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France’s reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was initially conciliatory. However, the current French President’ statements, Macron, gradually changed, suggesting a potential shift in France's stance. The French president recently suggested troops could be sent to Ukraine to fight the Russians, a move that could significantly impact the course of the war. Our paper aims to address this possibility. How feasible would this be from a military perspective? Second, are there any other relevant political actors that will support it? Third, why has Paris changed its position to such a radical stance? We start from the theoretical design of realist constructivism. Postcolonial theories and the concept of locked-in path dependence supported this research. The methods follow the path of historical synthesis, discourse analysis of key political actors, and text analysis of defense white papers. Quantitative military variables are used to understand France’s and the EU’s military-industrial complex capabilities and assess its potential. The collapse of France’s neocolonial empire in Africa and Russia’s growing influence in the region partially explains Macron’s discourse change. This is correlated with the need to follow a more independent European security policy and the worsening military situation in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how political challengers articulate new political divides in European political party systems and with what implications for representative democracy. Focusing on the case of France and the discourse and practices of Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, the paper identifies three strategies these actors have used to articulate a new political division beyond Left and Right: the discursive rejection of traditional Left/Right politics, the combination of elements from across the Left/Right divide and the identification of each other as opposite sides on a new cleavage. Our analysis also suggests that rather than addressing the democratic pathologies associated with the traditional Left/Right party system, this new divide has largely contributed to deepen them. Specifically, the new dichotomy carries risks in terms of representative deficits, electoral demobilisation and the further legitimation of illiberal politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives thought to the exploitation of Niger's natural resources by France, the European Union (EU), and the United States (US), among other countries. The objective of this paper is to deconstruct the exploitation of Niger's uranium, gold, and coal, among other natural resources, and the surge in terrorism. This paper adopts qualitative secondary research as its methodology and resource curse theory as its theoretical framework. The gap that the paper bridges is that most research about the exploitation of Niger's natural resources and the rise in terrorism ignores the involvement of France among other Western countries. Findings that develop from this paper reveal that France has exploited Niger's natural resources since colonisation. Similarly, the EU and the US, among other countries, have been accomplices in the exploitation of Niger's natural resources. Additionally, Western countries, namely France, the EU, and the US, including Britain and Russia, have been involved in supporting administrations or terrorists that advance their interests in Niger, among other issues. Further results show that successive administrations in Niger and those that took control through the coup in July 2023 enjoy the support of the major global powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the recognition of the rising challenge from China have resulted in a closer alignment of American, British and French strategic interests. This policy paper explores how the strategic relationship between the United States, the United Kingdom and France has evolved amid this changed threat environment. The Russia–Ukraine war exposed the limitations of France's policy of 'strategic autonomy' and reasserted the importance of an American role in European security. The war has re-focused attention upon the Lancaster House framework in which the UK and France have the potential to enhance their contribution to European defence. The UK still regards its 'special relationship' with the US as being of critical importance to its foreign policy. But the UK's diminishing military power makes it a less valuable ally to the US whose attention is increasingly upon the Indo-Pacific region. The paper argues that the alignment between the three countries has been closer over the Russian war in Ukraine compared to attitudes towards China, where tensions between France and the 'Anglo-Saxons' persist. France has been unwilling to adopt the American approach towards China and has stuck to its vision of a multipolar world. The AUKUS deal arranged between the US, UK and Australia had the effect of alienating France. The policy paper contends that the temporary alignment between US, UK and French interests will erode as long-standing conflicts of interest re-emerge. In particular, the unpredictability of US leadership will damage the trilateral relationship if Donald Trump regains the presidency in November 2024. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades, scholars have increasingly called for the 'deterritorialization' of the notion of citizenship. The realities concerning citizenship have changed with new expressions of transnationalism. However, whereas the main body of research has focused on the transnational aspects of citizenship among migrants in the form of their transnational political practices and dual nationalities, their descendants have received far less attention. This paper examines the political practices of Kurdish migrants' descendants in France and Germany and their narratives of identity and citizenship. We employ migrant descendants' political activism as an empirical entry point to gain insight into the meanings they attach to citizenship. The paper draws from two qualitative datasets collected in France (2015–2017) and Germany (2015–2023) with individuals of Kurdish background, who were born to migrant families arriving from Turkey in the 1980s and 1990s. The findings show that national contexts – both in grandparents'/parents' country of departure and the country of arrival – and the transnational, diasporic and even supranational space (EU) shape migrant descendants' political activism, identity construction and consequently resonate in the meanings they attach to citizenship. This study highlights the need to approach migrants' descendants as transnational citizens in their own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an empirical analysis that examines the factors influencing service prices and frequencies of conventional high-speed trains (HSTs) in France. The study utilizes original data spanning from September 2019 to March 2020, focusing on the level of intermodal competition and the diversification strategy employed by the primary rail operator. The primary findings of the econometric analysis reveal that the determinants of the price per kilometer for both first and second-class conventional HST services exhibit some shared factors, particularly in relation to the technical characteristics of the routes and alternative options available. However, certain factors are specific to each category, such as the competitive environment, economic conditions, and demographic factors. The frequency of HST services is primarily influenced by travel time. In cases where conventional HSTs do not offer satisfactory service quality in terms of frequency and/or price, there is an auxiliary alternative option available to compensate for the limited frequency of conventional HST services. • Alternative modes compensate for the insufficient service quality of conventional HSTs. • Low-cost flights are emerging when round trips within a day are not feasible via HST. • The incumbent rail operator adopts a multi-product strategy to address the competitive pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic relatedness figures heavily in contemporary ethical debates on egg freezing, although the arguments lack empirical‐based evidence. Rather than adding another theoretical view on the moral relevance of genetic connections, this paper instead proposes an empirically grounded perspective based on two independent qualitative interview‐based studies conducted in Belgium and France. Three themes emerge from our empirical data: (1) prioritizing family building; (2) centering the gestational experience of motherhood; and (3) identifying the complexities and limitations of adoption. These themes suggest that the relationship between egg freezing, genetics, biological motherhood, and adoption is highly complex and less straightforward than what is often assumed in the egg freezing debate. Our study provides more detailed insights into women's ambivalent experiences regarding those reproductive options. We discuss the ethical implications of our empirical findings and hold that pursuing genetic desire is not necessarily the main moral reason why women freeze their eggs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his report to the president of the French Republic in November 2012 assessing France's return into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) military command structure, Hubert Védrine, the former French Minister of Foreign Affairs, noted that France had no interest in leaving it again. His recommendations called for renewed action within the Alliance and the emergence of a European pillar. The timing should have been perfect, with France's draft White Paper on defence and security about to be published. However, at a time when budget cuts prevail, are these recommendations applicable and do they amount to more than just paying lip-service? This article focuses on a one-year period, from November 2012 to the latest debates around the Military Programming Law, reminiscent of Pierre Mendès-France's famous quote that governing is all about making choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe conceptualization of the neoliberalization of social housing has been largely dominated by Harloe’s models, which define it as the transition from a ‘mass’ to a ‘residual’ model. However, this definition fails to capture the emergence of ‘affordable’ housing policies. Blessing suggests instead conceptualizing neoliberalization through privatization and marketization. This definition helps analyze the focus on the diversification of the supply into mid-market rents. Drawing on mixed-method research, this paper demonstrates the relevance of Blessing’s analysis. To illustrate this, I will take the example of a large French intercommunality, which appears as non-neoliberal due to the absence of residualization. Our findings demonstrate that marketization and privatization have, however, influenced the nature of social housing provision by leading to an absolute decrease in low-rent units through demolitions and sales, and an increase in mid-market rent housing units. In conclusion, the findings emphasize the need for researchers to delve into the issue of social housing exclusion and its underlying mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the environmental ambition of 2023-2027 Common Agricultural Policy in France. Since conditionality and agri-environment-climate measures are only marginally improved relative to the previous period, attention is focused on the new environmental instrument of the eco-scheme that in France targets the whole farm. Results suggest low environmental progress since almost all French farms would reach the standard level of the eco-scheme by one of the three access paths with unchanged farming practices, and 85% of them would reach the superior level. The percentage of farms at the superior level would be lower for farms specialized in annual crops than for cattle farms. We then show that the payment difference of €20 per hectare between the standard and superior level is probably insufficient for farms specialized in cereals, oilseeds and protein crops to offset the additional cost of the change in farm practices required to move from the standard to the superior level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the distinctiveness of French and francophone approaches to environmental justice. While off to a slow start, environmental justice research has received increased attention in France in the last 15 years. But there has been little to no attention to the French debates and movements in the English-language academic literature, with both bodies of knowledge largely evolving in parallel, conceptually and politically. This article attends to this gap by first taking stock of the empirical evidence of environmental injustices and inequalities in France. We then introduce some of the theoretical origins and discuss some of the main insights from the French literature in light of contemporary environmental justice scholarship. In so doing, our aim with this paper is to contribute to current scholarly efforts on diversifying the meanings and understandings of environmental justice in different academic and political contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the potential impacts of a hypothetical implementation of the Income Stabilisation Tool (IST) in France for the field crops sector. The IST is a risk management tool available within the 2014–2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to support farmers facing a severe drop in their incomes. This analysis was conducted using a farm‐level model relying on expected utility theory and based on positive mathematical programming with risk. The model was applied to a sample of 1375 field crop farms in France derived from Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data. Simulation results show that the uptake rate of the tool is relatively low, less than 37% in all scenarios. It is strongly dependent on CAP public support and on how much premium farmers have to pay. Highest uptake rates are observed in farms specialising in Other Field Crops, such as potatoes, pulses and sugar beet, and farms located in regions highly exposed to climatic risks. Previous experience with insurance favours the acceptance of the IST. Model results also show that the IST improves adopters' income and reduces income inequality. However, its impacts on crop diversity, measured by the Shannon index, are negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of exclusionary populism is widely regarded as one of the most significant phenomena in today's political world. Despite this, the relationship between populism and security remains under-explored in the literature, including the affective power of populist security narratives. Against this background, this paper conducts a comparative analysis of radical right populist discourse in response to two recent shocking crimes in France and Ireland. The different expression given to security concerns in the two countries, such as a much less antagonistic 'flaunting of the low' in France, is suggestive of a more contingent and institutionally mediated relationship between security and populism than the existing literature would suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The literature mostly investigates the business cycle transmission of the United Kingdom (UK) and France as a part of a wider group (e.g. European Exchange Rate Mechanism or G7), despite their historical links and regional significance. Thus, herein paper aims to analyse the inter-dependence of these economies and how a shock from one of them affects the other for the data since 1978 to 2019. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, first, preliminary statistics were calculated in order to describe the historical relationship between these countries. The econometric part estimates the vector auto-regression model (VAR) to assess the inter-dependence of the economies. VAR model allows further to inspect the impulse response functions that shows the shock dynamics from one country to another. In order to verify if a shock from one of the economies is important to another, the study uses granger causality test. Findings: The study establishes a strong link between these countries. A business cycle is transmitted significantly between the economies of France and UK, with a single standard deviation shock from France resulting in a long term effect of 0.4% change in gross domestic product (GDP) of UK and 1% vice versa. Additionally changes in GDP of both of the countries significantly Granger-cause change to GDP of the corresponding economy. Originality/value: This is the first empirical study investigating the business cycle transmission between France and UK and providing a quantitative assessment of their inter-dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The authors present an account of the current state of sectorization in France and its development over the last decade. Method: The paper is based on statistics collected by the French Health Ministry and on relevant laws and regulations. Comments by patients, families and professionals are presented. Results: The supply of mental health care is usually satisfactory, and there is a tendency for in-patient units to be converted into day hospitals. There is a large disparity between regions, especially in child and adolescent psychiatry. The 1838 law governing compulsory admissions was revised in 1990, and this revision was the object of a commission of inquiry in 1995. Psychiatric units work on the borders between health and social services and are forging new links between the two. Conclusion: Psychiatric care requires an integrated health and social perspective. In the field of mental health legislation European recommendations are called for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse how State policies, on the book and in practice, shape family reunification. It focuses on child migration under constraint in France, by analysing the timing and factors of (non-)reunification among foreign immigrants, whose legal conditions for family reunification are much more restrictive than for those who obtained the French citizenship. Using a quantitative approach with a nationally representative survey, the article analyses to what extent and in what circumstances migrants took one or the other of three paths during the 1973–2009 period: bringing their children in France through the administrative channel of family reunification (de jure reunification), turning to an alternative channel of child migration (de facto reunification), or leaving their child behind in their birth country. Results show that de jure reunification is not the predominant option and strongly suggest that this pathway is impaired both by an official state selection based on socioeconomic criteria enshrined in law, and by an unofficial state selection in policy implementation due to discriminatory treatments and regional inequalities in administration resources. In response to these restrictions, families adapt either by turning to de facto reunification or by maintaining transnational ways of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Paris-Lyon line is the busiest High-Speed Line in Europe and has been open to competition in open access since December 18, 2021. The main objective of the paper is to explore the effects for users with respect to price and frequency compare with the existing literature. The analysis is based on a large database (n = 1243) collected by web scraping from September 2019 to October 2022. The method relies on a descriptive analysis with a similar route without competition (Paris-Bordeaux) in the comparison group. The results highlight an increase of frequency by 15% and a decrease in price by 23%. The prices charged by the newcomer are lower than those of the incumbent (−30% to −50%). The comparison with the control route suggests a positive effect on price that moderates the economic catch-up effect following the COVID-19 pandemic in an inflationary context. More specifically, SNCF appears to take a wait and see attitude to competitive pressure from Trenitalia. It has moderated its prices since the new offer was introduced and has maintained its trains. • Competition have a positive effect on user welfare. • Barriers to competition underscore the importance of public regulation for success. • Incumbent adopts a wait and see attitude in response to competitive pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has recently been observed, that a change in the crop spectrum happened during the so-called Middle Neolithic in France at ca. 4000 BC. An agricultural system based on free-threshing cereals (naked wheat and naked barley) seems to shift to one based on glume wheats. This is a major change for traditional farmers and this paper aims to shed light on its possible causes. Here we describe the results of new investigations in a key area for the understanding of this process: the NW Mediterranean arch, where free-threshing cereals are the main cultivars since ca. 5100 BC. New data confirm that the shift towards glume wheats is also observed in some sites of the NE of the Iberian Peninsula and that among the glume wheats that spread at ca. 4000 BC we should not only consider emmer and einkorn but also Timopheevi's wheat. Stable isotope analyses indicate no major decrease in soil fertility or alterations in local precipitation regimes. The agricultural change may be the result of a combination of the spread of damaging pests for free-threshing cereals and presumably new networks being developed with the North-eastern part of Italy and the Balkans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars argue that the practice of educational tracking exerts a distinct effect on young people's political engagement. They point out that students in academic tracks are becoming more politically engaged than those than those in vocational ones, and suggest that this may be due to differences across tracks in the curriculum, pedagogy, peer environment or student self-confidence. The current paper aims to investigate whether tracking is related to political engagement through any of these four mechanisms. It uses survey data collected among students in the final year of upper secondary education in France and employs a stepwise multilevel analysis to explore this question. It finds little differences between tracks in the curriculum and in pedagogy relevant for political engagement. Students in academic tracks nonetheless express a stronger commitment to vote than those in vocational ones. This difference between tracks disappears when the social composition of the school population is taken into account, suggesting that the peer environment is the primary mechanism driving the effect of tracking in France. However, in contexts with greater variation between the tracks in curriculum and pedagogy, the latter may well be equally or more important mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subsistence strategies of early farming communities have been highlighted since the beginning of the Neolithic, thanks to numerous studies on lipid residues from ceramic vessels conducted in various parts of continental Europe. However, after the Early Neolithic, evidence of subsistence strategies along the northern Atlantic coast are still lacking, especially for island contexts. This paper presents the results of lipid residue analysis of 129 potsherds from Beg ar Loued (Molène, France), an island site dating primarily to the Early Bronze Age (c. 2700-2600 to 1800 BCE). Aiming to understand the use of vessels, vessel treatment and culinary practices on the settlement, analyses of visible charred residues, sherds and ceramic surfaces/coating layers were carried out using chromatographic (n = 174) and isotopic techniques (n = 24) after lipid extraction by solvent (n = 174) or acid methanolysis (n = 31). The results demonstrate the extensive use of terrestrial products (ruminant carcass and dairy) in pottery, including occasional plant products (with possible mixtures of different waxes), while the detection of aquatic products is limited. Thus, combined with evidence from faunal remains at the site, the results indicate that terrestrial resources like ruminant meat and dairy products were preferentially processed in vessels, and aquatic products mostly without the use of ceramics. These findings demonstrate the significance of lipid residue analysis for studying the role of pottery in food production and consumption at sites along the Atlantic coast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to research different strategies for developing the green economy in shrinking cities. Considering urban shrinkage and the green economy as two extended concepts, a French town in post-Fordist transition and a Mexican post-mining town are selected as the most diverse/similar systems to indicate different strategies for sustainable development in shrinking cities. Embedded into different national backgrounds, including urban dynamics and support schemes for the green economy, the selected cases share the objectives of greening and regrowing strategies relying on other sectors of the green economy. The methodology applied is qualitative, including fieldwork, semi-structured interview techniques, carried out in person or remotely, and questionnaires. Findings show some positive results regarding sustainability and ecological transition in the French case, while regrowth trends were reached in the Mexican case. However, the analysis leads to uncertain scenarios for positive long-term impacts, especially due to uncertainty around future supporting policies for territorial cohesion and sustainability at national and regional levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper starts with a brief presentation of some key points stressing the central role attributed to calculation and the moral content of this epistemological device during the French debate on the abolition of slavery (§1), before explaining how the first calculations were done (§2). The following section shows that these calculations were still in use during the short period—from June 1848 to November 1849—when the time came to determine the precise amount to be given as compensation to the colonists after the loss of their property rights in enslaved people. Accordingly, the nature of property rights in the industrial society were at stake, either from the point of view of socialists thinkers or from the abolition process under the aegis of the government (§3). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By revisiting three empirical qualitative studies, the paper elaborates on conceptual and methodological issues pertaining to clarification of the use of the concept of politicization and "ordinary relationships to politics." The first study was conducted at the end of the 1990s on voluntary associations of young people of foreign descent in the French suburbs; the second was devoted to ordinary relationships to politics among young people in working-class neighborhoods in France; the third involves ongoing fieldwork examining non-profit organizations and their relationship to the state, focusing notably on evangelical non-profits in the Boston area of the USA. Although the research questions were different, they dealt with ordinary relationships to politics (ORP). This notion encompasses two dimensions. On the one hand, the idea that what determines one's relationship to politics is not only political, but also social: that we need to "embed" the study of relationships to politics into social dimensions. This is related to the study of the determination of relationships to politics. On the other hand, the idea that a relationship to politics is not only a relationship to the institutionalized political field, but that we need to adopt a broader definition of what politicization is, in order to grasp its ordinary forms, especially—but not only—when we deal with the working class. In this case, what is at stake is the definition of politicization. Nowadays, there is relative consensus in the literature regarding the determination of relationships to politics, but the definition of what politicization is remains much more controversial. In this paper, I present the terms of this controversy and the value in and limits of the various perspectives and, more specifically, I elaborate on how the changes in the type of fieldwork I conducted, in the national contexts, and the theoretical questions I asked impacted on the way I chose to define politicization. I suggest combining three definitions of politicization: (i) the legitimist or realist conception based on the relationship to the institutional political sphere; (ii) the conception of politicization as the identification of shared problems calling for collective solutions; and finally, (iii) approaching politicization as the readiness to be moved, to consider points of view other than those initially adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past twenty years, prominent theorists of citizenship envisaged cosmopolitan openings, the re-making of national identity, and progressive multicultural change. The paper explores perspectives on civic inclusion in Kymlicka's Multicultural Odysseys, Soysal's Limits of Citizenship, and Benhabib's Another Cosmopolitanism. It explores this work in light of two recent political episodes, the formulation of an "anti-separatism" law in France and "anti-ghetto" policies in Denmark. The paper contrast tendencies that theorists of inclusive citizenship envisage with the denial of associational rights in France and the assertion of racial logics in Denmark. It illustrates blinds spots in prominent accounts of civic inclusion, in particular the reliance on a prescriptive account of minority and post-migrant agency, a disembodied logic of human rights, and limited regard for status differentials on the inside of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the diasporist French Jewish political group, Le Cercle Gaston Crémieux, founded in 1967 "to promote a diasporic Jewish existence without subjugation to the synagogue or to Zionism". In contrast to either an assimilationist model which demanded the acceptance of French national identity in the public sphere, or a Zionist model of Jewish nationalism, the Cercle offered a model in which the state of exile and diaspora becomes constitutive of Jewish identity, positioned as an alternate mode of being-in-the-world defined against white Christian European nationalism. Yet to expose the historically constructed, socially contingent nature of European nationalisms that claim the status of organic and natural, the Cercle had to imagine a particular narrative of the historical construction of Jewishness, and this social constructionism conflicted with the almost ontological, metaphysical status they wanted to accord to Jewish exile and otherness. Thus the Cercle failed to imagine an anti-national model of Jewishness, but this failure sheds light on larger fault lines in the possibility of a Jewish politics. The paper concludes that the Cercle's imaginal diasporic Jewishness tries to enable the articulation of other forms of minority identity, suggesting that this failure may nonetheless prove politically productive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe a new lizard from the early Eocene of the Cos locality in the Quercy region (near the Caylus village, Southwest France). The age of the Cos deposit has been proposed as the MP 10-11 interval, close to the transition of the late Ypresian to early Lutetian. The fossil material includes a nearly complete right maxilla and a large section of the right dentary, both elements attributed to Pan-Gekkota. These specimens are morphologically different from crown gekkotans, therefore, we describe them as a new species. Some aspects of the maxilla are very atypical regarding geckos (e.g., the shape of the facial process). The posterior margin of the facial process slopes down gradually dorsoventrally towards the jugal facet, reaching the posterior end of the maxilla, in contrast to gekkotans, where the facial process ends anterior to the posterior end of the maxilla. A similar maxilla is present in the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous pan-gekkotan genus Eichstaettisaurus. This suggests that the new fossil taxon represents either a lineage that persisted from the Mesozoic to the early Eocene in Europe, or perhaps a morphology otherwise unrepresented in crown gekkotans. We allocate this taxon provisionally to Pan-Gekkota, and contribute to increase the diversity of this clade in Western Europe during the Paleogene, which now includes the stratigraphically similarly aged Laonogekko lefevrei from France (MP 10), and older Dollogekko from Belgium (MP 7). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how the use of horse and bull iconography in Occitan and Provençal Catholic cemeteries facilitates the expression of a more-than-human regional identity and, thereby, challenges the boundaries that separate humans from the nonhuman world. The presence of nonhumans in the way humans process and understand death across faiths and cultures is often explained by the fact that humans, as they deal with death, need to make sense of it by reaffirming the singularity of human life, in opposition to that of other beings. Relegating the use of animals in death rituals as a pagan practice associated with idolatry and metempsychosis, Western Christianism has largely banished animals and animal iconography from human deathscapes. However, research in 22 Catholic village cemeteries around the Camargue region indicates that, in this part of France today, animals – especially bulls and horses – are included in the religious and social practice of death. At first glance, the use of this symbolism in the Camargue region and its vicinity seems to subvert the Christian condemnation of animal imagery. Upon closer examination, however, rather than challenging Christian norms, the use of animal imagery merges with Christian signs, indicating that local cemeteries are spaces where humans can express both religious affiliation and regional spiritualism simultaneously. Moreover, by evoking narratives of more-than-human osmosis promoted by the Félibrige literature, this imagery also effaces the boundaries that separate humans from animals and the environment. Therefore, the use of horse and bull iconography in those cemeteries not only blurs the conceptual boundaries between Catholic faith and fé biou (the "religion of the bull" to which the horse also participates) but also between humans and the nonhuman world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the European Union's concerted efforts to harmonize entrepreneurial growth and innovation across member states, significant disparities remain in the entrepreneurial landscapes of Western and Eastern Europe. France, with its mature entrepreneurial ecosystem, characterized by robust financial infrastructures, supportive regulatory frameworks, and a vibrant culture of innovation, contrasts with Romania's emerging ecosystem. This paper employs a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative metrics with qualitative insights. This comprehensive approach aims to identify the key factors contributing to the disparities and synergies between the two ecosystems. The outcomes of this research are anticipated to provide nuanced insights for policy makers, educators, and business leaders. By revealing the strengths and weaknesses inherent in each ecosystem, the study aims to inform targeted interventions and collaborative initiatives, fostering a more equitable, dynamic, and cohesive entrepreneurial landscape across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe a new lizard from the early Eocene of the Cos locality in the Quercy region (near the Caylus village, Southwest France). The age of the Cos deposit has been proposed as the MP 10-11 interval, close to the transition of the late Ypresian to early Lutetian. The fossil material includes a nearly complete right maxilla and a large section of the right dentary, both elements attributed to Pan-Gekkota. These specimens are morphologically different from crown gekkotans, therefore, we describe them as a new species. Some aspects of the maxilla are very atypical regarding geckos (e.g., the shape of the facial process). The posterior margin of the facial process slopes down gradually dorsoventrally towards the jugal facet, reaching the posterior end of the maxilla, in contrast to gekkotans, where the facial process ends anterior to the posterior end of the maxilla. A similar maxilla is present in the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous pan-gekkotan genus Eichstaettisaurus. This suggests that the new fossil taxon represents either a lineage that persisted from the Mesozoic to the early Eocene in Europe, or perhaps a morphology otherwise unrepresented in crown gekkotans. We allocate this taxon provisionally to Pan-Gekkota, and contribute to increase the diversity of this clade in Western Europe during the Paleogene, which now includes the stratigraphically similarly aged Laonogekko lefevrei from France (MP 10), and older Dollogekko from Belgium (MP 7). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty years ago, in December 2000, the SRU Law (Loi Solidarité et Renouvellement Urbain) was passed in France, requiring selected municipalities to devote 25% of their local stock to social housing, in order to curb growing trends of segregation. Almost twenty years later, the balance is striking: still 1,222 municipalities targeted by the program do not comply with the set quota of 25% social housing units per municipality. Out of these non-complying municipalities, 269 had to pay an increased fee in 2017, based on the Article 55 clause included in the SRU Law. The total fee that these 'outlaw municipalities' had to pay for not providing enough social housing represented a total of € 77 million in 2017, and helped finance the national rental social housing fund for housing. In this paper, I ask what impact the Article 55 fee clause designed to enforce SRU Law objectives has had on the rebalancing of social housing stocks for municipalities not complying with set quotas. To answer such a question, I conduct a Difference-in-Differences study that measures changes in social housing stocks before and after the passage of the law. The treatment group comprises municipalities not complying with quota requirements and subject to the Article 55 fee, while the control group consists of municipalities not complying with quota requirements, but exempt from the fee. Findings underscore how after the passage of the Article 55 fee, municipalities that were subject to the fee have built less social housing than municipalities that are exempt, relative to before the enactment of the law. They corroborate my conceptual framework, which states that beyond the adoption of a national fee for noncompliant municipalities, social housing production trends are impacted by the types of land use ideologies in place in municipalities, be they pro-social housing or exclusionary. Twenty years later, these findings bring a new perspective to current debates taking place in policy circles around the effectiveness of one of France's most important social housing policy programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines empirically the economic relationship between local labour market size and firm returns to training. Anchoring in the literature of micro‐foundation of agglomeration economies, we suspect that this relation is driven by two mechanisms: (i) labour pooling which should positively influence the returns to training through matching and learning effects and (ii) the risk of labour poaching, which tends to reduce the returns to training in larger labour markets. Our estimates, based on a large sample of French industrial firms, reveal that returns to training are increasing with the labour market size, suggesting that labour pooling dominates labour poaching effects. On average, returns to training lie between 6.7 and 7.7%, more in line with the microeconomic literature on education than previous studies focusing on training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of an industrial era in which Nantes was the busiest shipping and slave-trading port in France, a giant, mechanical elephant became an animating force in the city's reanimation of the neighborhood left behind. In this paper, I consider the Grand Éléphant de Nantes as a case study of urban enchantment. The elephant occupies the boundary between artwork, machine, and animal, allowing it to captivate spectators and encourage the communal creation of a place in a public urban space. It simultaneously turns away from, rather than grappling with, the site's historical role in the transatlantic slave trade. Following Jane Bennett's conception of enchantment as a method of commodity fetishism, this paper shows that enchantment is a force of placemaking that draws spectators from urban stupor and in doing so, raises the potential for ethical engagement with space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death of a parent during childhood has become rare in developed countries but remains an important life course event that may have consequences for family formation. This paper describes the link between parental death before age 18 and fertility outcomes in adulthood. Using the large national 2011 French Family Survey (INSEE–INED), we focus on the 1946–66 birth cohorts, for whom we observe entire fertility histories. The sample includes 11,854 respondents who have lost at least one parent before age 18. We find a strong polarization of fertility behaviours among orphaned males, more pronounced for those coming from a disadvantaged background. More often childless, particularly when parental death occurred in adolescence, some seem to retreat from parenthood. But orphaned men and women who do become parents seem to embrace family life, by beginning childbearing earlier and having more children, especially when the deceased parent is of the same sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Independent regulatory agency has become the standard institutional choice in Western Europe. Little is known, however, about the involvement of legislators in their design and in their monitoring. In this paper, we analyse ex-ante and ex-post legislative involvement for 48 regulatory agencies enacted in France. We show that legislators debate and design more substantially agencies for which the government bill has already granted them more powers to appoint members to their board, or to be appointed as board members themselves. Once enacted, agencies that allow greater participation by legislators in their decision-making are subject to greater scrutiny, and this even after controlling for routine oversight activities. Regulatory domains matter, though only for ex-post legislative oversight. These results suggest that legislative involvement is selective and driven by strategic considerations. More fundamentally, they imply that legislative involvement could be more important in regulatory agency activities than usually assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hawthorn Crater is a prominent feature of the former Somme battlefield near Beaumont Hamel, Northern France. It resulted from the detonation of arguably the most famous of nine mines that the British had prepared below German lines on 1 July 1916, as part of the opening day of the Battle of the Somme. However, the crater has not been studied scientifically, as was in private land until recently taken over by the Hawthorn Crater Association. This paper documents three field seasons of multi-disciplinary site investigations. Methods included: remote sensing, drones, ground-based-LiDAR and surface surveys, geophysics and archaeological investigations. Magnetic anomalies were identified as: still-intact German fire pits, barbed wire and equipment, as the crater became the frontline after formation, and Allied shell craters. This study provided a rare opportunity to study a First World War mine crater, and highlighting modern science can assist detection and characterisation of significant archaeological sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical contact between teachers and students in physical education (PE) has been a troubling, complex and unsolved issue. Research has shown that PE teachers struggle with high levels of fear, insecurity and anxiety when it comes to physical contact with students. However, most of the research conducted so far has focused on a few countries and in regard to the dominant no-touch societal discourse related to sexual connotations. Research from other countries on PE-related touch and other non-sexual physical contact topics is still missing from the literature. This paper aims to explore touch within the PE arena in Argentina and France. Data were generated with a group of eight PE teachers, four from France and four from Argentina. Results suggest that even though teachers were well aware of the widely spread discourse regarding sexual harassment, they discussed the concerns of touch in PE in different ways. Touch was considered necessary for both emotional support and the avoidance and treatment of injuries. In some cases, teachers were concerned about the admissibility of touch involving students with religious beliefs, and some acts of violence. The conclusions of this study reveal a shift in the 'risks' surrounding teacher-student physical contact, and the less-discussed presence of risks other than those related to sexual implications when considering other countries. The conclusions also revolved around the changes of PE teachers' professional subjectivities over the last few decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes online sermons on Muslim loyalty to non-Muslims uttered by Tareq Oubrou, one of the most prominent Muslim religious authorities in France. The aim of this study is twofold. First, Oubrou's rhetoric will be examined (especially in what pertains to the opening, the hybrid format of preaching, the languages used, citations, digital tools, and the closing). Second, Oubrou's online sermons will be addressed as a counter-narrative on loyalty intended primarily to neutralize the radical Salafi discourses which forbid any form of loyalty towards non-Muslims. Oubrou utilizes online preaching: (1) to teach wider audiences of ordinary Muslims, outside of the practicing audience who attend mosques regularly, loyalty towards non-Muslims; (2) to compete for space and authoritative discourse on Islam; and (3) to prosecute radical discourses on loyalty particularly present in the virtual space as well as among undersized, albeit active, Salafi communities in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that the evolution of French water governance since the 1960s is globally consistent with the OECD Principles on Water Governance. It covers simultaneously what concerns resources, services and eventually policies that bridge both types, per groups of governance principles. The paper illustrates that, beyond this overall positive assessment, a lot of shortcomings and weaknesses and therefore of potential improvements can be identified. It proposes a preliminary reflection about the impact of governance changes and about indicators needed to measure these impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2012, SCOR, one of the world's largest reinsurers, sued the French state, challenging a public–private natural disaster insurance scheme, called the "cat nat" regime. It campaigned in favour of a "real" natural disaster insurance market. The purpose of this paper is to grasp the logic of this litigation. It reveals growing tensions regarding the insurance of natural disasters, against the backdrop of climate change. To make sense of this, we will build on Christian Parenti's theory of the "environment making state". This approach aims at understanding the interaction between capitalism, states, and nature. The question we will pose is: what happens to "environment making" institutions in times of crisis? Crisis leads to the "politicisation" of "environment making": decisions concerning the management of natural hazards are increasingly taken by the executive branch. This "politicisation" may represent an important evolution in the relationship between capitalism, states, and nature in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shipbuilding is inherently a social process involving numerous craftsmen utilizing their knowledge and skills while working together to produce a complex machine. The construction of a ship traditionally relies on a stratified apprenticeship system that entails a master teaching apprentices their trade. In this type of setting, the shipyard becomes the classroom where the younger generations learn and mimic mannerisms from their instructors. The development of this technique is considered an individual practice, which, with other construction methodologies and shared interactions, becomes social structures within a specific society. Repetition of this type of practice may reaffirm the existing structure, which in this article relates to various communities of shipbuilders. This paper addresses shipbuilding's social perspective through an operational process based on surviving shipwreck timbers. Two case studies are addressed: Mediterranean shipbuilding between the Medieval and Modern periods and a case study of late 17th-century French shipbuilding social organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy cover crops for biogas production through anaerobic digestion (AD) are inserted between two primary crops. They replace either bare soil or nonharvested cover crops, and their management is usually intensified to produce more biomass. They allow the production of renewable energy as well as digestate, used as an organic fertilizer, without directly competing with food production. Because of the increased biomass production and export and of the return of a digested biomass to the soil, the impact of energy cover crops on soil organic carbon (SOC) is questioned. The objective of this paper was to study the difference in SOC stocks induced by the introduction of energy cover crops for AD coupled with the application of the resulting amount of digestate. We used the AD model Sys‐Metha combined with the soil C model AMG to simulate SOC stocks for 13 case studies in France, with scenarios comparing different intercrop management practices, with or without cover crops, harvested or not. Our results indicated that the higher biomass production of energy cover crops (from 6.7 to 11.1 t DM ha−1) in comparison with nonharvested cover crops (2 t DM ha−1) or bare soil led to higher humified C input (belowground input and digestate), despite the high C fraction exported in AD. This resulted in an increase in SOC stocks in comparison with nonharvested cover crops or bare soil (from 0.01 to 0.12 t C ha−1 year−1 over 30 years). The uncertainties in the model parameters did not modify these results. However, in the case of equal biomass production between energy cover crops and nonharvested cover crops, SOC stocks would be lower with energy cover crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a data set resulting from the first round of a national monitoring program of forest reserves. It contains 9538 permanent plots, distributed across 111 study sites in mainland France (including Corsica). Notably focusing on dead wood measurement, this protocol has primarily been applied in strict forest reserves and special nature reserves (sensu Bollmann & Braunisch 2013), with 68% (6494) of the plots being currently located in strict forest reserves (unmanaged) and 24.7% (2363 plots) in forests unmanaged for at least 50 years. Sites cover a large variety of ecological conditions, from lowland to subalpine forests, but with an underrepresentation of Mediterranean forests (Table 1). The protocol assesses all the stages of a tree's life cycle, from seedling to decomposed lying dead wood. On each plot, a combination of three sampling techniques was used: (1) fixed‐area inventory for regeneration, standing dead trees, living trees, and coarse woody debris (CWD) with diameter over 30 cm; (2) transect lines for CWD with diameter <30 cm; and (3) fixed‐angle plot method for living trees with diameter at breast height (DBH) >30 cm (using a relascopic angle of 3%). Measurements include exact tree location (azimuth, distance), species, diameter(s), tree‐related microhabitats, decay stage and bark cover, and seedling cover. With ongoing climate change, the program network can also provide important information to monitor changes in forest ecosystems. It can also be used as forest management monitoring or conservation status assessment. These data are freely available for noncommercial scientific use (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 CC BY SA 4.0) with attribution, and this paper must be cited if this material is reused. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on participant observation and interviews in two yoga studios in the highly socially stratified city of Marseille, France, this paper explores the understandings of yoga as a health practice that emerge at the intersections between yoga styles and their social contexts of consumption. Its insights emerge from the comparison of three modern yoga styles that were developed for Western English-speaking cultural contexts – Iyengar, Bikram and Forrest – and which differ in form but also in the chronology of their emergence on the global yoga market and that of their reception in France. These three yoga styles are also branded through contrasting mythologies of transformational healing, and the aim of this paper is to explore how a brand conceptualization of yoga as a health practice relates to or resonates with the embodied experiences of practitioners, and to the socio-cultural contexts in which practitioners and their practices are embedded. The paper contributes a new case study to the global yoga scholarship and to a poorly studied French yoga scene, but more importantly, it cross-examines the discourses through which a yoga style is branded, the way it is transmitted, and the social context and social positioning of the individuals who practice it. Combining perspectives on the body, narrative and rituals, it identifies how yoga healing is construed in relation to gender, ethnicity and class and the points of consensus and dissent that emerge from the encounters between French social bodies and exogenous yoga styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review article discusses how Alain-Philippe Durand's recent edited book about Francophone hip-hop gathers a plurality of voices and disciplinary approaches on hip-hop worlds, and offers thoughtful insights with regards to a number of issues often raised about hip-hop--related to race, migration or institutionalization of countercultural forms over different spaces of the French-speaking Atlantic--but also regarding the field of hip-hop studies itself. I address two main lines of discussion opened by the book and that could deserve further discussion in light of the current literature on hip-hop in the Francophone area. The first one is related to the contrasts and oppositions perceptible at the reading of this collection of papers, about the meaning of making hip-hop studies in a context of imagination of hip-hop as a "resistant" and countercultural form. The second is the issue of racial politics, imaginaries and identifications exchanged over the Atlantic space, and the role of Africa as an imagined or real land of reference in the construction of identities, art forms, ideologies and discourses in Francophone hip-hop worlds. I finally defend how the book's rich reflections raise many questions and future possibilities, both for the field of hip-hop studies and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relying on the (classic interactionist) notion of "career," this paper attempts to explore the alcohol trajectories of a sample of young adults in France. To reconstruct each career, we conducted 30 in-depth interviews with young adults from 19 to 25 years of age. Three distinct stages were identified. The first consists of trying the product; the second involves experimenting with the physical and sensory effects of drinking; the third sets the person on a course toward diversifying consumption patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the main determinants of French defense spending over the period 1958–2017. To estimate the determinants of defense spending, the demand defense literature considers both economic and strategic factors such as conflicts, threats, and alliances. Our approach is original because we focus on strategic factors, including proxies for an alliance's membership and external threats. In addition, we include transnational terrorism as a proxy for internal threats. We find that defense spending is positively related to the gross domestic product, North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership, military operations abroad, and external threats and negatively linked to the population as a proxy to public service needs. These results are robust to changes in specifications and shifts in defense policy observed after 1991. This contribution underlines that the fundamental determinants of defense policy in France are economic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomimicry is a growing field of developing environmental innovations for materials, facade systems, buildings, and urban planning. In France, we observe an extensive diversity of initiatives in biomimicry for the development of regenerative cities. These initiatives blossom in a large range of areas, from education to urban policies, to achieve a major environmental, social and economic paradigm shift. To provide a comprehensive understanding of this development at the national scale, this paper presents and discusses the diversity of the developed initiatives over the last 10 years in six main fields-education, urban policies, fundamental and applied research, design demonstrators, arts, and communication. This research is an opportunistic study based on the analysis of these initiatives enriched by the feedback of the stakeholders collected by the authors working in the field of biomimicry over the last seven years. We identify that biomimicry in France has mainly extended through individual initiatives of teachers, territorial authorities, architectural studios, or researchers rather than through the support of public policies. Putting into perspective developments in biomimicry by other countries, this cross-discipline analysis provides recommendations for the extensive development of regenerative architecture and urbanism at the national scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even if psychoanalysis no longer prevails with the extraordinary enthusiasm it inspired after World War II, it still retains an important place for many in the mental health field. This paper's objective is to describe the current situation of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapies in the French health system, showing how, in our country, it has developed to this unique position. So far, influenced by the evolution of psychoanalysis in France, historical, cultural, and societal factors added with a strong lobby from psychodynamic scholars and strong support offered by clinical psychology, psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapies have maintained a significant practice framework in France. Despite being challenged by the dominant global position of DSM psychiatry and cognitive psychology, psychoanalysis' influence remains strong as it does not affect only psychology and psychiatry but also extends to the humanities and social sciences. New practice types and future directions for psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapies are then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little doubt that supply-side populism associates with radical platforms of the left and the right. However, few empirical analyses have focused on the connection between left-right ideological radicalism and populism at the individual level, even less in countries where populist discourses are not only associated with the radical right. This paper considers the association between populist attitudes and ideological radicalism in two countries where left-wing populist parties exist: France and Spain. For that, it uses an approach to political ideology that distinguishes political-economic issues and political-cultural ones. Main results show that radically minded individuals, located at the left and the right of the ideological axis, display stronger populist attitudes in France and Spain. However, differences between the two countries exist that highlight the relevance of context-dependent associations between populism and other (thick) ideologies in the electoral arena. In France, individuals located at the extreme right of the cultural dimension tend to show stronger populist attitudes than those located at the far left. In contrast, in Spain, individuals located at the extreme left of the economic and cultural dimensions display stronger populist attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Few papers have looked for an association between obesity and mortality risk in cancer patients with COVID-19 but, to our knowledge, none have studied this association in relation to the severity of obesity. We performed a study using data from the French national hospital database to study the effect of obesity (and its severity) on the risk of intensive care unit (ICU) admission, severe complications, and in-hospital mortality in cancer patients hospitalized for COVID-19 or not. The risk of ICU admission or severe complications was higher in cancer patients with obesity compared to cancer patients without obesity, regardless of cancer type and obesity severity. We did not find an excess obesity-related risk for in-hospital mortality, except for massive obesity in COVID-19 patients with hematological cancer and in non-COVID-19 patients with solid cancer. Further studies are warranted to better understand the relationship between obesity, and especially massive obesity, the prognosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in cancer patients. Cancer and obesity are well-known prognostic factors in COVID-19. Our objective was to study the effect of obesity (and its severity) on the risk of intensive care unit (ICU) admission, severe complications, and in-hospital mortality, in a population of cancer patients hospitalized with or without COVID-19. All patients hospitalized in France for cancer from 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2022 were included from the French national administrative database. The effect of obesity was estimated in COVID-19 and in non-COVID-19 cancer patients using logistic and survival regressions, taking into account age, sex, comorbidities, and different types of cancer. Among the 992,899 cancer patients, we identified 53,090 patients with COVID-19 (5.35%), of which 3260 were obese (6.1%). After adjustment, for patients with or without COVID-19, there is an increased risk of ICU admission or severe complications in obese patients, regardless of the type of obesity. Regarding in-hospital mortality, there is no excess risk associated with overall obesity. However, massive obesity appears to be associated with an increased risk of in-hospital mortality, with a significantly stronger effect in solid cancer patients without COVID-19 and a significantly stronger effect in hematological cancer patients with COVID-19. This study showed that in France, among hospitalized patients with cancer and with or without COVID-19, increased vigilance is needed for obese patients, both in epidemic and non-epidemic periods. This vigilance should be further strengthened in patients with massive obesity for whom the risk of in-hospital mortality is higher, particularly in epidemic periods for patients with hematological cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]