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Numerous biological and cultural factors influence the microbial communities (microbiota) that inhabit the human mouth, including diet, environment, hygiene, physiology, health status, genetics, and lifestyle. As oral microbiota can underpin oral and systemic diseases, tracing the evolutionary history of oral microbiota and the factors that shape its origins will unlock information to mitigate disease today. Despite this, the origins of many oral microbes remain unknown, and the key factors in the past that shaped our oral microbiota are only now emerging. High throughput DNA sequencing of oral microbiota using ancient DNA and comparative anthropological methodologies has been employed to investigate oral microbiota origins, revealing a complex, rich history. Here, I review the current literature on the factors that shaped and guided oral microbiota evolution, both in Europe and globally. In Europe, oral microbiota evolution was shaped by interactions with Neandertals, the adaptation of farming, widespread integration of industrialization, and postindustrial lifestyles that emerged after World War II. Globally, evidence for a multitude of different oral microbiota histories is emerging, likely supporting dissimilarities in modern oral health across discrete human populations. I highlight how these evolutionary changes are linked to the development of modern oral diseases and discuss the remaining factors that need to be addressed to improve this embryonic field of research. I argue that understanding the evolutionary history of our oral microbiota is necessary to identify new treatment and prevention options to improve oral and systemic health in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five years following the publication of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, this article discusses the state of play of the bioeconomy in Europe. Placing specific focus on Industrial Biotech, it outlines ten pragmatic recommendations from BIO-TIC [BIO-TIC, A roadmap to a thriving industrial biotechnology sector in Europe, 2015], an EU FP7 funded project completed in 2015 and coordinated by EuropaBio, comprehensively examining the hurdles to the development of a bioeconomy in Europe, enabled by industrial biotech. These include improving opportunities for feedstock producers within the bioeconomy; investigating the scope for using novel biomass; developing a workforce which can maintain Europe’s competitiveness in industrial biotechnology; introducing a long-term, stable and transparent policy and incentive framework to promote the bioeconomy; improving public perception and awareness of industrial biotechnology and bio-based products; identifying, leveraging and building upon EU capabilities for pilot and demonstration facilities; promoting the use of co-products from processing; improving the bioconversion and downstream processing steps; improving access to financing for large-scale biorefinery projects; developing stronger relationships between conventional and non-conventional players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the city of Lille as a point of cultural, economic, social and political intersection between the Low Countries and France. It focuses particularly on the effects of the industrial revolution and the occupation of the region during the First and Second World Wars, in terms of changing patterns of migration, trade, social exchange and cultural and linguistic practice, as well as the influence of political thinking, involvement, and practice and their relationship to and influence upon cultural development and the formation of identity, both national and municipal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixing peculiar socioeconomic conditions and demographic contexts, urban decline in Mediterranean Europe was less extensively documented than in other regions of the continent. Urbanization without industrialization or, more frequently, a 'late and light' industrialization prevented a specific interpretation of metropolitan dynamics in Mediterranean basin according with the paradigm of 'industrial shrinkage'. For the first time in the recent history, the great recession was a factor leading to metropolitan decline in Southern Europe and, after more than one decade, its outcomes can be investigated considering sufficiently long time series of demographic indicators that assess natural population growth and migration rates. Benefiting from quantitative information derived from official statistics, the present study describes medium- and short-term demographic transformations in a large metropolitan region (Attica, Greece) in response to the great recession. After an uninterrupted growth lasting more than one century, the last decade (2010–2019) has provided a dynamic representation of regional population decline based on the interplay of long-term factors (aging, low fertility) and concomitant short-term disturbances (counter-urbanization and crisis-driven emigration). By delineating the most relevant socio-demographic mechanisms at the base of recent urban decline, our study contributes to (re)formulate short-term development scenarios in large metropolitan regions, shedding further light on crisis-driven shrinkage in Southern Europe. • Urban decline in Mediterranean Europe was poorly documented up to now. • The 2007 recession was a leading factor of metropolitan decline in Southern Europe. • Demographic indicators were used to test shrinkage in a representative Mediterranean city. • Both long-term and short-term factors were important drivers of shrinkage dynamics. • Our study contributes to (re)formulate short-term development scenarios in large cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Industrialization has been linked to the etiology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).Aim: We investigated the association between air pollution exposure and IBD.Methods: The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort was used to identify cases with Crohn's disease (CD) (n = 38) and ulcerative colitis (UC) (n = 104) and controls (n = 568) from Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and the UK, matched for center, gender, age, and date of recruitment. Air pollution data were obtained from the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects. Residential exposure was assessed with land-use regression models for particulate matter with diameters of <10 μm (PM10), <2.5 μm (PM2.5), and between 2.5 and 10 μm (PMcoarse), soot (PM2.5 absorbance), nitrogen oxides, and two traffic indicators. Conditional logistic regression analyses were performed to calculate odds ratios (ORs) with 95 % confidence intervals (CIs).Results: Although air pollution was not significantly associated with CD or UC separately, the associations were mostly similar. Individuals with IBD were less likely to have higher exposure levels of PM2.5 and PM10, with ORs of 0.24 (95 % CI 0.07-0.81) per 5 μg/m(3) and 0.25 (95 % CI 0.08-0.78) per 10 μg/m(3), respectively. There was an inverse but nonsignificant association for PMcoarse. A higher nearby traffic load was positively associated with IBD [OR 1.60 (95 % CI 1.04-2.46) per 4,000,000 motor vehicles × m per day]. Other air pollutants were positively but not significantly associated with IBD.Conclusion: Exposure to air pollution was not found to be consistently associated with IBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a land-use change analysis of five Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. We utilize CORINE (Coordination of Information on the Environment) Land-Cover and Urban Audit data for two distinct time periods: 1990–2000 and 2000–2006 aggregated at urban, suburban and non-metropolitan geographies. The literature on post-socialist cities suggests that urbanization rates and patterns in the post-socialist period are quite variable and divergent, both “inter”nationally and “intra”-nationally, and we expect to find both spatial and temporal differences. We compare and contrast urbanization patterns at the national scale, using cities and their functional urban regions as the unit of comparative analysis. Our results show that unlike other eastern European countries, metropolitan areas in the former German Democratic Republic began sprawling (defined as a decline in urban density) in the 1990s. Similar changes only became visible in other CEE countries later during the 2000s. We also demonstrate that larger cities which were better connected to the political elite and more economically integrated with global investment patterns experienced more extensive urban sprawl than their smaller and mid-sized counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides empirical evidence that helps to answer several key questions relating to the extent of urban sprawl in Europe. Building on the monocentric city model, this study uses existing data sources to derive a set of panel data for 282 European cities at three time points (1990, 2000 and 2006). Two indices of urban sprawl are calculated that, respectively, reflect changes in artificial area and the levels of urban fragmentation for each city. These are supplemented by a set of data on various economic and geographical variables that might explain the variation of the two indices. Using a Hausman-Taylor estimator and random regressors to control for the possible correlation between explanatory variables and unobservable city-level effects, we find that the fundamental conclusions of the standard monocentric model are valid in the European context for both indices. Although the variables generated by the monocentric model explain a large part of the variation of artificial area, their explanatory power for modelling the fragmentation index is relatively low. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores whether new structural economics, and more broadly Structuralist approaches, could add to our understanding of transition in Central and Eastern Europe – and ultimately asks whether new structural economics and transition economics might be extended or integrated into a dynamic model of structural transformation that could better account for this particular development experience and provide policy guidance for the future. We have presented three perspectives – new structural economics, transition economics and the Neo-Schumpetarian approach – all of them emphasising different aspects of structural transformation. Their relative explanatory power depends on the context – for example, the extent of distortions in the economy, the quality of the institutions and where a country finds itself relative to the world technology frontier – and the questions we are interested in understanding. We suggest that, to date, the Neo-Schumpetarian approach offers the most promising and persuasive story line to think about this difficult challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes insights on differences in observed rates of substitution for fossil fuels across countries as measured by changes in the energy mix. If some countries are relatively slower in substituting for fossil fuels, climate change will be addressed less successfully. This paper specifically investigates the role of industrialisation and state-related institutions in the speed of energy substitution in 19 European countries from years 2011–2018 using panel data econometric methods, and has three main results. This paper finds evidence that (1) higher industrialisation levels in the economy increase the speed of energy substitution; (2) that changes in industrialisation levels, not the levels themselves, decrease the speed of energy substitution, but state-related institutions in support of green energy policy weaken this effect; and that (3) higher degrees of state control of the electricity sector slows down energy substitution, but state-related institutions in support of green energy policy likewise weaken this effect. These findings imply that higher industrialisation levels require more energy in absolute terms, implying greater energy portfolio diversification in order to satisfy such energy demand, and that a faster energy substitution can result from a more liberalised electricity sector. • A study on 19 European countries from years 2011–2018 using panel data. • Changes in industrialisation levels decelerates energy substitution. • More state control of the electricity sector decelerates energy substitution. • State-related institutions supporting green energy policies weaken these effects. • Higher industrialisation levels themselves however accelerate energy substitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to address some theoretical and practical issues regarding the organization of the state, the state apparatus and the identification of European administrative models. It is clear that each state has its own organization and structure, but some administrative models have common features and that is why it is important to examine whether these models can be implemented in a standard way, as well-defined patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Estuaries, rias, fjords and lagoons (collectively called transitional waters, TW) are highly important ecosystems both for their high productivity but also as sites of urban and industrial development, supporting many major cities and ports. Increasingly they are accepted as transitional environments and in Europe this term has been given legal and management importance; indeed, in some cases this has led to decisions with high economic repercussions. We have thus revisited the fundamental properties and paradigms of these systems in the light of recent ecological theory. The analysis has produced a unifying approach to transitional waters, by adopting and expanding the concept of ecotone to whole ecosystems, rather than ecosystem boundaries. Furthermore we have addressed the paradoxes related to (1) the gradients concerning variability and stability in the system, (2) the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, as well as (3) the response and resilience of the system to anthropogenic stressors. We conclude that the term Transitional Waters is not merely a legal convenience or that the TW are merely an interface, with positive and negative characteristics, but ecological systems in their own right. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article focuses on the origins of the western superiority based from the Indo-European literature of author Ricardo Duchesne. It says that Duchesne emphasized that the society of Europe was unique. It states that several factors, which include European exploration, Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution have reflected and demonstrates the Indo-European social culture. It adds that the key economy and culture of European society caused industrialization in 18th century.

Abstract: There is growing concern that biodiversity loss in European agricultural landscapes is having negative effects on functional trait diversity. Long-term studies examining vegetation changes from the period before agricultural industrialisation are however rare. Here, we ask how management intensification and increased nutrient input initiated in the 1950/1960s have altered grassland plant community composition, species diversity and functional trait composition using comprehensive datasets from five floodplain regions (plus one protected reference region) in northern Germany. Sites with available historical relevés and vegetation maps (1950/1960s, 1990s) were resampled in 2008 to facilitate the analysis of a period spanning four to five decades. Plant community composition changed tremendously in all study regions during the 50year period, which was related to increasing Ellenberg indicator values for nutrient availability. Species richness at the plot-level fell by 30–50% over the period, and losses in functional diversity were equally large. A non-formal comparison with the results from the protected reference study region indicates that the changes may mostly be attributable to local nutrient input rather than to supra-regional climate change. Our results indicate a consistent trend towards much more species-poor communities dominated by mow-tolerant, N-demanding competitive grasses, whereas species with more ruderal strategies, species flowering early in the season and, in particular, insect-pollinated herbs have all decreased. The substantial loss of nectar-producing grassland herbs is likely to have negative effects on the abundance of pollinating insects, with consequences for the grassland animal communities. This highlights the growing need for adequate grassland management schemes with low N input to preserve high-nature-value grassland. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Suburban shrinkage, understood as a degenerative urban process stemming from the demise of the Fordist mode of urbanism, is generally manifested in a decline in population, industry and employment. It is also intimately linked to the global restructuring of industrial organization associated with the rise of the post-Fordist mode of urbanism and, more recently, the thrust of Asian industrialization. Framed in the discourse of industrial urbanism, this article examines the first ring of industrial suburbs that developed around large cities in their most rapid Fordist urbanization phase. These industrial suburbs, although they were formed at different times, are today experiencing specific mutations and undergoing profound restructuring on account of their particular spatial position between the central area and the expanding peripheries of the post-Fordist metropolis. This article describes and compares suburban decline in two European cities (Glasgow and Paris) and two Latin American Cities (São Paulo, Brazil and Guadalajara, Mexico), as different instances of places asymmetrically and fragmentarily integrated into the geography of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper explains how bioenergy education and training is growing in Europe. Employment estimates are included for renewable energy in general, and bioenergy in particular, to highlight the need for a broadly based education and training programme that is essential to build a knowledgeable workforce that can drive Europe’s growing bioenergy sector. The paper reviews current provisions in bioenergy at Masters and PhD levels across the 27 members of the EU (EU27) plus Norway and Switzerland. This identifies a very active and expanding bioenergy education provision. 65 English-language Masters Courses in bioenergy (either focussing completely on bioenergy or with significant bioenergy content or specialisation) were identified. 231 providers of PhD studies in bioenergy were found. Masters Course offerings have grown rapidly across Europe during the last five years, but where data is available, enrolment has been quite low suggesting that there is an oversupply of courses and that course organisers are being optimistic in their projections. Existing provisions in Europe at Masters and PhD levels are clearly more than sufficient for short term needs, but further work is needed to evaluate the take-up rate and the content and focus of the provisions. To ensure talented graduates are attracted to these programmes, better promotion, stronger links with the research community and industry, and increased collaboration among course providers are needed. Short Courses of two to five days are an excellent way of meeting post-experience training needs but require further growth and development to serve the needs of the bioenergy community. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the course of industrialization in the 19th century, manufactured gas plant sites were built in almost every larger town in Europe and the United States. Organic and inorganic contaminations pose a continuing threat to groundwater resources at these locations even though the operations were terminated decades ago. The different coal tars and tar oils present in the subsurface are composed of a huge variety of organic compounds often possessing a high toxic potential, such as monocyclic, polycyclic, and heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In addition to these inorganic contaminants, cyanides and heavy metals can be found due to dumping of by-products and wastes. A multitude of factors influence the fate of these compounds and an increasing number of studies deal with this subject. However, key processes are still not well understood. One example is the mobilization of colloid associated contaminants by extreme single events, which can be responsible for the bulk contaminant load in the seepage water. Another example is the role of microbial populations and communities in cooperative degradation pathways of organic pollutants. We aim for a comprehensive overview on the present knowledge about the processes, which determine the fate of organic and inorganic contaminant at such sites. This way, a sound basis is provided for the identification of future research directions, evaluation of risk, and development of remediation techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, European observers and commentators have frequently employed the term ‘Americanization’ to make sense of the astonishing rise of the USA to the status of a world power. More specifically, they used this term to describe the social changes brought about by industrialization and urbanization. In this context, European intellectuals have often used ‘America’ as shorthand for ‘modernity’; across the Atlantic, they believed, it was possible to learn and see the future of their own societies. Criticism of ‘the Americanization of Europe’ – or the world – easily led to outright anti-Americanism, i.e. a radical and reductionist ideology which held the USA responsible for the economic, political, or cultural ills of modern societies. The war in Iraq in 2003 and the alienation between the USA and France and Germany that followed provided a new impetus for studying the history of European perceptions of America. A large number of studies have since been published that deal with the history of the ‘Americanization of Europe’ and anti-Americanism, and several monographs, which are based on original research and promise new insights, will be the focus of this historiographical review. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers the author's insights on the concept of culture and collective in Western countries. Topics include the cultural critique and definitions of novelist Raymond Williams, effect of modernization to understand the idea of culture, and history of cultural studies. Also mentioned are the history of European ideas of culture, industrialization, and Marxism.

Past studies have not been supportive of the ability for foreign aid to create increased development and market liberalization. Less attention has been devoted to investigating the role aid has played in fostering democratic institutions. For a sample of 26 nations in Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics, I find more aid per capita is strongly associated with democratic reforms, but less robust is the relationship for aid as a percentage of gross national income. When analyzing various types of democratic freedoms, it appears both measures of aid improve the categories of judicial framework and governance, and aid per capita is also positively correlated with improvements in civil society and electoral process, but aid does not lead to more media independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay traces the circulation of the industrial commodities of lithographic presses and stones and compares the uses to which these commodities were put in Iran with other regions at the same time. Using Persian travelogues as sources on scientific exchange, the essay compares Iran's access to lithography with its spread through Europe, Russia and South and Southeast Asia. Using lithography as a gauge of Iran's integration into an industrializing global economy, it compares state-led Iranian attempts to access lithographic commodities with attempts by other regional powers to develop local sources for these 'stones from Bavaria'. After tracing the role of Christian Evangelicalism in the technology's dissemination, the essay finally contextualizes Iranian uses of lithography in global developments in illustrated and newspaper printing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Industrial symbiosis (IS) emerged as a self-organizing business strategy among firms that are willing to cooperate to improve their economic and environmental performance. The adoption of such cooperative strategies relates to increasing costs of waste management, most of which are driven by policy and legislative requirements. Development of IS depends on an enabling context of social, informational, technological, economical and political factors. The power to influence this context varies among the agents involved such as the government, businesses or coordinating entities. Governmental intervention, as manifested through policies, could influence a wider range of factors; and we believe this is an area which is under-researched. This paper aims to critically appraise the waste policy interventions from supra-national to sub-national levels of government. A case study methodology has been applied to four European countries i.e. Denmark, the UK, Portugal and Switzerland, in which IS emerged or is being fostered. The findings suggest that there are commonalities in policy instruments that may have led to an IS enabling context. The paper concludes with lessons learnt and recommendations on shaping the policy context for IS development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The term globalization has been accepted very quickly. Until the 1990’s virtually unknown, the word is now on everybody’s lips. The phenomenon of globalization however is much older than the concept. It started at the end of the 15th century with the beginnings of European expansion and was dramatically increased by the industrialization of the world since the late 18th century. Over the last 30 years or so it has accelerated so much that one can speak of a new stage of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As a fast growing state sponsored industry, the organic food sector is likely to attract the increased attention of policy analysts who are interested in industry development. We critically review the European comparative research on growth in the organic sector, focusing on policy analysis. A common element in these accounts is that findings are by no means clear on why variation in organic growth between countries exists. The literature provides a range of possible variables explaining divergent patterns of organic sector development but solid conclusions are elusive. We suggest that future policy orientated research on organic sector apply existing theories on public policy and carefully design studies in accordance with the prescriptions of the comparative research method. This would enable policy researchers to reach more robust conclusions on policy relevant factors influencing growth of the organic sector than are currently found in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses legal disputes and economic activity in America between 1700 and 1860. The author examines the reasons that the United States achieved its rapid economic success, which was overtaking early industrializing nations in Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century. The legal system of the time is addressed.

An important aspect of early film production which has remained largely unexplored is that related to the manufacture and marketing of cine-film stock. During the international expansion of industrialised cinematography - from 1905 to 1912 - the Parisian film production companies struggled against the norms dictated by the Eastman Kodak Company, which held a virtual world-wide monopoly on the manufacture of cine film. The first part of this essay presents some aspects of the development of cine-film manufacturing and marketing in Europe with particular regard to Franco-German co-operation. The second half focuses on the growth of AGFA's cine-film manufacturing facilities, the Filmfabrik, during the First World War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century industrialization provoked quantitative and qualitative changes in traditional European migratory patterns. Most of the economic and social history literature concerning the study of European internal migration during the industrializing period has emphasized permanent migration. This article shows, however, that temporary internal migration was common not only in preindustrial societies but in industrializing ones too. The article also examines the causes and the consequences of the persistence of temporary internal migrations in Spain from the mid-nineteenth century to the period leading up to the outbreak of the Spanish civil war (1936-39). Aggregate data sources are used in depth for this purpose. The information derived from aggregate sources is supplemented by reference to secondary sources, mainly comprising local and regional studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the contribution of useful knowledge on the start of industrial revolution in Europe. The book "The gifts of Athena," by Joel Mokyr suggests that useful knowledge provides treatment of industrialization, consumption, and the rise of the new global history in the West. The author stated that useful knowledge acquired by skilled workers stimulated the growth of the crucial intermediate goods industries.

The Rybinsk Reservoir (Russia) is the largest artificial waterbody in Europe (4550km2) and provides drinking water for population of the cities located along the coast line. Industrialization in Cherepovets at the northeastern portion of the reservoir, including one of the largest metallurgical facilities in Europe, has resulted in chemical contamination of the reservoir. The extent of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) contamination in bream liver, a common fish species, taken from six locations in the Rybinsk Reservoir and Volga River, and biochemical and morphometric biomarkers of fish health were investigated. Liver PCB concentrations ranged from non-detected to 3.4μg/g wet wt of liver, with the greatest concentrations found in fish taken near the industrialized area in Sheksna Reach of Rybinsk Reservoir. The source of the bream contamination is the PCB pollution of bottom organisms and sediments conditioned with industrialization facilities of Cherepovets. The patterns of the PCB congeners in the livers of bream taken near Cherepovets were similar at all of the stations that were sampled around the reservoir and Volga River. Among the common fish health biomarkers used only liver total ChE activity and liver-somatic index in bream near Cherepovets can reflect environmental pollution. Other morphometric (FCF, Clark’s condition factors, and spleen-somatic index) and biochemical (protein content and acetylcholinesterase activity in the brain) biomarkers related with fish health varied among locations, but were not correlated to the concentrations of PCBs in the bream livers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There has been a wealth of research on technological learning in firms, industries and clusters in industrialising economies. Most of this has centred on issues about change over time: paths of technical change, trajectories of capability accumulation, and the forces that shape these trends. This paper argues, however, that little of this work has adequately addressed the empirical heart of these dynamic issues: the time-scales involved, their differences and the reasons for these. Consequently, the field of research can offer managers and policymakers very limited understanding about these time-centred issues at the core of decisions about investment in learning. This is primarily a consequence of the way research has been organised and funded, and the paper calls for new approaches to support deliberately designed longitudinal research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central topic of this paper concerns the study of the material aspects of culture within the discipline of European ethnology. This disciplinary sub-field has undergone quite spectacular changes during the last half century. Not only have the methodological and theoretical perspectives in the study of material culture changed in various directions but, even more importantly, the material world of European societies itself has undergone an unprecedented transformation due to industrialisation and post-indust- rial globalisation. The conception, production, circulation and use of material (as well as of immaterial) goods have become among the main characteristics of the growing complexity of our contemporary world. In this paper I would like to discuss some milestones in the ways that European ethnology (but also "general" ethnology or social and cultural anthropology) have approached and analysed the material dimensions of human cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Born in the USA, the Venture Capital (VC) industry has spread throughout Europe. This new principle of organisation financing innovation requires institutional arrangements which cater both to the specifics of different national frameworks and to the trend towards homogenisation. We elaborate an econometric model which takes account of economic variables, institutional factors and the specific elements of the VC activity to appreciate the dynamics of the VC industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the comparison between the US and European Venture Capital (VC) industries and their developmental conditions. Some characteristics of the US VC industry cannot be carelessly used as a benchmark for European VC industries. We then distinguish R&D-oriented and market access-oriented VC objectives which leads us to develop a comprehensive approach of the VC industry by insisting on the economic implications of its current industrialisation. The intermediation function, covered by venture capital, is characterised by its sectoral and institutional dimensions. Moreover, accounting for this diversity of VC industries helps in recommending policies that comply with national and local specific requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the development in the study and teaching of environmental history in Europe. Two main areas of environmental history in the western European past are explored. First is the shifting and varied conceptions of nature, primarily since the Middle Ages. Second is the environmental change created by human endeavor and new technology. A succession of historical moments in environmental thought and practice is examined. There is no shortage of books and articles, although studies in American environmental history continues to outpace those about Europe.

After reviewing the major variations in how individualization is interpreted and explained, this article turns to the World Values Survey (WVS) data to empirically investigate one central aspect of individualization, namely, the connection between religiosity and moral values. That analysis demonstrates, first, that rates of decline in levels of religiosity in most advanced industrial states have been quite modest. The rate of change in moral outlooks, by contrast, has been much more striking. Those two core findings, we argue, draw attention to the question of what explains these cross-national and cross-time variations. The remainder of the article empirically explores a variety of plausible explanations. The results of that analysis reveal not only significant variations between European and North American publics, but also that associational behavior plays a significant role in gearing the dynamics of individualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the findings of the INNOCULT project ‘Internationalization of Research: Institutional Innovation, Culture and Agency in the Framework of Competition and Cooperation’. The project examined the impact of the European research programmes on research policies against the background of multi-level governance, on key research actors such as universities and research organizations as well as on research collaboration and networking. The project's findings and conclusions, dating back to 2001, are revisited in view of recent developments in research programming at European level, more specifically those relating to the Sixth Framework Programme and the introduction of the so-called ‘New Instruments’ for creating the European Research Area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrialization and internationalization of biomedical research is not without consequences on the regulation of research or, at least, on the interpretation of that regulation. As more research is done at the international level, the pharmaceutical industry and the research community are calling for a harmonized regulation to limit the administrative burden of controlling clinical trials and to fasten the R&D process. The purpose of this paper is to analyse briefly the role of the national laws in that process. Part I will outline the structure and the nature of the international regulation of research in a European perspective. Using the examples of research ethics committees (RECs), informed consent and the question of liability and liability insurance, Part II will analyze the importance of the national laws in the implementation of this international regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the working-class formation in Europe. Within the parameters of a class model this paper seeks to explain how the European labor movements developed against a background of expanding capitalist labor markets, rural-urban split, liberal political hegemony, conflicting and competing religious, ethnic and linguistic affiliation and state repression, from the mid nineteenth century until World War II. Stating that solidarity, organization and militancy are functions of urbanism, the paper raises the question of how different societies overcame the rural-urban split. Besides noting that most countries in East and South Europe did not manage to cross the bridge, one may point out that extensive urbanization resulted from the exodus from the countryside simultaneous with the growth of industrial labor markets in towns and cities, and next, how the labor movement managed to expand trade unions outside the urban sector, and seeking electoral support among the agrarian population. Provided labor had considerable national political power, this turned out to be an effective policy; otherwise this organizational expansion would be confronted with violent opposition. Early industrialization often went hand in hand with liberal political domination, which occupied the social space and hence obstructed further diffusion by other organizations. In West and North Europe repression was moderate and temporary, whereas the working classes in South and East Europe were exposed to repression and harassment by landlords, industrialists and state bureaucracies. Only fundamental changes in international and national power structures could bring advantages to the labor movement. From a theoretical angle it is the interaction between mode of production, political organization and state structure that best explains different forms of working-class integration in Europe.

The article focuses on how the workers of a small tool factory located in Endcliffe - an area of urban deprivation in Sheffield, UK - conceptualize, experience, and talk about the value of their labour and how changes in the wider politico-economic environment affect their notion of labour value. The article combines a Marxist analysis of the capitalist labour process with an anthropological focus on the ideology of gift and commodity exchange, and explores the cultural specificity of processes of labour commodification. It argues that the combined effect of state neoliberal policies and extensive subcontracting by local steel corporations in Sheffield have turned small factories into hybrids between economic and welfare institutions, with mixed commodified and non-commodified labour on the same shopfloor. In challenging much of the recent anthropological literature on alienation, the article claims that alienation is the consequence of the workers' (con)fusion of the ideology of labour as a free gift and the ideology of labour as a purely utilitarian activity, rather than of their sharp separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the countries of the western world, the institutional option for confining and endeavouring to 'correct' traits and attributes of people who did not conform to a rising consciousness of 'normalcy' developed rapidly during the 19th century. Scotland, a small, but rapidly urbanizing and industrializing country on the edge of Europe, was not an exception, but in its adoption of the institutional option for children with disabilities, its responses and objectives to different forms of impairment followed an uneven path. This article considers the reason for this erratic response, and the varied objectives of those responses, in the context of different forms of impairment and the differing interests of those with a professional or philanthropic involvement. The responses of some of the children directly affected are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aim to identify the implications of corporate citizenship in general, and of collaboration between public and private actors in particular, for the development of cities. We analyse the changing behaviour of proactive firms in the field of community involvement, the spatial dimension of corporate citizenship, the added value of cross-sector partnerships, and the barriers to partnerships. We conclude that the trend of corporate community involvement provides new opportunities for the development of partnerships between proactive corporate citizens, city government, and other (public or private) organisations. However, the results suggest that the actual number of such partnerships is lower than expected. This lack of partnerships can be explained by looking at the internal organisation of companies and their potential partners, and the barriers in the coalition-forming process itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seen from the long perspective of recent historical research on Europe's pre-industrial millennia, large-scale human destruction of natural environments and ecological relationships evidently pre-dates industrial metabolism. If so, the limited view of the most recent centuries arguably fails to encompass the depth of experience required to understand current problems or therefore to formulate successful remedies or responses to human violations of carrying capacity. The longer past reveals some cultural mechanisms to counteract the pressures of human wants and needs. Comparative research is urged on long-term ecological outcomes in other great pre-industrial civilizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the agendas of international regimes in East Central Europe. Establishment of hegemony over the region; Introduction of market signals, enterprise autonomy and privatization of agricultural holdings; Emergence of western commonwealth; Concept of liberalization and democratization; Extent of communist industrialization; Correlates of democracy and civil/political rights.

While in western Europe and Scandinavia homicide rates reached their all time low during the period of industrialization, in Finland and Estonia they increased considerably. The rapid growth of criminal violence during the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s in these two countries seems to have been the result of interaction of several factors, partly non-simultaneous and unrelated. They do not seem to have been identical either, although the underlying equation was the same: the quick social and economic change following industrialization, and the modernisation of agriculture, the pressures it put especially on the youth in the form of uncertain prospects for the future and a new competition-oriented set of values, connected with the authoritarian political system of Russian Empire, which prevented necessary political reforms and left behind a legacy of social thinking idealizing violence as a political and social instrument. A legacy, which affected large parts of Finnish and Estonian population still for years after the czarist system itself already passed into history. The criminal violence arisen from the equation, however, had quite a different face on the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland from that on the southern one. In Finland the violence was centered in the new forest industrial communities, in Estonia again among the landless population of the countryside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on diasporic Chinese businessmen who are a fixture in discussions of regional Asia-Pacific economies. Perspectives on overseas Chinese business networks; Shortcoming of the internal approach in explaining Chinese business networks as a consequence of Chinese culture and Confucianism; Effect of European industrialization on overseas Chinese enterprise.

ABSTRACT: Large databases assembled for industrializing European cities now permit crosscultural comparisons of populations that underwent demographic changes as a result of the industrialization process in the nineteenth century. The article draws into a comparative framework communities in France, Sweden, and Belgium, and compares their population development during early industrialization when population growth was rapid (paroxysmal). Special attention is paid to household structure, infant, and child mortality, and differential behaviors of "immigrant" and "native" populations. Finally, the article offers a general model population change during early industrialization as a comparative framework for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate over the "Rise of the West" has generally been over which factor or factors— cultural, geoographic, or material—in European history led Europe to diverge from the World's pre-industrial civilizations. This article aims to shift the terms of the debate by arguing that there were no causal factors that made Europe's industrialization inevitable or even likely. Rather, most of Europe would not and could not move toward industrialization any more than China or India or Japan. Rather, a very accidental combination of events in the late seventeenth century placed England on a peculiar path, leading to industrialization and constitutional democracy. These accidents included the compromise between the Anglican Church and Dissenters, and between Crown and Parliament, in the settlements of 1689; the adoption of Newtonian science as part of the cosmology of the Anglican Church and its spread to craftsmen and entrepreneurs throughout Britain; and the opportunity to apply the idea of the vacuum and mechanics to solve a particular technical problem: pumping water out of deep mine shafts in or near coal mines. Without these particular accidents of history, there is no reason to believe that Europe would have ever been more advanced than the leading Asian civilizations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]