Domestic servants and diffusion of fertility control in Flanders, 1830–1930

This article uses a mixed method approach to analyse whether urban domestic service functioned as a diffusion channel in the fertility decline. The central hypothesis is that nineteenth century female, rural-born domestic servants were influenced by the reproductive habits of their middle and upper-class employers, who were vanguards in the adoption of family size limitation within marriage. This happened via a process of social learning, a mechanism of social influence in heterogeneous social networks. Female domestic servants are an excellent research population to study reproductive ideas and behaviour because they were large in number and had a particular social position in between the working and upper classes and in between rural and urban environments. This paper is unique in its use of qualitative information to analyse social fertility diffusion and in the incorporation of geographical mobility in the statistical part.     

Reproductive behavior and contraceptive practices in comparative perspective,Switzerland (1955–1970)

This paper focuses on marital birth control practices c. 1955–1970, i.e. before the era of widespread uniform adoption of modern contraceptives, in two nearby Swiss cities characterized by different religious cultures. It asks how responsibility for contraceptive practices was shared within the marital couple, whether it was the object of discussion between spouses, how the choice of a method of contraception was made and how religious culture affected these elements. This paper uses written sources reflecting medical authorities' views about birth control and 48 semi-structured interviews with elderly persons from the lower middle and working classes. The results point to three key conclusions. Firstly, the findings show a joint responsibility of both spouses for contraceptive practices. Secondly, the paper shows that religious culture plays a key role in the access to means of birth control. Specifically, Fribourg gynecologists were reluctant to prescribe modern methods. Thirdly, the results underline that a combination of methods are used throughout reproductive life, depending on the spouses' desire to have additional children and on men and women's individual attitudes toward birth control methods.     

Mexican‐American homicide in phoenix, 1980–1991: A comparative and descriptive analysis

Race and ethnicity has emerged as one of the most important variables in explaining differences in homicide perpetration and victimization patterns in the U.S. Most research on minorities and homicide has tended to focus exclusively on African‐Americans, while excluding other minority groups such as Native Americans, and Latinos. In this study we examine patterns of homicide among Mexican Americans in Phoenix from 1980 through June 1991. These patterns are compared to those displayed by non‐Latino African Americans, and non‐Latino whites in Phoenix for the same time period.     

Repression and incitement: A critical demographic,feminist, and transnational analysis of birth control in Estonia, 1920–1939

This article addresses the role of inheritance in the economic well-being of widows in early modern urban Holland. It discusses marital property law and inheritance law, as well as inheritance practices, by analysing marriage contracts and wills. The egalitarian distribution of property and the strong commitment to the nuclear family embedded in law was strengthened by wills. Widows benefited from these tendencies. A comparison with English law points to the strong position of Dutch widows. The legal system enabled widows to continue the household after the death of their spouses and in this respect their situation was remarkably similar to that of widowers.     

The fertility decline in the Dutch province of Limburg, 1880–1960: On understanding historical actors in a constrained environment

The Dutch province of Limburg is mentioned in the European Fertility Project studies because of the fact that its fertility was remarkably high well into the twentieth century and declined only gradually. This article explores the structural background of changes in reproductive behavior in Limburg. The province is economically differentiated in industrial areas and traditional agricultural regions. Also, there is a clear cultural heterogeneity. Using data at the community level, the article analyzes of the economic motivation as well as of the mental acceptation of the introduction of neoMalthusian behavior. The results show that we are better able to explain the variance in behavior as the twentieth century proceeds, and that the factor “economy” appears to be the best predictor, although the effects of a cultural filter become evident.     

Discharge in bankruptcy: a comparative analysis of law and practice between Malaysia,Singapore and the United Kingdom (UK) – What can we learn?

In common law jurisdictions such as Malaysia, United Kingdom and Singapore, bankruptcy law is the legal mechanism in situations where individuals fall into bankruptcy. In the UK, automatic discharge was introduced fifteen years ago. Yet, no equivalent concept of automatic discharge has been introduced in Singapore, while in Malaysia, although a new provision allowing for an automatic discharge of bankrupt was proposed in the new Bankruptcy (Amendment) Bill 2016, it has yet to come into force upon official announcement by the Malaysian authorities. This paper examines and compares the laws and practices of discharge of bankrupts in Malaysia, the UK and Singapore.     

Rehabilitation of abandoned housing projects： A comparative analysis on laws and practices in Peninsular Malaysia,New South Wales and Australia

Even though there are laws and policies promulgated by the Malaysian government to govern housing industry, abandoned housing project is still one of the housing malaises in Peninsular Malaysia. If it is not feasible to rehabilitate the abandoned housing projects, they will be stalled forever to the detriment of the purchasers. Virtually, there is no universal way to resolve this problem due to the fact that issues faced by the stakeholders are different in almost every abandoned housing project. Thus, different methods are absolutely necessary to tackle the problems especially to rehabilitate those projects. To this point, laws and practices in New South Wales, Australia may deserve consideration.     

Powerlessness,isolation, and future expectations: A gender‐based analysis of Korean inmates

This study explored gender differences in perceptions of powerlessness, isolation, and postprison expectation among inmates in the Republic of Korea. Korean women and girls occupy a social location that is characterized by marginalization from the labor force, emphasis on a restrictive gender ideology through family and school socialization, and dependence on the position of their family of origin or, after marriage, their husband for social standing. Given their social location and the socialization that supports and reproduces the social structure, the researchers hypothesized that compared to men in prison, women inmates would express lower levels of control over their own lives, greater feelings of isolation, and be more cynical about their life chances upon release from prison. Each of these hypotheses were supported at both the aggregate‐ and inmate‐level of analysis. The findings suggest the need for gender specific programming within the prison for women.     

Evaluation of portable gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) for the analysis of fentanyl,fentanyl analogs,and other synthetic opioids

Potent synthetic opioids including fentanyl and its analogs are frequently encountered in the field and require detection and identification by first responders to maintain the safety of drug abusers, first responders, health-care providers, and the public at large. Due to the low concentration at which these substances may be encountered and the complicating matrices within which they may be dispersed, the use of portable gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) for their identification in the field offers great potential value. This research established that portable GC–MS is a useful method for the detection and identification of a large number of synthetic opioids, especially fentanyl and its analogs. In this study, 250 synthetic opioids and related substances including 210 fentanyl analogs were analyzed using portable GC–MS. It was concluded that 225 of the 250 (90.0%) opioids analyzed were successfully detected onboard at the time of analysis and identified as either the substance (55.2%) or an analog (34.8%). These outcomes have equivalent benefit for the field analysis of illicit drugs due to both initiating the same subsequent actions by first responders.     

Abandoned and illegitimate,a double mortality penalty? Mortality of illegitimate infants in the foundling hospital of Madrid,La Inclusa (1890–1935)

This paper examines the existence of a mortality penalty for illegitimate abandoned infants in the Foundling Hospital of Madrid, La Inclusa, during the period 1890–1935, in the context of the mortality experience of the city. A rich dataset on the life histories of all infants abandoned in the city of Madrid (almost 60,000 children), nominally linked to births, has allowed the study of the determinants of mortality of foundlings, newborns in the city, and the study of the determinants of abandonment. Contrary to previous findings, our results for La Inclusa show no evidence of an illegitimacy penalty among foundlings and, in some cases, show even better prospects for them. However, this situation did not reflect the circumstances of the city, as illegitimate infants were both more likely to suffer a neonatal death and to be abandoned. The explanation proposed in this paper is that the health of infants born of wedded couples that ended up resorting to abandonment was possibly poorer than that of those born of single or migrant mothers, as the situation triggering abandonment meant that infants were under very hard conditions, possibly worse than those single women faced in the event of a pregnancy.     

Mercy, death, and politics: An analysis of executions and commutations in New York State, 1935–1963

This study focuses on the 249 executions and the 49 commutations not based upon any policy per se of the New York State governors between the years 1935 and 1963. Clemency is an inherently political decision. Therefore, it is expected that groups which are disfavored or viewed as dangerous (blacks, males, felony murderers, and non-youthful offenders) will register higher execution rates than favored groups. Contingency tables and logistic regression analyses offer partial support in that offender race and age are significantly related to final disposition. A draft of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Chicago, IL, 1996. The authors would like to thank Bill Doerner, C. Loftin, A. Lizotte, J. Acker and four anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.     

A death in the family: Household structure and mortality in rural liaoning: Life-event and time-series analysis, 1792–1867

In China before the twentieth century, the household was a locus of social and economic organization in which resources and responsibilities were allocated. This study shows that the structure of the relationships between coresident kin conditioned the allocation process. Through a discrete-time life-event analysis of triennial household register data from a northeast Chinese village, Daoyi, between 1774 and 1873, we find that an individual's probability of dying, which we treat as an indicator of access to resources and the nature of household roles, was affected by the composition of their coresident kin. As is the case in contemporary societies, widows and widowers had higher mortality than the currently married. Orphans had higher mortality than children with at least one parent present. Reflecting the dependence of a wife's status on whether she had produced an heir for her husband, married women in young adulthood and middle age who had at least one son had substantially lower mortality than those without. Reflecting the strength of the claim that elderly males could make on household resources, children with coresident grandfathers had higher mortality than those without. Even though sons were supposed to be a form of old-age security, however, the death rate of the elderly was not reduced by the presence of sons and grandsons.     

A dimension of private life in Wallachia: violence between parents and children (1830–1860)

Violence was present and had different forms in every family during nineteenth-century Wallachia, either rich or poor, in rural or urban areas. Remaining in the shadow, almost never discussed between its members or even in public, this social act shocked the penal courts when it reached a critical point. But, during the century, violence between parents and children knew a constant evolution, visible in normative texts and in any written evidence left behind by the contemporaries. Thus, violence became a dynamic element in defining childhood and parent–child relationships.     

Mapping the landscape of international technology diffusion (1994–2017): network analysis of transnational patents

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Global economic integration is driving countries and companies to increasingly pursue internationalized innovation activities. During this process,...     

Domestic service and female domestic servants: A port-city comparison of Bremen and Liverpool, 1850–1914

The author analyzes the development of domestic service in Bremen and Liverpool as two examples of major commercial ports in the 19th century characterized by significant merchant wealth and casual, dock-related employment. The migration pattern and age structure of domestic servants are examined and key aspects of their employment history are explored in terms of residential location, length of service, and social background of their employers. Census data are used for both port cities (drawing, in particular on the relational database currently being constructed for the Liverpool Mercantile Project), together with the Bremen civil registers for marriages and deaths, and qualitative material, such as diaries and autobiographies from members of the merchant class. By developing an explicitly comparative analysis within the framework of an established typology the article provides a basis for assessing the extent to which the nature of domestic service in the two port cities, as well as the recruitment and retention of domestic servants, was determined by similarities in the growth of merchant wealth and culture or by distinct regional or national characteristics in the underlying pattern of urban migration.     

Kin terminology and the study of kinship: A case study on the Greek island of Syros (1750–1820)

This historical–anthropological study of kinship on the Greek island of Syros examines kin terminology as an indicator of relationships. These terms have been traced in a series of notarial acts dating from 1750 to 1820. Departing from the case study, certain elements of the system of kin terminology have been placed in a broader territorial and cultural context. The aim of this comparative analysis is to achieve a deeper understanding of kinship on the microlevel of the case study. From a methodological point of view, this article points out the need for interdisciplinary research on kinship. History, social anthropology, and ethnology could be possible partners in such an approach.     

Through the meshes of patriarchy:: The Male/Female Relationship in the Saguenay Peasant Society (1860–1930)

This article offers an analysis of women's life and status within the peasant family of the Saguenay region (Quebec) prior to the completion of the settlement process. After a brief survey of the literature in the field, a variety of sources (including several bodies of oral data) is analyzed, offering the conclusions that: (1) it is useful to carefully distinguish between the macro-social or societal level (State, Church, capital …) and the micro-social sphere of the family and the conjugal couple; (2) the societal scale was made up of unambiguously patriarchal powers, norms, and institutions, whereas at the micro-social level, the reality was much more complex and offered a great deal of diversity; (3) societal constraints heavily influenced the conjugal relationship but not in a deterministic way. The latter remained a social area where the women, somehow, remained able to maneuver, to negotiate and to assert themselves; (4) the same can be said of the thesis that male ownership and control of the means of production necessarily entailed subordination and proletarianization of the married women; and (5) it would be fruitful to explore the idea that male domination was mostly rooted and secured not in the family but in the societal arena.     

Colorblind ideology,mass incarceration,and controlling racial images: An intersectional analysis of presidential rhetoric from 1969–1996

Ample research exists on the relationship between mainstream constructions of racialized images and perceptions of criminals. Fewer studies, however, have assessed the influence of political rhetoric in the construction and the mobilization of images of criminals as the “racial other.” This study employs a qualitative content analysis guided by an intersectionality framework to answer the questions: to what extent Presidential rhetoric influenced images of criminals; and how was colorblind language used to facilitate this process? The examination of Presidential speeches related to crime policies, given from 1969 to 1996, revealed that criminal activity was primarily articulated as being committed by “young Black impoverished males.” Through the use of colorblind strategies, race, while not explicitly referenced, was the most salient dimension of the imagery of criminals depicted in Presidential rhetoric.