Abstract EN:

Through the study of the bakers of lyon, the aim of this thesis is to analyse an example of middle class shopkeepers in the 19th and 20th centuries. This choice of the bakery trade is not arbitrary. Indeed, like any other small firm, a bakerly is characterized mainly by the economic independence if its owners. But, besides this criterion, one must stress the impact of the product bakers sell : bread, a symbolic and vital food stuff in whose aura its producers bask. First we shall have to understand how the bread market functions. Thus, we shall study the changes in the regulations of the bread trade, and also the evolution of lyon, the target town, on the demographic, social and economic level. Once we have presented the contingencies particular to this trade, contingencies to which bakers have to adapt themselves, we shall examine the ways this trade can be entered. This we shall do by surveying the geographic and social origins of bakers and ol their indispensable colleagues : their wives. We shall analyse how the image and the status of bakers in the social network of a district influence the way one becomes a baker. From sources as varied as notarial deeds and proverbs emerge a picture of bakery and a measure of its social importance, both of which can't help but evolve under the pressure of exterior contingencies. Finally, these small shopkeepers will be studied in their diversity, through o typological analysis which will enable us to bring out the different types of career and levels of wealth. This typology will allow us to place the bakers of lyon in a perspective of social mobility all along the 19th and 20th centuries.