The urban household in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1900–2000: Patterns of family formation in a turbulent century

Starting from census data on co-residence and household composition, the authors analyse principles of family organisation and family formation in twentieth-century urban Russia and the Soviet Union. The article uses an adapted version of the classification of households developed by Peter Laslett and Eugene Hammel to study variation in household structure for successive population censuses. Changes in this variation between cross-sections are explained with the help of additional quantitative and qualitative data and are linked to the fundamental demographic, social and economic shifts which took place in Russian society in the course of the twentieth century. The article finds a family system characterised by a tendency towards nuclear family formation, but incorporating a fairly stable element of household extension. Co-residence of three generations was both an answer to a perennial housing problem and offered important advantages in the sphere of childcare and care for the elderly. Variation and fluctuation in household structure are found to be most pronounced during the turbulent first half of the century. After a period of stability during the post-war decades of Soviet rule, post-Soviet transformations provoke new changes.     

Norms,economic conditions and household formation: A case study of the Arab world

Very little work has examined the question of household structure in the Arab region, despite the fact that there has been speculation that changes in household patterns have been occurring in recent years due to modernization, urbanization and changing marriage patterns. Using a number of primary data sources, including household surveys from Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Egypt, as well as analysis by historians that uses archival sources, this paper compares household structure patterns across time and space, to answer the question—how have household patterns changed and do observed changes provide insights into the impact norms and/or structural factors have and will play in shaping household patterns? The data suggest that while often perceived as being the dominant household structure, extended family households are not the norm in the Arab world, nor have they necessarily predominated since the 1800s. In addition, patterns vary considerably across communities, with extended family households occurring more frequently in Syria and Yemen. Some trends that provide insight into the future, as well as being suggestive of possible changes in norms, include: the rising age of marriage; the increasing likelihood that women in particular will never marry; and the increasing ease, despite high levels of youth unemployment, for young people, including young women, to set up their own households. These trends also raise numerous questions about how much changes that are occurring are a function of individual choice or are shaped by cultural or economic pressures. Patterns currently being observed also provide insights into changes that are likely to occur in the future, since current trends suggest that future household patterns may be quite different in the coming years, and that youth, and in particular young women, may be in the process of gaining more autonomy in a number of countries.     

The Jewish population and family in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the second half of the 18th century

The sources that can be employed to examine demographic aspects of the Jewish population and family in 18th-century Poland–Lithuania are sparse and mostly fiscal in origin. Since this source material has been preserved only for some periods and regions, few generalizations can be made. First, the authors have referred to the most comprehensive census that was carried out in 1791 by household in Cracow province (województwo krakowskie). It does not allow for detailed family reconstitution, however. Although extended/multiple family households might have been fairly common, the two-generational conjugal family unit seems to have prevailed, and no more than four nuclear families lived in one house. In addition, the age at first marriage was influenced only to a limited extent by the traditional practice of early marriage.     

对我国政府与非政府组织合作的实践探索——以公共社区管理为基点

近年来,政府与非政府组织在公共事务管理领域中的合作一直受到学术界的关注。本文阐述了政府与非政府组织合作的现实基础,并以公共社区管理为基点,对我国政府与非政府组织在实践中的合作做了初步的探索。     

Marriage and household in the Belgrade elite at the beginning of the 20th century: The Novaković family

After centuries of Ottoman dominance, the emergence of a Christian elite in 19th century Serbia was a new phenomenon. The princedom's administrative, court and military staff mostly assembled Serbians from both Ottoman and Habsburg territories, joined by Tsintsar (Aromunian), German, and other minorities. This staff grew into a small urban upper class until 1900, presenting itself in a gentrified, Western-oriented, but nationally conscious manner. This article explores its marriage and household patterns in a case study. It is based on the rich collection of family letters preserved in the estate of former prime minister Stojan Novaković.     

Juridifications and religion in early modern Europe: The challenge of a contextual history of law

To end Europe's great cycle of religious wars, some early modern states imposed a secular ‘rule of law’ in spheres of life previously governed by religion. The following essay compares two instances of this basic fact of seventeenth-century European political history, one German and the other English. In these different religious and political settings, different juridifications were undertaken that do not reduce to manifestations of a single underlying process of social change. Considered in a legal-historical light, early modern juridifications therefore invite a clear disciplinary alternative to the socio-theoretical and socio-critical perspective on juridification associated with Jürgen Habermas. The larger challenge on behalf of legal history is to end the subordination of historical method to critical social theory. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Free and unfree labor in Qing China: Emigration and escape among the bannermen of northeast China, 1789–1909

Though internal migration in China during the Qing era (1644–1911) was mostly unrestricted, the government tightly controlled the movement of peasants who worked state lands in frontier regions and certain other locations. Such peasants accounted for 5–10% of China's population. In the state farms of northeast China, households could move legally only from one place to another within the system. Departure from the system was illegal. In this article, one of the first quantitative studies of migration in late imperial China, we apply discrete-time event-history methods to longitudinal, nominative household register data from six northeast Chinese state farm systems to compare how characteristics of the farm system, village, and household influenced the chances of legal moves and illegal departures. We show that among these state peasants, who were supposedly “unfree,” migration was not uncommon. We also show that the determinants of legal and illegal migration differed substantially. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for our understanding of migration processes in late imperial China.     

The adaptation of American business school teaching techniques in Lesotho,Africa: A case study

This study deals with the transfer of American business school technology to the National University of Lesotho. The study considers the nature of the transfer process, the local innovations to the education program, and the role of the government of Lesotho in the transfer. Appropriate recommendations are offered to further improve the effectiveness of the educational package and its effect on the economic development of Lesotho.     

Survival strategies of widows and their families in early modern Holland, c. 1580–1750

This article analyses the impact of widowhood upon women in early modern urban society in Holland. Widows were able to maintain their households and to minimize the discontinuity with their lives when married. A remarkably egalitarian inheritance and marital property law, access to a broad range of occupations, a privileged status, an extended poor relief system, institutionalised mutual assistance and new forms of financial provisions for widows enabled widows to survive after the loss of an adult male breadwinner. However, legal rights, social provisions and economic opportunities available to women in the Dutch Golden Age and thereafter, could not prevent social polarization after women lost their spouse.     

Patterns of family formation: Marriage and fertility timing in Bulgaria at the turn of the twenty-first century — A case-study of Sofia

In this paper, we discuss the changes in the process of family formation in Bulgaria at the end of the twentieth century. Studying the ideal patterns of family formation and the place of children and marriage within them, we offer six typological models. Based on recent population developments and social values changes, we argue that the Hajnal line and the associated hypothesis concerning the existence of separate Eastern and Western Marriage Patterns are irrelevant for understanding the present demographic situation. Attempts to update the line to accommodate recent developments are counter-productive as they obscure the commonality of demographic processes at work across the European continent.     

The Treaty of Nice: The Sharing of Power and the Institutional Balance in the European Union—A Continental Perspective

This paper presents an initial response to the conclusions of the Nice Summit and the new EU Treaty which emerged from it. It consists of two parts: in the first I discuss the climate in which the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) took place and the opening positions of the Institutions, the Member States, and the applicant countries. The results achieved at Nice are set out in the second part, with special emphasis on the themes that mark a shift of power within the Community's institutional architecture; i.e. the extension of qualified‐majority voting in the Council and the co‐decision procedure with the European Parliament, the reweighting of votes and the composition of the Institutions with a view to an enlargement which is both imminent and unprecedented in the history of the EU. I conclude that while the results of the IGC and the new Treaty of Nice fall short of what is needed in an EU with ambitions on a continental scale, they do mark another stage in the process of European integration and the permanent evolution of its constitution. In this sense, the balance of power is likely to be different from what it has been in the past. The Franco‐German axis has been severely weakened, the UK and Spain seem to be determined to play a central role, and the smaller countries are seeking to retain some influence over how the process works. New alliances are likely to emerge, particularly after enlargement, with Germany in search of a dominant position, France desperately trying to preserve the status quo, and the UK wanting to influence the direction of moves towards integration from the inside. Nice seems to mark an interim stage in this process. A new IGC has already been scheduled for 2004. There is no doubt that the post‐Nice period will be one of transition towards a new distribution of power within the EU, sanctioned by a new, highly constitutional treaty.     

Economic change and demographic continuity: The demography of Borne and Wierden (the Netherlands) in the period of proto- and factory industry, 1800–1900

"The article tests some central hypotheses from theories of proto-industrialization. The work of Mendels and Medick suggests that prolonged intensification of cottage industry on a regional level will have significant consequences for nuptiality and fertility. Two family reconstitution studies in the Dutch region of Twente, an area with proto-industrial activities (linen weaving) since the second half of the seventeenth century, showed that with respect to nuptiality, there are no indications of the existence of a proto-industrial or industrial marriage pattern. It is argued that its absence, in spite of intensive cottage and factory industry in the region, can be attributed to the existence, on the level of the family, of a dual economy in which agriculture and textiles production supplemented each other well into the twentieth century."     

技术创新乘数效应的发生机理及路径选择——一个新的理论分析框架

技术创新乘数效应是一个有待拓展的重要理论命题。考察技术创新乘数效应的内在运行机理可以发现,技术创新乘数效应是通过规模经济、范围经济、联结经济和速度经济等形态生成的,并与福特制、丰田制和温特制等组织载体相耦合。因此,中国应通过多种路径为充分发挥技术创新乘数效应创造条件。     

The determinants of health policy, a case study: regulating safety and health at the workplace in Sweden

This article analyzes and criticizes the " technocratic " view of occupational health and safety policies, which sees the values of the personnel in "post-industrial" regulatory agencies as the most important determinant of those policies. It takes an alternate position, which explains occupational health and safety policies as primarily resulting from the different degrees of political power of the two major classes (capital and labor), and from the set of influences exerted on the regulatory agencies by the instruments (e.g., parties, unions, trade organizations) of those classes. It shows how an analysis of the historical evolution of those classes in Sweden and their conflict in both civil and political societies explains Swedish occupational health and safety policies better than a mere analysis of the regulators' views. And it concludes that the occupational health and safety policies in Sweden are not identical to those in the U.S.--as the " technocratic " theorists assume--but rather offer more protection to the workers than U.S. policies do. This situation is a result of labor having more power in Sweden than it has in the U.S. The different class formations and class behavior in the two societies are compared, and the implications of this comparison for occupational health and safety policies are discussed.     

The exploitation of Business Register data from a public sector information and data protection perspective: A case study

Business Registers (BRs) are a very important information resource for investors, creditors, financial institutions and public authorities. The possibility to aggregate and interconnect these data at a European level could enhance the transparency of companies towards those actors and add a great deal of value to the raw Business Register data. The European BRITE project intended to provide adequate tools to meet these demands. BRITE will provide easier access and cross-border interoperability of Business Register data throughout Europe. On the other hand, the processing of BR data within the BRs and BRITE triggers several important European legislations such as the Data Protection Directive and the Directive on the re-use of public sector information. In this paper, the processing of BR data will be analysed from the perspective of both data protection and public sector information laws, analysing as well the relation between both regulations. Do these regulations strike an optimal balance between the interests of private data vendors to re-use BR data and enhance business transparency and the need to protect the personal data of natural persons?     

How women use family networks to facilitate migration: A comparative study of Irish and Polish women in Britain

Within migration studies there has been a tendency to focus on a single case study of a particular national group. Adopting a comparative approach may raise new and interesting questions or challenge conventional thinking on migration. While on the surface, at least, Irish and Polish migrants would appear to have many commonalities, there has been surprisingly little comparative analysis of these two groups. Drawing on my own research on these migrants in the British context, I focus on women as a large but under-researched aspect of both groups. This paper suggests ways in which such a comparison could be undertaken by using social networks as a useful comparative tool. A social networks perspective not only allows a probing analysis of migration strategies, but also provides a framework within which to compare across different migrant groups, such as for example, examining the role of family networks (here and there) in migration processes. In addition, this approach enables an examination of dynamism over time and how migrants develop relationships within spatially dispersed as well as locally embedded ties.     

Allele frequencies of nine STR loci—D16S539, D7S820, D13S317, CSF1PO, TPOX, TH01, F13A01, FESFPS and vWA—in the population from Alagoas, northeastern Brazil

The polymorphism of nine STR loci has been studied in a sample of 598 individuals from the population of Alagoas, Northeastern Brazil. Determination of the allele frequencies as well as of several commonly used statistics in forensic and paternity testing were defined. The most polymorphic loci were TH01 and D7S317. The exact test demonstrated that the nine loci analyzed in the population have no deviation from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (P>0.05).     

Urban infant mortality and religion at the end of the nineteenth and in the early twentieth century: the case of Ekaterinburg,Russia

Modern demographers analyse regional and other infant mortality differentials as important factors behind the current life expectancy of Russian citizens. Historically, however, the Russian Empire is simply displayed as one block with high infant mortality rates. Also with respect to cultural background factors, Russia is often perceived as religiously homogeneous with the Orthodox Church dominating the country. In reality, Russia has a long history of coexisting religious traditions. This includes both provinces with a majority of Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists or shamanistic populations as well as territories characterized by religious diversity and significant minority religions. Our project studies minority religious groups in the Urals, a province by the Ural Mountains stretching into Asia. While no territory can claim to be truly representative of this mega-country, we believe that this centrally located province is well suited to show some of the Russian variety, including differential infant mortality among the followers of minority religions, which is the topic of this article. We employ church record microdata to study Catholics, Jews and Old Believers in the main metal-producing city of Ekaterinburg.