The Evolution of the British Aristocracy in the Twentieth Century

Great Britain is unique among major industrialised nations in retaining, to this day, a titled aristocracy which still survives and to which new titles of nobility (peerages) are added by creation each year. Even more uniquely, the British aristocracy retains a legislative role, and to this day the upper house of the British Parliament, the Mouse of Lords, consists almost exclusively of titled aristocrats, some of whom even now owe their place in the House of Lords to the hereditary accident ..

An optimisation model for regional integrated solid waste management I. Model formulation

Increased environmental concerns and the emphasis on material and energy recovery are gradually changing the orientation of MSW management and planning. In this context, the application of optimisation techniques have been introduced to design the least cost solid waste management systems, considering the variety of management processes. This study presents a model that was developed and applied to serve as a solid waste decision support system for MSW management taking into account both socio-economic and environmental considerations. The model accounts for solid waste generation rates, composition, collection, treatment, disposal as well as potential environmental impacts of various MSW management techniques. The model follows a linear programming formulation with the framework of dynamic optimisation. The model can serve as a tool to evaluate various MSW management alternatives and obtain the optimal combination of technologies for the handling, treatment and disposal of MSW in an economic and environmentally sustainable way. The sensitivity of various waste management policies will be also addressed. The work is presented in a series of two papers: (I) model formulation, and (II) model application and sensitivity analysi

Anciennes et nouvelles aristocraties

Sans rien ignorer des spécificités de différentes aristocraties, anciennes et nouvelles, et des groupes qui les constituent, les auteurs de cet ouvrage tentent plutôt de les confronter, de rechercher les caractères communs qui les soudent, les différences qui les séparent et, plus encore, les fondements de clivages souvent ambigus entre aristocrates et non-aristocrates. Leur ambition est tout à la fois de présenter des études de cas précises réalisées en France, Grande-Bretagne, Allemagne, Italie, Hongrie, Finlande et Suède, un état des lieux ainsi que des recherches sur les noblesses menées par historiens, anthropologues et sociologues et enfin de proposer une analyse critique et comparative des évolutions de ces noblesses. Quel est le poids du symbolique mais aussi des décrochements politiques dans les transformations: disparition, désagrégation et parfois recomposition des anciennes aristocraties et constitution de nouvelles aristocraties ? Comment appréhender le phénomène aristocratique dans son extension européenne ? Comment articuler étude des tensions entre appartenances contradictoires - nationale et européenne, nobiliaire et démocratique - dans lesquelles sont parfois enserrés les aristocrates, et analyse des modes de reproduction de ces groupes ? Ce sont quelques-unes des questions majeures abordées dans ce livre