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Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The 2013 French defence White Paper presents a strategic analysis and capability assessment that address the pressing concerns posed by austerity cuts to defence budgets, instability in Europe's neighbourhood, and US rebalancing towards the Asia-Pacific. It proposes ways in which France - and Europe - can remain strategically relevant in this changing environment. In doing so, argues Luis Simón, the White Paper provides a useful blueprint for the European Council meeting in December 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste heat from industry or urban facilities represents a largely underused and long disregarded energy source, while heating and cooling count for half the final energy demand in Europe. From the early 2010s onwards, waste heat recovery (WHR) is being recognized as a key challenge for energy transition and tends to be integrated into energy strategies at different levels. This paper provides an analysis of how WHR became a matter of public policy in Europe and in France. Based on a literature review, the analysis shows that WHR has been framed as a techno-economic problem, while some barriers (legal, organizational) to its development remain largely unaddressed. A study of European and French energy agendas illustrates how WHR progressively started to be recognized as an energy resource next to renewables. As a result, questions are raised as to further social science contributions to an extended research agenda addressing WHR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper argues that contemporary hegemonic projects such as ‘Fortress Europe’ exercise violence at their borders forcing certain people to be borders. Those very borders and the people who inhabit them constitute paradoxically the very conditions of possibility of any hegemonic order. This paper focuses on Sangatte, the site of a Red Cross ‘reception centre’ outside Calais for refugees and migrants seeking entry into Britain, as one manifestation of the border in the context of asylum and migration in Europe. This paper draws on contemporary Marxist and feminist theory to think through how those on the borders of the state provide real, material insights into practices that subvert the power of the sovereign state and its corollary hegemonic projects of violence, and to argue that attempts to envision alternatives to the contemporary hegemonic political orders in Europe must begin at the political apertures opened up by thinking the border as paradox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamic links between stock market indices are analyzed in a GARCH-M framework, using daily data from France, Germany, Italy and the USA. It is shown that indices in the periods before and after the introduction of the Euro as a single currency display a very distinct behaviour. Consistent with the literature, in the earlier period price changes are found to have an impact the next day on other markets. In the latter period this type of co-movement disappeared within Europe. Feedback trading has been shown to induce (negative) autocorrelation in national stock markets. In this paper an international version of the feedback trading model is used to illustrate that the lead-lag relationships across countries and the strength of these links depend on the currency regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Squamate faunas from the lower Eocene of Europe are rare. A newly discovered lower Eocene (MP 10–11) Cos locality in southwestern France has yielded an assemblage of anguimorph lizards that sheds light on the early evolution of this group. Among them is a new glyptosaurine lizard Sullivania gallica gen. et sp. nov., based on frontal material with a unique pattern and distribution of polygonal osteoderms that is distinct from that of the middle and late Eocene Placosaurus from France. It slightly resembles the stratigraphically older glyptosaurine Gaultia silvaticus from the earliest Eocene of North America, but differs from it in several aspects. Although fossils of some members of Glyptosaurinae (sensu this paper; Glyptosaurini in previous taxonomies—Glyptosaurinae is returned to the family level originally proposed by Marsh) have been documented rarely from the middle and mainly from the late Eocene of Europe, they are virtually unknown from the lower Eocene. One isolated osteoderm is referred only to Anguioidea indet. This specimen resembles osteoderms seen in Anguinae, provided that the absence of tuberclulate ornamentation is not caused by abrasion. Varanoids are represented by an isolated frontal referred to Palaeovaranidae indet. It possesses a complex ornamentation composed of mounds on the dorsal surface. A maxilla is identified as an indeterminate varanoid based on the plicidentine infolding along the bases of the preserved teeth. Although incomplete, this Cos lizard assemblage is an important and rare discovery that provides a glimpse into the ecosystems and paleobiodiversity of the lower Eocene in western Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass migration of non-Europeans into Schengen Europe and the terrorist attacks perpetrated in the name of Islam in various cities in the European Union have led to a series of mediated public debates on the control of the nation-state border over the past few years. Right-wing populist parties have been prominent in structuring these debates. However, can the urban media, and specifically the commercial ones often accused of sensationalism, be considered as tools that promote the securitization and progressive closure of the state border within Schengen Europe? Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the representation of non-European migration and terrorism by a metropolitan commercial paper in borderland France, the current article shows that reporters can be instead instrumental in the definition of a "Mediapolis" that is a debordered, global, and moral space of mediated appearances helping to deal with international crises. The promotion of this Mediapolis is presented as the result of multiple spatial and temporal conditions in a series of interconnected cities contained in the French nation-state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framing has previously been studied in the field of pandemic preparedness and global health governance and influenza pandemics have usually been framed in terms of security and evidence-based medicine on a global scale. This paper is based on the pandemic preparedness plans, published after 2009, from eight European countries. We study how pandemic preparedness is framed and how pandemic influenza in general is narrated in the plans. All plans contain references to ‘uncertainty’, ‘pandemic phases’, ‘risk management’, ‘vulnerability’ and ‘surveillance’. These themes were all framed differently in the studied plans. The preparedness plans in the member states diverge in ways that will challenge the ambition of the European Union to make the pandemic preparedness plans interoperable and to co-ordinate the member states during future pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

European integration is interpreted in this paper as the route by which (West) Germany, profiting from close ties with the English-speaking West, was able to restore its full sovereignty and economic pre-eminence in Europe. Yet in shaping the actual integration process, it was France which played the key role. Most of the landmark steps towards the current EU were French proposals to pre-empt Anglophone–German collusion; creating European structures in which a resurgence of Germany (politically and economically) was made subject to permanent negotiation. German unification in 1991 removed the one reason why successive governments of the Federal Republic had gone along with this. Paradoxically, sovereign Germany today finds itself bound by the dense networks of consultation and decision-making which make the EU unique in the field of regional integration. The paper shows that between 1992 and 2005, German capital has moved to the centre of the network of corporate interlocks in the North Atlantic area. This helps to explain why in the post-1991, post-Soviet era of neoliberal, finance-driven globalisation, Germany is increasingly ‘speaking for Europe’, as its corporations have become nodal points in the communication structures through which the responses to the challenges facing the EU and the West at large are being shaped. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Under President Nicolas Sarkozy, France has embarked on a major defence transformation with far-reaching implications for relations with the United States, NATO and European defence more broadly. The new White Paper on French Security and Defence, released in June 2008 after months of internal debate, jettisons a number of precepts and policies that have dominated French defence thinking since the mid l960s. The most controversial change announced in the White Book is Sarkozy's decision to allow France to return to NATO's integrated military command, from which General de Gaulle withdrew France in l966. Sarkozy's decision to bring France back into the Alliance's integrated military structure would have significant security benefits both for France and NATO. It removes an important irritant that has hindered good relations between the United States and France and opens up new possibilities for improving US-European cooperation more broadly. Cooperation between NATO and the EU in particular should become easier with France inside NATO's integrated command. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the regulation of architectural activity in Europe and especially in France and to the ways architects manage this regulation. The globalization of this activity has generated a strong consciousness that supranational regulation is necessary, both among architects' professional associations and in governments. One of the main difficulties is the differences in the division of labour from one country to another. But European regulation supposes that national states will implement the directives into national law. France is an example of the lightest possible adaptation. This is all the more surprising as the architectural profession in France is characterized by structural weaknesses to resist international competition and as the administration is willing to help it adapt to this competition. The history of trade unionism and the structure of representation explain some of the difficulties because of a particular trait of the architectural profession: what I call a weak 'reflective capacity'. The paper is partly devoted to defining this notion and showing its relevance for the sociological analysis of professions. This weakness encourages individual strategies of adaptation to increasing international competition, without the professional associations and their representatives being able to control these strategies and their consequences for the profession. This demonstrates that the various sources of regulation are not exclusive and must be studied together so as to understand their interrelations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of "preventive war" states that, under certain conditions, states respond to rising adversaries with military force in an attempt to forestall an adverse shift in the balance of power. British and French passivity in response to the rapid rise of Germany in the 1930s would appear to constitute one of the leading empirical anomalies in the theory, one the theory's proponents must explain. After clarifying the meaning of the preventive motivation for war and specifying the conditions under which it should be the strongest, we examine French and British behavior in the crises over the Rhineland in 1936 and Sudeten Czechoslovakia in 1938 through an intensive study of government documents and private papers. We argue that French political leaders, anticipating a continuing adverse shift in relative power, wanted to confront Hitler, but only with British support, which was not forthcoming. British leaders believed, even by 1936, that the balance of power had already shifted in Germany's favor, but that German ascendancy was only temporary and that British rearmament would redress the balance of power in a few years. We contrast our argument with alternative interpretations based on domestic political pressures and ideologically driven beliefs and interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I am applying a rights-based approach to childhood social exclusion that, following Sen's capability approach as one formulation of such a rights-based approach, sees social exclusion as the failure of people to have access to critical capabilities relating to their integration into society. The implications of this approach will then be applied to the relation between education and social exclusion, where it is shown that education has a critical impact on mitigating or reinforcing social exclusion. Taking such a capabilities-based approach implies a shift away from a concentration on average achievement generated by an education system to the low end of the achievement distribution and the ability of the education system to raise the performance and integrate the most disadvantaged students. The paper investigates how education systems in Europe and other industrialized countries are achieving this goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights the second European Management Control Symposium with the general theme "Organizations and Control: Theory and Practice," held from July 9-11, 1992 at the HEC School of Management in Versailles, France. The participants for the forum numbered around 100, with representatives from European countries, USA, Canada and Australia. The conference started with a plenary keynote address delivered by Michel Fiol of the HEC School of Management. This was followed by parallel sessions.

The aim of this paper is to investigate, from a generational perspective, the effect of human capital on individual earnings and earnings differences in Germany, France and Italy, three developed countries in Western Europe with similarconservativewelfare regimes but with important differences in their education systems. Income inequalitiesbetweenandwithineducation levels are explored using a two-stage probit model with quantile regressions in the second stage. More precisely, drawing upon 2005 EU-SILC data, returns on schooling and experience are estimated separately for employees and self-employed full-time workers by means of Mincerian earnings equations with sample selection; the sample selection correction accounts for the potential individual self-selection into the two labour force types. Although some determinants appear to be relatively similar across countries, state-specific differentials are drawn in light of the institutional features of each national context. The study reveals how each dimension of human capital differently affects individuals’ earnings and earnings inequality and, most of all, how their impacts differ along the conditional earnings distribution and across countries. In the comparative perspective, the country's leading position in terms of the highest rewards on education also depends on which earnings distribution (employee vs. self-employed) is analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the formulation of policy frames towards new minorities in France by analysing Lyon's membership of the European Commission's and Council of Europe's Intercultural Cities programme (ICP). Here, with culture accounting for 20% of Lyon's budget, emphasis is placed on the adoption of the Charte de Coopération Culturelle to use cultural institutions to implement difference-orientated policies. Critically, important issues emerge with this strategy. The effort to engage new minorities is hampered by significant apathy from cultural institutions in Lyon, and the limited geographical area of Lyon included in the ICP. Finally, institutions who engage with promoting interculturality co-opt existing organizations, with negative implications for the treatment of diversity in the city. This illustrates the problems with a European framework fostering a policy frame based on recognition for minorities in a context that has yet to fully embrace such policies at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Career decisions are amongst the most important we make. Unsurprisingly, much published research exists on this particular aspect of career behaviour. However, the overwhelming majority of studies have been carried out on young people making initial career decisions. This paper extends our understanding by examining how mid-career adults in three European countries (Denmark, France and Italy) actually make career decisions. Characteristic patterns of behaviour recur when individuals approach points of transition or of crisis; each of these transitioning styles is illustrated by an iconic case. Emergent findings support the growing body of evidence that challenges the dominant policy and practice orthodoxy, which places rationality at the centre of the process, by recognising the importance of emotion and context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article notes international serials and electronic resource management news for July 1, 2012. The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services' Continuing Resources Section presented the Ulrich’s Serials Librarianship Award to Valerie Bross. The North American Serials Interest Group's newly elected officers include Joyce Tenney, Shana McDonald, and Chris Brady. The Library of Congress' Bibliographic Framework Initiative General Plan is on its website at http://www.loc.gov/marc/transition/pdf/bibframework-10312011.pdf.

The US and European bridge design codes were developed based on a limited amount of traffic data. The design live load for AASHTO LRFD code used in the US is based on traffic data collected by Ontario Ministry of Transportation in 1970s. Eurocode was initially developed using traffic data collected within few weeks in Auxerre, France in the 1980s. An extensive Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) data can serve as a basis to verify the design live load model. The objective of this paper is to analyze and compare statistical parameters of a live load in the US and Europe using available WIM data. WIM measurements from 44 locations in 20 states around the US from 2005 till 2014, containing 118 million records are used. Also, WIM measurements from European countries (Poland, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia) of about 2 million vehicles are used. The statistical parameters of US are similar to Europe, and US traffic data can be used to recalibrate European bridge design code if required. Also, site-specific live load model in the US can be developed using the statistical parameters developed in this study and also can serve as basis to update national live load model in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the market segmentation based on the product markets with reference to the antitrust issues regarding the retail rental prices of the products in Europe. The segmentation comprises of the categorization of the retail space and the shopping centres by the national industry associations with reference to the merger case between two competition authorities of France and Poland. Information on the decision of the cartel court of Austria on the small but significant and non-transitory increase in price (SSNIP) test regarding the product range and the geographical market is also presented.

Germany's apprenticeship system is and has always been considered to be the major sub-system of VET. In this context, the debate circling around the European and German Qualifications Framework (EQF and DQR) has become one of the central issues of VET research and policy. Tasks take on a concrete shape if (a) a serious approach is adopted towards the ideas underlying the European Qualifications Framework; and (b) if consideration is given to the 'construction sites' typical for the German VET system as a whole. This paper intends to sharpen VET policy awareness for the problem of dealing with those unresolved German VET issues within the context of the development of the DQR. A comparative view includes Austria and France as two countries with diverging learning cultures in VET from the German case, but obviously with more 'European' imprints within their respective VET systems. It can be shown that there is an interrelation between the attention apprenticeships as such receive against the background of European ideas such as 'progression', 'permeability' and 'lifelong learning' (LLL), including the implementation and use of 'hybrid qualifications'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Amateur’ anthropology and ethnography are utopian categories proposed by anthropologists seeking to critique a perceived culture of ‘professionalism’ within the discipline (Grimshaw & Hart, 1993). Yet they have arguably been practised extensively by local intellectuals oblivious to such debates. In rural Europe, this has often involved ‘pastoral’ conservation of ‘local history’, ‘traditions’ and ‘folk customs’, in the context of identity politics. Recent manifestations, however, have enabled the disciplining of cultural practices of indigenous populations by local entrepreneurs for use in heritage tourism. Building on Foucault's concept of a ‘disciplinary programme’, this paper analyses projects from a French Mediterranean village that have ‘borrowed’ discursive forms from French ethnology and historiography to convert local heritages into disciplined archives and booklets, predominantly for use in tourism. It then analyses their approximation to the discipline of anthropology; assesses their problematic distinction from anthropology's own disciplinary programmes; and explores the implications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper is to test the hypothesis that the opening of a European political space and the Europeanization of parties create a favourable arena for populist speech, themes and perhaps ideology, especially in the case of anti-EU parties. To do this, a quantitative study of populist speeches in French pro- and anti-EU party Euromanifestos has been conducted for the 1999 and 2004 European elections. It contributes to the scientific debate regarding the possible rise of a new political cleavage resulting from the European issue. Our comparative content analysis based on a coding system of populist discourse shows that there are no systematic links between the position of French parties towards the EU and their use of populist arguments, but a variety of relations, linked to the position of the parties within the party system as well as to the right/left cleavage. European issues are integrated in the ideologies and identities of the parties and only produce moderate effects on populist speeches. Therefore, party practices and speeches are stable. In some cases, what is evidenced is not a rise or a transformation of populist discourse, but national discourse patterns adapted to a European context and a phenomenon of Europeanization of certain populist themes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to make a contribution to the empirical study of the development of European citizenship at grass roots level, through the analysis of political participation of non-French EU citizens resident in France (NFEUCRIFs) at local elections in 2001 and 2008 in France. Official statistics show that whilst there has been a considerable increase in 2008 both in terms of voter registration and election to municipal councils compared with 2001, these figures still represent only a tiny proportion of the total number of voters and elected candidates. Nevertheless, France remains a fruitful site for further qualitative analysis of how these 'pioneers' of European citizenship may (or may not) be contributing to the building of some kind of 'Eurodemocracy' at grass-roots level, and whether or not any links between municipal politics and the wider European framework can be meaningfully established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. European countries practice a wide range of car driving license renewal procedures. These range from issuing lifelong licenses without subsequent medical checks, to issuing a license to age 70 and for 3- or 5-year periods thereafter based on self-declarations of medical fitness, to requiring medical examinations for renewal, to renewal every 5 years from the age of 45. This paper presents a case study of the different older driver licensing procedures in seven European countries and addresses the association between these procedures and older driver safety. Method. The seven countries studied consist of France, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The first-mentioned three countries have the most relaxed license renewal procedures and least demanding medical examination requirements. Results. There is no evidence that any license renewal procedure or requirement for a medical examination has an effect on the overall road safety of drivers aged 65+, though undoubtedly there are individual drivers who should no longer be driving who might be detected by stringent renewal procedures. Considering the three countries with the most relaxed licensing procedures, The Netherlands and United Kingdom have the lowest fatality rate for car drivers aged 65+, and the rate for France is falling rapidly. Conclusions. There is also evidence that stringent renewal procedures and demanding medical examinations at renewal reduce the level of car driving licenses among older people. France, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have the highest level of driving license holding by people aged 65+, which has direct implications for the independent mobility of older people. Reduced mobility also has safety implications: in about half the European countries for which road accident fatality data have been analyzed, people aged 65+ are at greater risk of death as a pedestrian than as a car driver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

France's resistance to CAP reform has widely been attributed to the weakness of the state vis-à-vis organized farm interests. This paper argues that weak state theories overstate the role of administrative centralization and the organizational capabilities of farm groups and underestimate the role of ideas and of European politics in determining the transformative capacity of the French state. This argument is based on the observation that farm conservatism has persisted in the last two decades in spite of the growing autonomy of the French state vis-à-vis farm client groups. This article argues that we must pay more attention to the way European policy-making impinges upon the resources of the state and the organizational cohesion of farm groups and how the ideas held by domestic reform entrepreneurs determine their ability to win EU support for their blueprint and harness much-needed resources for carrying them out in the face of vested interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With more than 10 million Muslims living in Western Europe, states are struggling to accommodate the religious needs of Muslims in state-supported institutions. Such issues include whether to fund separate Islamic schools and how or whether to teach Islam in state-supported schools. Despite these common concerns, national governments vary widely in their response to the religious needs and practices of Muslim citizens and permanent residents. This paper looks at how Britain, France and Germany have resolved these issues. We explore how pre-existing Church-State practices and institutional arrangements structured the politics of state accommodation of Muslims' religious needs in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilising archival materials relating to an Italian pottery manufacturer, Manifattura Ginori, this paper examines the development of the company's accounting system during the 19th century. By the early 1800s, Manifattura Ginori is shown to have developed a double-entry bookkeeping system and to have carried out cost calculations. Deficiencies in the archive unfortunately do not enable us to determine precisely the nature of the links between the cost calculations and the financial accounting system during the early decades of the 19th century. However, as the century wore on, and the business moved from being an artisanal based manufacturer of high quality porcelain to a large-scale, industrial producer of utilitarian wares, Manifattura Ginori developed its system of accounting to reflect organisational changes and managerial needs. The Ginori archives therefore not only provide us with a rare glimpse of accounting in an early industrial context in Italy, but also of the use of accounting as a mechanism for business management and control in a non-Anglo-Saxon context. In particular it allows us to examine the role of accountants, to throw light on factors causing accounting change, and the relevance of alternative theoretical paradigms in interpreting such changes. By placing the experiences of Manifattura Ginori in a context of developments elsewhere in Europe, especially Britain and France, some implications can be drawn regarding the possibility of multiple origins of accounting ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the relationships between the migratory policies of the EU countries with more experience of immigration and their national political cultures. It focuses on France, Germany and the United Kingdom. It then looks at Italy, a relatively new country of immigration, which, with 3,000,000 legal immigrants, has become the fourth country of immigration in Europe and the first in the Mediterranean basin. In its final part it highlights the incipient process of 'communitarisation' of the immigration policies of EU countries in the last decade. This process, which has already entailed a significant convergence of their migratory policies, is expected to continue after the recent enlargement of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Second European Congress on Commerce and City was held in Lille between 15 and 17 November 2000. It was organized by the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry under the umbrella of the French Presidency of the European Union. Its major aim was to discuss how, and under what conditions, the evolution of commerce in Europe can contribute to the renaissance of European cities. The congress included plenary sessions, the presentation of two major studies on commerce and urban regeneration in Europe, three guided study tours, and the discussion of 25 European best practices aggregated into four thematic workshops: city strategies, enterprise strategies, public-private cooperation, and urban planning tools and programmes. This paper identifies those best practices, highlights some of the discussed issues, and presents a synthesis of the congress's declaration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Using the concepts of national and regional innovation systems as an analytical framework for analysing the cross-border networking activities between Baden and Alsace, the empirical analysis presented in this paper reveals that despite the political promotion of cross-border relations the reality in innovation networking looks different. In the industry sample used for empirical analysis, no firm in Baden had research contacts with an Alsatian research institute, while at least 7% of the Alsatian firms cooperated with research and transfer institutes in Baden. Although spatial distance does not matter, cultural and institutional distance does. The neighbouring region is not looked at as a significant knowledge source for firms in both regions. Despite technological and economic internationalization, for many firms innovation-relevant learning still takes place mainly within their own national and regional system of innovation. For the two regions under review, the Rhine is still a cultural and institutional barrier which needs more networking bridges to be crossed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The involvement of urban and regional governments in transnational cooperative arrangements and policy networks has led to considerable debate regarding the political and theoretical implications. This paper examines networking and cooperation between urban areas and regions in the UK and France with a shared sea border. Such cross-border cooperation involving local authorities in Europe is a growing phenomenon and has certain implications for the analysis of local and urban politics. Three study areas are examined in detail: the Transmanche region involving Kent County Council and the French region Nord-Pas-de-Calais; the Transmanche Metropole which includes Southampton, Portsmouth, Bournemouth and Poole in Britain and Caen, Rouen and Le Havre in France; the cooperative initiative between the English county of East Sussex and the French de partements of Somme and Seine-Maritime. In all three case studies, the development of cooperation has been influenced by the availability of funds from the European Union Interreg programme which supports transfrontier networking. A number of political consequences of cross-border cooperation are identified. The implications of these policy initiatives for theories of urban politics are considered, including a discussion of the political and economic construction of competition and cooperation between cities and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex workers in Europe have been dramatically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated measures. Ignored by most governments, excluded from social and economic measures put in place to protect other workers, sex workers were left to fend for themselves. The article, an abridged version of a previous report by the ICRSE, illustrates the impact of COVID-19 on sex workers by focusing on how the pandemic affected the socio-economic, health and safety conditions of sex worker communities and how they pro-actively responded to the first waves of the crisis in 2020. Based on data gathered through community research, the authors outline the specific ways in which sex workers living under different sex work legal regimes were hit by the crisis. Crucially, in countries such as France, Sweden and Ireland, where an 'End Demand' legislation is in place to supposedly 'rescue sex workers', these did not benefit from any state support. The article suggests that sex worker community organisations helped limit the spread of the virus through peer support and peer education, protecting not only sex workers' health, but society at large and showing similarities to the role of chaperones of public health sex workers had during the AIDS crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the prospects for trilateral concord among Britain, France and Germany in terms of defence policies? Would more institutionalised links among them lead to more convergence of their defence policies? To answer these interrogations, this article investigates the relation between policy convergence and institutionalised cooperation, in particular by studying whether and when one is a prerequisite to the other. First, this article examines the extent to which these countries' defence policies have converged since the end of the cold war based on several indicators: their attitudes towards international forums, their defence budgets, the structure of their armed forces and their willingness to use force. Second, we study each of the bilateral relations between the three states to qualitatively analyse their degree of institutionalisation and the convergence of their defence policies. This article concludes that contrary to the arguments of many discussions, think-tank reports and political actors, there is no evidence that institutionalised cooperation leads to policy convergence as far as defence is concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In socio- and applied linguistic research, age tends to be accounted for as fixed, biographical information, and individuals in later life have rarely been considered more than marginally. In this paper, I attempt to address this oversight by presenting data from multilingual subjects over the age of 65 as they take part in a language and literacy course for senior citizens. I account for their age not as a fixed category or an index of deterioration, but as a reflection of ongoing processes of personal, social and historical dimensions that can be measured in terms of the lifespan, a concept prevalent in the field of social gerontology. Keeping in mind the core elements of what I propose as a lifespan perspective – timescales, life events, language ideologies and linguistic repertoires – I conduct discourse analysis on their metalinguistic conversations to illuminate the subjective and phenomenological factors that have shaped – and that continue to shape – their linguistic repertoires and the ideologies that inform the ways in which they make use of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines public contestation of Europe by the far right in France. It investigates whether far-right mobilization on the EU has changed over time, and how it diverges in the party and non-party sectors. Specifically, we follow a politicization approach and address mobilization in terms of three interrelated dimensions: intensity, issue focus, and action repertoire. This allows comparing collective action in the electoral and protest arenas, thus assessing how the far right politicizes Europe in public debates. The study relies on a mixed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the content of the press releases posted by far-right parties and movements on their official websites, scraped automatically from 2012 to 2019. The results show that European integration is increasingly at the core of far-right politics in France, but its politicization unfolds in different ways in the protest and electoral arenas. As political conflict over the EU expands, far-right parties and non-party actors are challenged to differentiate their respective profiles. These findings complement existing research on the linkages between protest and elections, and suggest that the rooting of the far right in society is reconfiguring the structure of political conflict in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lafourcade M. and Paluzie E. European integration, foreign direct investment (FDI), and the geography of French trade, Regional Studies. An augmented gravity model is used to investigate whether the 1978-2000 process of European integration has changed the geography of trade within France, with a particular focus on border regions. It is found that once controlled for bilateral distance, origin- and destination-specific characteristics, French border regions trade on average 73% more with neighbouring countries than predicted by the gravity norm. The regions perform even better if they have good transport connections with these countries. However, French border regions at the periphery of Europe experienced a downward trend over the period that was partly due to the decrease in the propensity of Spanish and Italian foreign affiliates to trade with their home countries. [image omitted] Lafourcade M. et Paluzie E. Integration europeenne, investissement direct etranger (IDE) et geographie du commerce francais, Regional Studies. On emploie un modele de gravite augmente afin d'etudier l'impact du processus d'integration europeenne sur la geographie du commerce international des departements francais, au cours de la periode 1978-2000, en pretant une attention particuliere aux departements frontaliers. Il s'avere que ces derniers commercent en moyenne 1.7 fois plus avec le pays limitrophe que ne le predit la norme de gravite, meme si on tient compte de leur proximite relative, de leurs caracteristiques specifiques et de celles du pays de destination. Les departements dotes d'infrastructures de transport transfrontalieres ont une performance encore superieure. Cet avantage s'est cependant erode sur la periode pour les departements francais frontaliers de la peripherie europeenne, en raison du declin de la propension des filiales espagnoles et italiennes a commercer avec leur pays d'origine. Gravite Regions transfrontalieres Investissement direct etranger (IDE) Infrastructure de transport Lafourcade M. und Paluzie E. Europaische Integration, auslandische Direktinvestitionen und die Geografie des franzosischen Handels, Regional Studies. Wir untersuchen mit Hilfe eines erweiterten Schwerkraftmodells die Frage, ob sich die Handelsgeografie in Frankreich und insbesondere in den Grenzregionen durch den Prozess der europaischen Integration im Zeitraum von 1978 bis 2000 verandert hat. Wir stellen fest, dass franzosische Grenzregionen bei einer Berucksichtigung der bilateralen Entfernung und der ursprungs- und zielspezifischen Merkmale durchschnittlich 73% mehr mit Nachbarlandern handeln als mit Hilfe der Schwerkraftnorm prognostiziert. Die Leistung der Regionen fallt sogar noch hoher aus, wenn sie uber gute Verkehrsverbindungen mit diesen Landern verfugen. Allerdings verzeichneten die franzosischen Grenzregionen in der europaischen Peripherie wahrend dieses Zeitraums einen Abwartstrend, was zum Teil auf die abnehmende Neigung der spanischen und italienischen Schwestergesellschaften zum Handel mit ihren Heimatlandern zuruckzufuhren ist. Schwerkraft Grenzregionen Auslandische Direktinvestitionen Verkehrsinfrastruktur Lafourcade M. y Paluzie E. Integracion europea, inversion extranjera directa (IED) y la geografia del comercio frances, Regional Studies. Utilizamos un modelo de gravedad aumentado para analizar si el proceso de integracion europea entre 1978 y 2000 ha cambiado la geografia del comercio en Francia, especialmente en las regiones fronterizas. Observamos, que una vez controladas la distancia bilateral y las caracteristicas especificas de origen y destino, las regiones fronterizas de Francia comercian con los paises vecinos en promedio un 73% mas de lo que predice la norma de la gravedad. Las regiones dotadas con buenas infraestructuras de transporte transfronterizo tienen incluso un rendimiento superior. Sin embargo, esta ventaja se ha erosionado a lo largo del tiempo, en particular para los departamentos franceses contiguos a la periferia europea, debido a la disminucion de la predisposicion de las filiales espanolas e italianas a comerciar con sus paises de origen. Gravedad Regiones fronterizas Inversion directa extranjera (IDE) Infraestructura de transporte [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the affective states of fragmentation that describes the European Union following the Netherlands, France, and Ireland's national referendum. It examines the reactions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to the centrifugal judicial forces that menaces its interpretative monopoly. Furthermore, nature of a Constitution for Europe is discussed.

This article addresses the puzzle of the Europeanization of French military policy between 1991 and 1996. To what extent is there a Europeanization of French military policy? How can Europeanization be understood and conceptualized in this particular area? I discuss the theoretical debate on Europeanization specifically in the defence sector, and present a methodology based on the study of the decision- making process of French military reforms. The analysis refutes the thesis according to which Europeanization is no more than an alibi or an illusion in the case of French military policy. Studying the decision-making process of the 1991-96 reforms illustrates the impact of European integration on the transformation of French military policy, affecting both cognitive and normative frames, and the actors and the instruments of this public policy. Finally, it details the mechanisms of this Europeanization without the EU. Institutional mediations are important, but in this case indirect pressures, é lite socialization and the learning process are more decisive factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The referenda conducted in France and Denmark in 1992 to ratify the Maastricht Treaty are often seen as giving evidence of 'true' attitudes towards Europe. In this paper we dispute this assumption, presenting evidence that shows referenda in Parliamentary systems with disciplined party governments to be subject to what we call a 'lockstep' phenomenon in which referendum outcomes become tied to the popularity of the government in power even if the ostensible subject of the referendum has little to do with the reasons for government popularity (or lack of popularity). In the case of the Maastricht referenda in France and Denmark, the apparent unpopularity of the European project in fact appears to have been nothing of the kind, but instead to have reflected the unpopularity of ruling parties in both countries. A referendum conducted at about the same time in Ireland, where the government was more popular achieved a handsome majority, as did the referendum conducted a year later in Denmark after a more popular government had taken office. The mechanisms involved are elucidated by means of survey data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global spread of degree courses taught in English as a Medium of Instruction raises questions about the identity or "branding" of English-taught degree programs in non-Anglophone countries and whether they differ from their equivalents in the national languages. To answer this question, we have examined a sample of master's degree programs in the same domain, International Relations, across Italy, France and Germany from a quantitative and a qualitative perspective. Our findings suggest that they present a similar branding strategy in line with the standardization process of EU higher education, also reflecting the global trend toward the "entrepreneurial university." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifteen paired fossil populations of Microtus arvalis and Microtus agrestis from southwestern Europe have been analysed from a morphological and morphometric point of view. The sites under consideration are located in the northern Iberian Peninsula and southern France, from the Middle Pleistocene to the end of the Late Pleistocene. The aim of this study is to stress once again the importance of keeping these two species separated in the fossil record in order to recognize specific trends of evolution and divergence and to obtain more precise information on palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental conditions. It was possible to observe remarkable intraspecific differences between Middle and Late Pleistocene populations of both species. Furthermore, in synchronic co-specific populations from the Late Pleistocene, climatic and geographic conditions seem to exert a major influence in shaping intraspecific changes in dental pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the talks between France and Germany to create a nuclear deterrence system in Europe. Offer of a common defense system from French President Jacques Chirac; Response from a German foreign policy spokesman; Access of the Germans to French nuclear weapons; Germany's participation in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

No psychological research has been done investigating the experiences of adoption by sexual minorities living in Europe. This qualitative study is the first cross-national research within the European context giving the floor to LG (lesbian and gay) adoptive parents in order to explore the main challenges they encountered in the transition to adoptive parenthood. Sixty-two LG adoptive parents (16 lesbians and 46 gay men) living in Belgium (n = 14), France (n = 26), and Spain (n = 22) participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to gather information about two key steps in the adoptive path: the decision making and the adoption process itself. Results revealed that while choosing to adopt, LG adoptive parents experienced numerous self-doubts and emotional conflicts driven by introjected heteronormative assumptions about family. During the adoption procedure, they were confronted with a large number of challenges and legal roadblocks connected to their sexual minority status. Exploring the experience of the first generation of LG adoptive parents in Europe provides insight into the great impact that the sociolegal context has on their lives. Findings suggest the necessity of promoting practice geared not only to fight discrimination but also to provide better support to LG people throughout the adoption process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The main goal of this study was to determine the knowledge and beliefs of otorhinolaryngologists in a secondary setting in selected economically advanced European countries concerning severe hearing loss, hearing aids, and cochlear implants (CIs). Secondary goals of the study looked into the information sources of the otorhinolaryngologists and into key topics of importance for these professionals. In Europe, many adults, who could benefit from a CI, do not have one despite their availability via national health care systems. This lack of coverage might be due, in part, to the knowledge and beliefs of otorhinolaryngologists.Methods: Otorhinolaryngologists in a secondary setting in Germany, England, France, Austria, and Sweden were emailed a custom-made questionnaire on their knowledge and beliefs regarding hearing loss and its treatments. Results were presented in relative frequencies (%) according to each nation.Results: Two-hundred and forty otorhinolaryngologists responded (50 from each nation except Sweden). Each nation regarded rehabilitation and hearing preservation as particularly important in CIs. National and international conferences and conversations with colleagues were much more popular methods of keeping abreast of medical issues than other information sources such as online media or company information.Conclusion: The otorhinolaryngologists of the surveyed nations share many common beliefs about hearing loss, hearing aids, and CIs, although some national variation in opinion is present. The otorhinolaryngologists of each nation are knowledgeable, but could still benefit from an increased knowledge and awareness of hearing loss treatment modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of social work in different European countries in the nineteenth and early twentieth century followed sooner or later a rather similar path. Nevertheless, we find everywhere particular characteristics. Only if we compare certain economic standards, cultural habits, religious codes and the balance of public and private activities, the characteristics of welfare development in each country become visual. If we want to know something about our country, we have to look at others. Therefore, we have to compare social work and its history, because only then the question of similarities and differences cannot be avoided and become crucial elements of our studies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports on a study which estimate prevalence of gambling among European professional athletes and explore factors that are associated with gambling practice and gambling problems in professional athletes. It states that self-completion questionnaire was designed for this study and socio-demographic variables, variables linked to gambling and impulsive behavior data were gathered. It mentions that instruments used for screening problem gambling were all validated.

Much has been written about the “crisis of the nation state” in Europe. The shifting of state competencies to the European and regional levels is expected to generate new loyalties to these levels, possibly at the expense of national solidarity. While numerous studies show that individuals with an exclusive national identity are less likely to support integration than those with an inclusive identity, much less is known about the interaction between regional identity and European identity. Using public opinion data collected in 16 French regions, I show that exclusive regionalists are less likely to feel attached to Europe and support the EU. However, I also find that the impact of regional identity on European identity varies by the type of identity invoked—cultural versus political. While cultural regional identity lowers support for European institutions, political regional identity has the opposite effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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