Perspectives on the peasantries of Europe

A collected volume on The Peasantries of Europe: From the Fourteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries, edited by Tom Scott, is reviewed. It contains an Introduction by Scott; papers on France (Jonathan Dewald and Liana Vardi), Iberia (Teofilo F. Ruiz), Italy (S.R. Epstein), Western Germany (Thomas Robisheaux), East‐Elbian Germany and Poland (William W. Hagen), the Austrian Empire (Hermann Rebel), Russia (Edgar Melton), the Ottoman Empire (Fikret Adanir), Scandinavia (David Gaunt) and England (Richard M. Smith); and a concluding essay (John Langton). The volume's scope and the claims made on its behalf, as a work of major historiographic importance, are noted; the theoretical/ methodological intent and the authors’ remit identified; and the individual papers considered critically. It provides a useful depiction of the specificities of a wide range of European peasantries. It is, however, in several ways, analytically defective. This is so, it is argued, inasmuch as the authors’ quest for diversity turns out to be unhelpful; it is structured by an inadequate political economy, seen in an absence, or deficient treatment, of various crucial themes — most notably sharecropping, differential land productivity, social differentiation, and the state; and the volume has major shortcomings in terms of comparative history (including a curious neglect of the influential work of Robert Brenner).

The Peasantries of Europe: From the Fourteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries, edited by Tom Scott. London and New York: Longman. 1998. Pp.xi + 416. £44 (hardback); £19.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 582 10132 8 and 10131 X     

The German intelligence estimates in the west, 1885–1914

Little has been known of German intelligence estimates prior to the First World War. The recent discovery of several German intelligence documents, including a classified history of German pre-war intelligence operations which was written during the inter-war period, in addition to some important German pre-war intelligence analysis, now gives considerable insight into the German intelligence estimates as well as their relationship to German war planning from 1885 to 1914.     

Architects of the State: International Financial Institutions and the Reconstruction of States in East Asia

For international financial institutions (IFIs), it is a continuing puzzle why the global norms they propagate are enacted either reluctantly or not at all. This article shows that failures of enactment and implementation frequently occur because many IFI‐initiated law reforms go far beyond changing the law; they amount to a restructuring of the state itself and the accompanying redistributions of power. This article demonstrates how state restructuring can occur in a technical area of commercial law by reanalyzing the ways global and transnational designs of corporate bankruptcy regimes fared between 1998 and 2006 in three countries variously affected by the Asian financial crisis: China, Indonesia, and South Korea. State restructuring occurred by (1) shifting the boundary between the market and state, (2) shifting power inside the state, and (3) vesting new powers in the state. The article identifies the recursive dynamics through which the changes unfolded and shows how variations in the efficacy of international architects of the state can be attributed to the interplay of four sets of factors: the coherence of global norms, the relative power of global versus state actors, domestic demand and mobilization for restructuring, and the extent of state restructuring that reforms will induce.     

Discussion Law & Society Review at Fifty: A Debate on the Future of Publishing by the Law & Society Association

This contribution presents a series of statements on the future of publishing by the Law & Society Review and the Law & Society Association generally. Framed by the first author's introductory and concluding comments are contributions by Halliday, Liu, Morrill, Seron, and Silbey. This debate, based on a LSR 50th anniversary panel held at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the LSA, is intended to open up a broader conversation among members of the Association. Positions by individual contributors can only be linked to them and not to the group of contributors.     

Family Firms,Networks and ‘Ethnic Enterprise’: Chinese Food Industry in Britain

Chinese family enterprises in the United Kingdom have penetrated many different sectors of the economy, including restaurants, wholesaling, retailing, trading, manufacturing, property development, computer services and investment holding. Among the companies in these sectors, those involved in different segments of the food industry, as manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers, reputedly feature characteristics of Chinese culture. A majority of these enterprises, for example, function as family firms. This study explores the assertion that, among companies owned by ethnic minorities, culture strongly influences form of business development. This argument will be assessed through a focus on Chinese food-based enterprises in the UK. Two family-controlled companies, Seven Seas (Frozen Food) Ltd and Dayat Foods Packaging Ltd, were selected as case studies as they are involved in key business components of the Chinese food chain industry. Through an in-depth comparative study of the history and development of these two firms, we consider the argument that Chinese businesses have evolved well because of family ties and their inclusion in mutually-beneficial ethnically-constructed networks. Through these case studies, we provide an alternative perspective to diasporic Chinese business development which brings into question the extensive use of the concept of ethnic enterprise.

The Impact of Parental Stressors on the Intergenerational Transmission of Antisocial Behavior

We examine the extent to which parental antisocial behavior is related to child antisocial behavior and, if it is, the extent to which the effect is mediated by parental stressors and by parenting behaviors. In particular, we examine two sources of stress–depressive symptoms and exposure to negative life events. The study is based on data from the Rochester Intergenerational Study, a prospective multi-generation panel study. The parent sample is 73% male and 27% female and predominantly African American (69%); the child sample consists of each parent’s oldest biological child. We find significant levels of intergenerational continuity in antisocial behavior for mothers and for fathers who live with or supervise their child, but not for fathers who have low levels of contact with their child. Results of structural equation models of mediating pathways are similar for mothers and for supervisory fathers. Of the two stressors we examine, depressive symptoms appears to be the more consistent mediator. It, both directly and indirectly via its impact on parenting behaviors, influences the child’s early onset of antisocial behavior. The results imply that childhood antisocial behavior has deep roots, extending back to the parent’s adolescent development.

School Disengagement as a Predictor of Dropout, Delinquency, and Problem Substance Use During Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Over the past 5 years, a great deal of attention has been paid to the development of early warning systems for dropout prevention. These warning systems use a set of indicators based on official school records to identify youth at risk for dropout and then appropriately target intervention. The current study builds on this work by assessing the extent to which a school disengagement warning index predicts not only dropout but also other problem behaviors during middle adolescence, late adolescence, and early adulthood. Data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (N = 911, 73% male, 68% African American, and 17% Latino) were used to examine the effects of a school disengagement warning index based on official 8th and 9th grade school records on subsequent dropout, as well as serious delinquency, official offending, and problem substance use during middle adolescence, late adolescence, and early adulthood. Results indicate that the school disengagement warning index is robustly related to dropout as well as serious problem behaviors across the three developmental stages, even after controlling for important potential confounders. High school dropout mediates the effect of the warning index on serious problem behaviors in early adulthood.     

Chinese networks and enterprise development: Malaysian investments in China

This study assesses the argument that common ethnic identity has facilitated the creation of transnational business networks leading to the rise of a new economically powerful “global tribe” comprising ethnic Chinese from East and Southeast Asia. The primary contention in this article is that a network with the economic clout of a “global tribe” would entail interlocking stock-ownership ties, a sharing of resources and cooperation to the point of merger. Through an in-depth analysis of investments in China by ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, this article proves that even major Chinese-owned companies have little or no interlocking stock ownership and directorate links, either domestically or across borders, with other Chinese-owned companies. The growing inflow of investments into China by ethnic Chinese from Southeast Asia is primarily due to endeavours by government leaders in the region and China to encourage businesses to invest in the Mainland.