Societal openness during the urban crisis. Partner selection in the 19th-century Belgian textile cities Ghent and Verviers

This paper examines the partner selection of the lower classes during an urban crisis period in early industrial Belgian cities. It was found that in this period characterized by an economic transition, overpopulation, migration and a low standard of living, social heterogamy was high, whereas social homogamy increased, or was ‘restored’, in the subsequent period. The urban crisis effect on partner selection contradicts the claims of modernization theory that there was a gradual increase in societal openness and that societal openness was typically modern, but it fits the idea of the informalization of marriage, a process marked by an increase in unmarried cohabitation and illegitimacy.     

Science in Policy-Making: Neutral Experts or Strategic Policy-Makers?

Although many policy process and diffusion theories follow the premise that scientific and technological knowledge plays a crucial role in a wide variety of policy fields, very few empirically assess the impact that institutional and process-relevant factors may have on the position of science within a process. The present study addresses the question of what role science plays in policy processes. To answer this, we apply the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and investigate three complementary assumptions using a qualitative comparison of four cases: the ACF claims that scientific experts can take very different positions in the policy process, depending on how conflictive or consensus-oriented the relations among actors and coalitions are within a so-called policy subsystem. Put differently, the type of subsystem impacts on the position of science within the process. The results show that subsystem-specific factors impact upon whether scientific representatives act at the periphery of a process or as policy brokers seeking feasible policy solutions.     

Terra incognita: Migration of the elderly and the nuclear hardship hypothesis

This article deals with out-migration of elderly in a 19th-century rural society undergoing major economical and social changes. The first aim is to shed light on the particularities of the old-age migration, concentrating on out-migration because the migratory balance stayed negative during the entire period of observation. The migration intensity and the destination areas give a background and reopen the question of the geographical immobility of the elderly. The second goal is to identify some variables that incited some people to leave at an age when neither job nor the will to start a family could justify it. This search for explanatory factors of old-age mobility operates from a thematic scope, that of the nuclear hardship hypothesis.

This article differs from demographic analyses on aging that were generally made at an aggregate level, based on national statistics. It also differs from the implicit or explicit assumption of old-age immobility found in family history studies. In the Pays de Herve, family relations and the position of the oldest in the household determined standard of living more than economic conjunctures or the social structure.     

An Assessment of the Recast of Community Equality Laws

Abstract:  This article explores some of the issues arising from the decision taken in 2003 to 'recast for modernisation' the directives on equal treatment between men and women. It examines the meaning and significance of the recast technique itself and considers the rationale for applying the recast to certain, but not all, of the equality Directives. The article attempts a first-level analysis of the main issues arising from the recast in terms of the substance of Community gender discrimination law. It is also argued that the recast has the potential to improve Community equality law and not just in terms of readability.     

Developmental Changes in Conflict Resolution Styles in Parent–Adolescent Relationships: A Four-Wave Longitudinal Study

In this study, changes in three conflict resolution styles in parent–adolescent relationships were investigated: positive problem solving, conflict engagement, and withdrawal. Questionnaires about these conflict resolution styles were completed by 314 early adolescents (M = 13.3 years; 50.6% girls) and both parents for four consecutive years. Adolescents’ reported use of positive problem solving increased with mothers, but did not change with fathers. Fathers reported an increase of positive problem solving with adolescents, whereas mothers reported no change. Adolescents’ use of conflict engagement was found to temporarily increase with mothers, but showed no change with fathers. Mothers and fathers reported a decrease in conflict engagement with adolescents. Adolescents’ use of withdrawal with parents increased, although this increase was temporarily with mothers. Mothers reported no change in withdrawal, whereas fathers’ use of withdrawal increased. Generally, we found that both adolescents and their parents changed in their use of conflict resolution from early to middle adolescence. These results show that conflict resolution in parent–adolescent relationships gradually change in favor of a more horizontal relationship.     

中国女性在十九世纪法国文学中的形象

在耶稣会士的作品里，中国女性很少存在；在商人的叙述里，则完全缺失。到十九世纪，虽然许多西方旅游者涌向中国，中国女性仍然很少被提到。其原因是，一直到二十世纪，中国居民与外国人的来往仍然非常有限，女性总是被排除在这种来往之外。法国人于是被迫从绘画或是中国小说里来想象中国女性。她们被理想化：温柔、忠诚、无私奉献……然而，女性也成为古怪中国的代名词，她们的缠足，她们封闭的生活常常受到评议。女性和中国一样，有着多样性的意义，顺从和无所事事、专长于艺术和爱，但是在长期遭受压迫之后也会变得残暴。在十九世纪的被西方化的想象世界里，中国女性和其所隐含的中国脱离野蛮、臻至幸福。