Married Women's Employment over the Life Course: Attitudes in Cross-National Perspective

We analyze survey data from 23, largely industrialized countries on attitudes toward married women's employment at four stages of the family life course. Despite general consensus between countries, cluster and correspondence analyses show that the nations represent three distinct patterns of attitudes. There is only mixed support for the hypothesis that public opinion conforms to state welfare regime type. Instead, normative beliefs reflect both a general dimension of structural and cultural factors facilitating female labor force participation and a life course dimension specific to maternal employment. Men and women largely agree, but gender differences affect cluster membership for a few countries. Systematic analysis of a large number of countries helps to test the limits of comparative typologies and to identify anomalous cases for closer stud

Vínculos de formación y transmisión del conocimiento en la botánica del siglo XVIII : un análisis de redes sociales

En esta contribución se desarrolla un enfoque de redes sociales sobre la formación de los botánicos europeos en el siglo XVIII. En un período en el que el estudio de las plantas se estaba convirtiendo en un campo autónomo de investigación, la práctica de la botánica y otras ciencias relacionadas movilizó a un grupo muy diverso de actores. Para muchos de ellos, la iniciación en la ciencia de las plantas fue parte de sus estudios de medicina. Otros fueron formados como colaboradores de un erudito destacado en el contexto de un jardín real, a veces también en las facultades de filosofía. Otros fueron autodidactas. Con los datos biográficos disponibles hemos realizado un censo sistemático de los maestros y discípulos de un conjunto de 928 botánicos occidentales activos entre 1700 y 1830. De este modo hemos identificado tres subgrupos, cada uno de ellos con distintas características y lógicas de desarrollo. Las características específicas de estos subgrupos se analizan desde una perspectiva histórica, con especial atención a los diversos contextos institucionales que los produjeron. El análisis de los datos muestra la creciente autonomía de la botánica respecto a la formación médica, así como el carácter cada vez más nacional de las escuelas dominantes, al menos en Francia.This contribution develops a social network approach to the training of European botanists in the 18th century. In a period when the study of plants increasingly became an autonomous field of research, the practice of botany and related sciences mobilized a very diverse group of actors. For many of them, initiation to the science of plants was part of their medical studies. Others were trained as collaborators of an outstanding scholar in the context of a royal garden or elsewhere, sometimes also in philosophical faculties. Still others were self-taught. To the extent that biographical data were available, we made a systematic census of the masters and disciples of a set of 928 Western botanists active between 1700 and 1830. Three subsets were thus identified, each of them showing distinct characteristics and logics of development. The specific features of these subsets are discussed in a historical perspective, with a particular attention to the various institutional contexts which produced them. The data analysis basically shows the growing autonomy of botany with regard to medical training, as well as the increasingly national character of the dominant schools, at least in France

Motility and family dynamics: current issues and research agendas

'Das Mobilitätskapital oder die 'Motilität' ist ein essentieller Bestandteil der sozialen Integration in sehr modernen Gesellschaften, in denen die Zahl der Möglichkeiten, sich durch Raum und Zeit zu bewegen, zunimmt. Dadurch wird die simultane Präsenz von Menschen bzw. sozialen Akteuren sichergestellt. Möglichkeiten der strategischen Auswahl und Differenzierungen in der Mobilität sind heute an die Stelle der räumlichen Beschränkungen getreten. Es ist unser Argument, dass die Motilität eine gute Ausgangsbasis ist für die Analyse der Motivationen, der Entscheidungsprozesse und der Beschränkungen, die die Nutzung des Raumes bestimmen. Wir beabsichtigen dadurch aufzuzeigen, dass Motilität sich innerhalb der Familiensphäre konstituiert und keinesfalls ein reines Persönlichkeitsmerkmal ist, das wiederum von angeborenen Fähigkeiten oder individuellen Strategien abhinge. Somit ist die Motilität ein Motivationsfaktor, der das Funktionieren und die Strukturen der familialen Sphäre bestimmt. Nach Vorstellung des Motilitätskonzeptes und Darstellung der Implikationen, die sich daraus ergeben, werfen wir einen Blick auf die Effekte, die die Familienstrukturen und die Funktionsweise der Familie auf dem Erwerb der Motilität sowie auf dem Zeitpunkt haben, zu dem die Kinder das Elternhaus verlassen. Danach untersuchen wir die Zusammenhänge zwischen dem Wohnort und dem Motilitätserwerb und den Spannungen, die diese Zusammenhänge zwischen Wohnkontext und dem Funktionieren der Familie hervorrufen können. In unserer Schlussfolgerung werfen wir im Lichte unserer Forschungsergebnisse nochmals einen Blick auf die Räume, die von der Familie besetzt werden.' (Autorenreferat)'Mobility capital or 'motility' is an essential part of social integration in very modern societies, that, in turn, experience an increase in the number of ways in which people can move through time and space, and thereby ensure the simultaneous presence of human beings or actors. Today, strategic choices and mobility differentiations have taken the place of spatial constraint. We argue that motility is a good basis for the analysis of motivations, decision-making processes, and constraints that dominate the use of space. In doing so, we intend to show that, far from being a purely personal trait that essentially depends on innate skills or individual strategies, motility is construed within the family sphere. As such, it is a factor of the motivations that govern the functioning and the structures of the family sphere. After presenting the concept of motility and illustrating its implications for family life as well as for its spatial manifestations, we take a look at the effects of both family structures and family functioning on the acquisition of motility and on the point in time children leave home. We continue with an exploration of the links between residential location and the tensions that these links can produce between the residential context and the functioning of the family. As a conclusion, we take a renewed look on the spaces that are occupied by the family in light of our research findings.' (author's abstract

Training links and transmission of knowledge in 18th Century botany : a social network analysis

This contribution develops a social network approach to the training of European botanists in the 18th century. In a period when the study of plants increasingly became an autonomous field of research, the practice of botany and related sciences mobilized a very diverse group of actors. For many of them, initiation to the science of plants was part of their medical studies. Others were trained as collaborators with an outstanding scholar in the context of a royal garden or elsewhere, sometimes also in philosophy colleges or faculties. Still others were self-taught. To the extent that biographical data were available, we made a systematic census of the masters and disciples of a set of 928 Western botanists active between 1700 and 1830. Three subsets were thus identified, each of them showing distinct characteristics and developmental patterns. The specific features of these subsets are discussed in a historical perspective, with a particular attention to the various institutional contexts which produced them. The data analysis basically shows the growing autonomy of botany with regard to medical training, as well as the increasingly national character of the dominant schools, at least in France.En esta contribución se desarrolla un enfoque de redes sociales sobre la formación de los botánicos europeos en el siglo XVIII. En un período en el que el estudio de las plantas se estaba convirtiendo en un campo autónomo de investigación, la práctica de la botánica y otras ciencias relacionadas movilizó a un grupo muy diverso de actores. Para muchos de ellos, la iniciación en la ciencia de las plantas fue parte de sus estudios de medicina. Otros fueron formados como colaboradores de un erudito destacado en el contexto de un jardín real, a veces también en las facultades de filosofía. Otros fueron autodidactas. Con los datos biográficos disponibles hemos realizado un censo sistemático de los maestros y discípulos de un conjunto de 928 botánicos occidentales activos entre 1700 y 1830. De este modo hemos identificado tres subgrupos, cada uno de ellos con distintas características y lógicas de desarrollo. Las características específicas de estos subgrupos se analizan desde una perspectiva histórica, con especial atención a los diversos contextos institucionales que los produjeron. El análisis de los datos muestra la creciente autonomía de la botánica respecto a la formación médica, así como el carácter cada vez más nacional de las escuelas dominantes, al menos en Francia

Cohésion, régulation et conflits dans les familles contemporaines. Rapport final n°5004-047772-1 Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique

Ce rapport constitue une première analyse des données récoltées grâce au subside FNRSn°5004-47772-1. L’étude présentée ici constitue un des premiers essais, en Europe du moins, d’appréhender sur une base socio-démographique assez large les genres de fonctionnement des couples et les difficultés qui leur sont éventuellement associées. L’utilité d’une telle démarche, tant pour la constitution de la sociologie de la famille que pour les multiples instances qui interviennent auprès des familles (thérapeutes de famille, conseillers, psychologues, etc.), paraît évidente; elle comporte aussi ses risques, dans la mesure où l’on ne peut guère, par le biais de questionnaires extensifs, approfondir les problèmes que rencontrent les familles dans le mode de gestion de leurs perturbations. Cette étude appelle donc des démarches complémentaires, utilisant d’autres méthodes (voir les projets des équipes Kaiser et Perez). Il est vraiment important, cependant, de pouvoir disposer d’une étude à large échelle reliant la position sociale des couples, leur style de relations et les problèmes qu’ils rencontrent. C’est là l’ambition de la présente recherche

Analysing the role of social visits on migrants’ social capital:A personal network approach

There are concerns that migrants may be embedded in far-flung networks with support being less collective. The spatial dispersion of their relatives and friends would result in fragmented networks with lower solidarity and lower mutual trust than densely connected networks based on geographical proximity. This may be particularly true for migrants who rarely meet their relatives and friends face-to-face. Yet, it is unclear what role, if any, distant visits play in migrants’ social capital. This article examines these issues using representative data from Switzerland and a combination of network and sequence analysis. Results show that migrants have more spatially dispersed networks, which, in turn, are associated with higher number of emotional support ties compared to respondents with spatially close networks, yet they are characterised by low cohesion and low trust. Distant visits only partly moderate the influence of spatial dispersion on social capital. People who frequently visit or host their far-flung relatives and friends have more transitive networks and fewer supportive ties than those who see them less often, but they do not have higher trust in them. Overall, distant visits have relatively little impact on social capital, suggesting a network effect that goes beyond dyadic relationships

The Physics of the Colloidal Glass Transition

As one increases the concentration of a colloidal suspension, the system exhibits a dramatic increase in viscosity. Structurally, the system resembles a liquid, yet motions within the suspension are slow enough that it can be considered essentially frozen. This kinetic arrest is the colloidal glass transition. For several decades, colloids have served as a valuable model system for understanding the glass transition in molecular systems. The spatial and temporal scales involved allow these systems to be studied by a wide variety of experimental techniques. The focus of this review is the current state of understanding of the colloidal glass transition. A brief introduction is given to important experimental techniques used to study the glass transition in colloids. We describe features of colloidal systems near and in glassy states, including tremendous increases in viscosity and relaxation times, dynamical heterogeneity, and ageing, among others. We also compare and contrast the glass transition in colloids to that in molecular liquids. Other glassy systems are briefly discussed, as well as recently developed synthesis techniques that will keep these systems rich with interesting physics for years to come.Comment: 56 pages, 18 figures, Revie