Youth labor migration and its family setting, The Netherlands 1850–1940

This article is based on the reconstructed life course patterns of about 1500 adolescent men and women, born between 1833 and 1912 in the Dutch province of Utrecht. The incidence of youth migration is investigated by sex, birth period, and birthplace. The influence of the family on the decision to migrate is analyzed with event history techniques. The results are evaluated in the context of regional customs related to the process of leaving home. A large number of persons, between 30 and 55 percent of all unmarried youths, participated in youth migration. However, family strategies were more directed toward keeping offspring from migrating than toward stimulating them to move.     

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.     

Theorizing strategies: Households and markets in 15th-century Tuscany

This article uses empirical evidence from rural Tuscany in the 15th century to compare three frameworks for conceptualizing household strategies: Chayanov's analysis of the domestic economy, Bourdieu's treatment of social reproduction, and Weber's distinction between budgetary units and profit-making enterprises. Although Bourdieu's framework did not work well in this context because there was little evidence that peasants employed strategies to prevent the division of land, there was considerable evidence to support Chayanov and Weber. As Chayanov predicted, many households allocated labor according to a tradeoff between providing for family members and avoiding drudgery. The Weberian perspective also worked well because it explained why these smallholders often divided their holdings and used money in their household strategies.     

EU citizens: Challenging the notion of German National Political Community, 1990–2005

This article assesses the extent to which Germany's adaptation of European Union legal norms through altering the criteria for access to territory and rights has challenged the judicial and conceptual boundaries of its notion of national political community. It compares the policies that directly affected EU citizens’ and other immigrant groups’ access to German territory, citizenship and social integration programs. It may be seen that, in enjoying a unique and privileged position between Germans and the other foreigners, this group not only challenges and undermines the justification for this very distinction, but also transforms the concept of ‘otherness’.     

Infant mortality in town and countryside: northern Germany, ca. 1750–1850

The discussion still continues among researchers about the causes for the decline in infant mortality in widespread parts of Europe at the turn of the 19th century. This article is based on sources such as unpublished statistical material from Prussia, parish registers, and lineage and village genealogies. As these sources are broken down by town and countryside and into various phases of infant mortality, they provide evidence for further reflection that may be fruitful. Thus, several causes for the decrease in infant mortality and ways of diffusion can be excluded and the impact of others delimited. The present study concludes that research should pay more attention to changes in infant care than it usually does.     

Reassessing the family-delinquency association: Do family type, family processes, and economic factors make a difference?

The present study drew on four competing theoretical perspectives to examine the relationship between family structure and juvenile delinquency. Using data from the Add Health Study, the authors examined nonserious and serious delinquent behavior across youth from different types of households and also considered how the association between family structure and delinquency might be conditioned by family processes and economic factors. Results from negative binomial regression analyses indicated that, in general, type of household was not a significant predictor of nonserious or serious delinquency. Rather, maternal attachment emerged as the most important determinant of delinquent behavior among youth from all family types. The results are discussed within the context of Hirschi's original interpretation of social control theory and future directions for research are suggested.     

Said and Unsaid: State Legislative Signaling to State Courts over Same Sex Marriage 1990–2004

From 1990 through 2004, same sex marriage emerged as a major policy issue. In responding to this controversial policy issue, many state legislatures demonstrated unusual behavior. A substantial minority of state legislatures continued to introduce new legislative bills on this topic long after the legal position of the respective state would indicate that the state had articulated a recognized and settled policy. In this article, we propose that the apparently aberrant behavior of these state legislatures can be explained in part by consideration of legislative signaling directed toward state courts. Specifically, we consider the attempt of state legislators to discourage intervention by the state courts around some policy issues.     

Heroin Overdose Deaths and Heroin Purity Between 1990 and 2000 in Istanbul,Turkey*

Abstract: Turkey has continuously experienced problems with abuse of, and addiction to, opium derivatives. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between heroin overdose deaths and the characteristics of seized opium derivatives. Data were gathered from the Council of Forensic Medicine of the Ministry of Justice in Istanbul from 1990 to 2000. There were 636 heroin‐related deaths during this period, 595 of which were classified as heroin overdose deaths. Mean crude and weighted heroin purities remained relatively constant and were calculated to be 46% (57–34%) and 51% (39–59%), respectively. The weight of heroin and the number of heroin seizures, but not the heroin purity, were significantly associated with the number of heroin‐related deaths. Prevention strategies are needed to reduce the number of deaths caused by overdoses in countries situated on drug trafficking routes. These strategies should focus on drug trafficking, by providing increased levels of, and support for, law enforcement, stopping the supply of precursor chemicals, and combating corruption among border officials.     

The stem family and labour markets: Reflections on households and firms in Japan's economic development

This paper examines a view that the traditional stem family system was one of the preconditions for Japan's modern economic development, focusing on labour markets and skill formation practices. The paper begins with a brief look at the Japanese stem family household formation rules. Then, exploration is made, first, on the self-employed, the largest sector of the early modern economy; second, the merchant house and its employment patterns as an origin of present day large corporations' employment system and skill formation and human capital management practices; and third, workshop industries, which formed middle and lower layers of the manufacturing sector in the period of industrialisation. Finally, women's marriage behaviour is examined in relation to labour markets, especially changes in real wages. All this is an attempt to go some way towards a better understanding of the ways in which the family economy and corporate firms worked in economic development, rather than to suggest an alternative hypothesis on the relationship between family and household factors and subsequent economic development.     

Patriarchy and changing family strategies: Class and gender in the Dominican Republic

This article explores the issue of ideologies of family formation and their influence on the concept of family strategies. It assesses the influence of patriarchal ideas using a historical case study of a rural village in the Dominican Republic as point of departure. The principal focus is the importance of patriarchal ideologies for class and gender relations. The article argues that the analysis of family strategies should take into account the context of class relations in the countryside and the influence of hegemonic ideologies on the gender relations within rural families. These factors led to specific strategies of rural families, but at the same time for diverging and often contradictory attitudes between individual family members.     

Reconstructing ‘conflict of interest’ in financial markets: Private management, public challenges, future prospects

Following widespread criticism of financial market (self-)regulation, there is a shift in regulatory mood, explored here with reference to evolving conceptions of conflict of interest. The pre-crisis distinction between conflict of interest (normal, manageable) and its exploitation (unacceptable, legally actionable) has become somewhat eroded, as exemplified by the SEC’s 2010 civil fraud action against investment bank Goldman Sachs. However the settlement of that case on the basis of ‘mistake’ left many questions unanswered: about the meaning(s) of conflict of interest, about managerial mistake versus exploitative intent in administrative/civil cases and equally about the potential for action under criminal law. Looking forward, a judgement of the European Court of Justice on insider trading – concerning a rebuttable assumption of intent – could be taken as a template for ‘drawing the line’ on conflict of interest. Acting on the basis of informational asymmetry could be taken as an indicator of intent and serious wrongdoing unless financial market actors can demonstrate otherwise.     

Reforming Leasehold: Discursive Events and Outcomes, 1984–2000

This article uses discourse analysis to explore and explain the limits of ongoing efforts to resolve the problems experienced by long leaseholders living in private flats in England and Wales. Attention is focused on the position of leasehold within the three discourses of property law, housing, and housing law, as revealed through the language used in legislation, consultation papers, Law Commission reports, political statements, media representations, and the accounts of leaseholders themselves. The implementation gap between legislative intentions and effects, so often neglected in discussion of housing policy, is explored. The article considers policy and legislation in the light of a metanarrative encompassing all aspects of the multi-occupancy of blocks of flats.     

Lawyers and Politics in France, 1814–1950: The State, the Market, and the Public

Throughout the 19th century, lawyers in France were deeply involved in political action to pursue an overriding goal–to become recognized as spokesmen for the public. This strategy governed their history; it explains their brilliant social ascent and their subsequent slow decline. As long as the conflict between state and civil society raged, lawyers were able to we assets–political mobilization, the power of the word, the esteem enjoyed by law–which had allowed them faithfully to embody public opinion in its struggle to limit state powers. From this embodiment of public ideals they derived independence, prestige, and a dominant position in the state. But when the nature of the political regime ceased to be a bone of contention and when public life became organized around other cleavages, lawyers were gradually deprived of their representative function. This marked the beginning of a social decline that became visible between the two world wars and lasted until the 1950s.