Review Essay : The Family and Migration: News From the Frencn

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67023/2/10.1177_036319908601100205.pd

Italy’s Path to Very Low Fertility: The Adequacy of Economic and Second Demographic Transition Theories: Le cheminement de l’Italie vers les très basses fécondités: Adéquation des théories économique et de seconde transition démographique

The deep drop of the fertility rate in Italy to among the lowest in the world challenges contemporary theories of childbearing and family building. Among high-income countries, Italy was presumed to have characteristics of family values and female labor force participation that would favor higher fertility than its European neighbors to the north. We test competing economic and cultural explanations, drawing on new nationally representative, longitudinal data to examine first union, first birth, and second birth. Our event history analysis finds some support for economic determinants of family formation and fertility, but the clear importance of regional differences and of secularization suggests that such an explanation is at best incomplete and that cultural and ideational factors must be considered

Social change and the family: Comparative perspectives from the west, China, and South Asia

This paper examines the influence of social and economic change on family structure and relationships: How do such economic and social transformations as industrialization, urbanization, demographic change, the expansion of education, and the long-term growth of income influence the family? We take a comparative and historical approach, reviewing the experiences of three major sociocultural regions: the West, China, and South Asia. Many of the changes that have occurred in family life have been remarkably similar in the three settings—the separation of the workplace from the home, increased training of children in nonfamilial institutions, the development of living arrangements outside the family household, increased access of children to financial and other productive resources, and increased participation by children in the selection of a mate. While the similarities of family change in diverse cultural settings are striking, specific aspects of change have varied across settings because of significant pre-existing differences in family structure, residential patterns of marriage, autonomy of children, and the role of marriage within kinship systems.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45661/1/11206_2005_Article_BF01124383.pd

Technologies of contraception and abortion

Soon to turn 60, the oral contraceptive pill still dominates histories of technology in the ‘sexual revolution’ and after. ‘The pill’ was revolutionary for many, though by no means all, women in the west, but there have always been alternatives, and looking globally yields a different picture. The condom, intrauterine device (IUD), surgical sterilization (male and female) and abortion were all transformed in the twentieth century, some more than once. Today, female sterilization (tubal ligation) and IUDs are the world's most commonly used technologies of contraception. The pill is in third place, followed closely by the condom. Long-acting hormonal injections are most frequently used in parts of Africa, male sterilization by vasectomy is unusually prevalent in Britain, and about one in five pregnancies worldwide ends in induced abortion. Though contraceptive use has generally increased in recent decades, the disparity between rich and poor countries is striking: the former tend to use condoms and pills, the latter sterilization and IUDs. Contraception, a term dating from the late nineteenth century and since then often conflated with abortion, has existed in many forms, and techniques have changed and proliferated over time. Diverse local cultures have embraced new technologies while maintaining older practices. Focusing on Britain and the United States, with excursions to India, China and France, this chapter shows how the patterns observed today were established and stabilized, often despite persistent criticism and reform efforts. By examining past innovation, and the distribution and use of a variety of tools and techniques, it reconsiders some widely held assumptions about what counts as revolutionary and for whom. Analytically, it takes up and reflects on one of the main issues raised by feminists and social historians: the agency of users as patients and consumers faced with choice and coercion. By examining practices of contraception alongside those of abortion, it revisits the knotty question of technology in the sexual revolution and the related themes of medical, legal, religious and political forms of control

The Enduring Controversy over the Mortara Case (CCJR Annual Meeting Proceeding)

No abstract is available

Rituais políticos e a transformação do Partido Comunista Italiano

Os rituais exercem um papel central na vida política contemporânea, mesmo que, freqüentemente, este papel não seja reconhecido. Demonstramos, através da análise da transformação, entre 1989-1991, do Partido Comunista Italiano (PCI) em um partido pós-comunista, o papel-chave do ritual na política moderna. Ao longo deste caminho, examinamos e ilustramos as maneiras pelas quais os rituais são empregados para propósitos políticos. Após a queda do muro de Berlim, líderes do PCI decidiram que a identidade comunista tornou-se demasiadamente estigmatizada, e que uma nova identidade era necessária para o Partido, para que se evitasse o seu declínio. Desde a metade dos anos 1979, o segundo maior partido da Itália, o PCI, vinha constantemente perdendo suporte eleitoral. Na tentativa de mudar sua identidade, no entanto, os líderes do PCI deparam-se com a grande força do simbolismo associado ao Comunismo na Itália. Para muitos membros, o ser "Comunista" era parte central de sua própria auto-imagem. A oposição dentro do Partido tirou vantagem da força deste simbolismo, e dos ritos associados a ele, para opor-se à mudança. A inabilidade para inventar novos ritos e símbolos que tivessem o mesmo poder, deixou a liderança vulnerável. Este artigo examina esta disputa, pensada através do simbolismo e do ritual, olhando para o processo pelo qual o Partido Comunista Italiano tornou-se o Partido Democrático da Esquerda (PDS).Rituals occupy a central role in contemporary political life, although this role is often not recognized. Through the examination of the transformation, in 1989-1991, of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) into a post-communist party, the key role of ritual in modern politics is demonstrated. Along the way, the ways in which rituals are employed for political purposes are examined and illustrated. Following the fall of the Berlin wall, PCI leaders decided that a Communist identity had become too stigmatic, and that a new identity was required for the party to avoid inevitable decline. Long the second largest party in Italy, the PCI had been steadily losing electoral support since the mid-1970s. In attempting to change its identity, however, the PCI leaders faced the great potency of the symbolism associated with Communism in Italy. For many members, being "Communist" was a central part of their own self-image. The opposition within the party took advantage of the strength of this symbolism, and associated rites, to try to rally the party faithful to oppose the change. Inability to invent new rites and symbols that would have the same power left the leadership vulnerable. This article examines this battle, fought through symbolism and ritual, looking at the process where by the Partito comunista italiano became the Partito democratico della sinistra