in marrying someone.