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Buildings that contribute either directly or indirectly to the formation of a national identity are typically associated with historical monuments. Mega-structures such as national football stadiums, which were built as national monuments but were designed to meet functional needs as well, play a similar role. This paper examines these mega-structures, and specifically national football stadiums, through a critical review of two such stadiums, one in England and one in France, that represent an anomaly in the European context. The paper offers a local and global perspective based on nationality, geography, and sports theories. Our findings suggest that despite the differences between the two countries, they demonstrate a consensus regarding the need to build a national stadium. While this consensus is embedded in each country's colonial past, in both cases it reflects an inner need to cope with the decline of the imperial power and with the undermining of the homogenous social structure as a result of immigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of religious signs in schools, as in other areas of the public sphere, is a current topic, given that legislative changes are constantly taking place. In countries as close as Germany, France, England and Spain, the legislation governing the wearing of the Islamic veil differs considerably due to their different historical, cultural, social, economic and idiosyncratic contexts. Leaving aside the ethnocentric perspective, in this paper a comparative study of the situation was carried out in these four countries. The main results include a negative attitude towards the wearing of the Islamic veil in France as opposed to a more tolerant position in England and Spain. In the case of Germany, there is a greater diversity of positions due to the characteristic autonomy of each federal state. Given the different types of veils, the reasons for wearing them, the traditions of each society and regional idiosyncrasies, it is considered that, a priori, there should not be a fight against its use, although it is recommended to adopt a belligerent stance against its imposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose to explore how the regulation of herbalism, in France and in England, rests on series of 'misdirections,' with the coexistence of law and herbalism depending on multiple magical illusions. Attempts to regulate herbalists, and the responses they invite, involve multiple sleights of hands both by the law and by herbalists. Herbalists perform misdirections to maintain an illusion of legality, even where they bend legal rules that they deem incompatible with their practice. But far from being the only, or even the most effective, tricksters, herbalists are only one set of performers in a more complex layering of legal illusions. The regulatory and legal infrastructure itself relies on misdirections enacted through everyday legal procedures that trick the general public into believing that the law is 'acting' to protect vulnerable consumers from dangerous healers and their medicines, while the effects of its actions may be to tolerate, or indeed produce, zones of illegal, or 'barely legal,' practices. At the same time, this performance is enabled by playing a disappearing act, in which the knowledge of herbalists, and the demands of their users, are disappeared behind the screen of apparent legal protection. Drawing attention away from competing claims to knowledge, and towards its protective intervention, the legal system thereby embeds misdirections of its own kind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To evaluate the output of scientific publications in obstetrics and gynecology journals from Mainland China and six other countries, to compare the difference of research situation between Mainland China and the developed countries in order to measure the trend of number of publication in the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Methods: Information on article amounts, impact factors (IF), citation and publication in high‐impact obstetrics and gynecology journals by seven top‐ranking countries between January 1, 2007 and August 31, 2017, was extracted from Web of Science databases. Results: A total of 137 661 articles were published between 2007 and 2017 in the 98 obstetrics and gynecology journals. The cumulative IF and citations of articles from USA were the highest. The highest average citation was France and Mainland China ranked fourth. There were 52 631 papers published in the top 10 obstetrics and gynecology journals and the USA accounted for the majority of these papers (33 978, 64.6%), followed by England (8347, 15.9%). Articles from the USA were most often published in American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (10658) and those from Mainland China were mostly published in Fertility and Sterility (809). Conclusion: The USA published the most articles having high IF, making the greatest contribution to the field of obstetrics and gynecology. Although the number of scientific publications from Mainland China has rapidly increased from 2007 to 2017, the quality of these publications has not been as satisfactory. It implys that Chinese current academic evaluation system should pay special attention to the quality of academic papers, instead of the number of papers published by scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THIS PAPER INTRODUCES and discusses a group of broadly 14th-century single-looped buckles. These oval buckles are characterised by an outer edge which widens gradually towards its centre, thus providing a sizeable field either side of the pin rest. Two-thirds of the corpus of over 100 examples are decorated with engraved and punched motifs. These motifs comprise abstract forms, schematic or realistic vegetal or animal motifs, representations of humans and architectural features, and religious inscriptions. Such buckles are typical of the South of France, but are documented here for the first time from the eastern and southern coasts of England. Their presence in England can be framed in a commercial context; once diffused, they might have been copied, and other decorative motifs introduced in order to meet local needs. Compositional analyses revealed the existence of alloy groups with high proportions of lead or tin, potentially testifying to production in separate workshops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the circumstances in which individuals become secondary school teachers in England and France. Using a social constructivist theoretical framework, it specifically considers how national contexts play out in this decision. The findings presented in this paper draw on a corpus of 60 interviews with a sample of teachers based in English and French secondary schools. They show that national frameworks remain relevant to an exploration of teachers’ identities and cultures, as French and English interviewees draw on distinctive reasons to explain why they became secondary school teachers. While becoming a teacher is often thought of as a ‘vocation’ or as the result of ‘intrinsic’ factors, this paper highlights the role of national contexts, as well as of gender and social class, in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Chalk exposures in coastal cliff faces extend from Yorkshire to Devon in England and from Boulonnais to Normandy in France. The failure of chalk cliffs is a long-recognised hazard along parts of these coastlines; however, variation in the chalk's lithology, stratigraphy and physical properties coupled with changing topographic relief, means that the nature of the hazard is variable. This paper is concerned with cliff failures that may lead to chalk flow resulting in catastrophic flow slide or sturzstrom-like behaviour. The paper discusses the nature of chalk flows and how they relate to other types of flow-like sturzstroms. Recently published and unpublished work is used to unify simple mechanical index properties between the French and English coastal chalks. Some well-documented studies are then re-examined, using these results and in the light of new findings on sturzstroms to show how runout is controlled by chalk porosity. Finally, a series of physical model tests are described in which some of the controls on runout of the chalk are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses specifically on the incorporation of ethnic minority children within the education systems of England, France and Germany. The trends in policy development after World War II in these countries are examined through the prism of three ideal-typical incorporation strategies – integration, assimilation and separation. This is done to test the theories of universalism, parallel development and particularism, which anticipate different trajectories with regard to these strategies. The paper finds evidence for convergence towards integration with regard to provisions for extra support in the host country’s language. This supports the theory of universalism. However, no evidence of convergence towards integration is found in four other policy areas. For instance, country-specific trends emerge on minority religious education and enrolment into mainstream schools, which is consistent with the particularist perspective. As there is little evidence of the three countries drawing closer in terms of all three adopting a strategy of incorporation promoted by transnational agencies, the expectation that national states can borrow in a straightforward fashion from internationally advocated models of ethnic minority incorporation appears unfounded. The paper further finds that local practices are sometimes significantly at odds with national educational policy, suggesting that future research should be directed more at the local level to determine the policies affecting ethnic minority children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This paper aims to analyse the wider spatial-economic impacts of high-speed trains (HSTs) within post-industrial regions. A core question underlies the analysis: can HST effects spread from the core city to surrounding sub-regions, or could they widen the gap between core and peripheral places? A comparative case study of two regions – Manchester and its sub-regions in North West England (UK) and Lille and its sub-regions in Nord-Pas-de-Calais (France) – with similar industrial trajectories and opportunities allied to two different HST approaches was conducted to offer crucial insights. The findings showed that for both regions, the arrival of HSTs did assist the development towards the knowledge economy, but the specific aspects vary. Also, the differential effects existed: the connection with the national capital by faster train services did economically strengthen the regional capital, but not some sub-regions around it, especially former industrial sub-regions. The comparison between the two regions shows that the transformation of post-industrial regions and sub-regions towards the knowledge economy brought by HSTs proves a complex and difficult process. Both post-industrial regions are still in the course of transition. In Nord-Pas-de-Calais, the wider economic transformation is just beginning to happen, while the laboriously-upgraded West Coast Main Line seems to demonstrate limits to its transformative power. This process involves much more than being connected with highspeed trains, significant as this may be. A full investigation of causality deserves another paper, but the findings suggested three critical factors: the economic trajectory and its infrastructure needs, a HST hub strategy and the simultaneous improvement of the intra-regional transport network, and path dependency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article responds to the paper "Multicultural Citizenship Within Multination States," by Will Kymlicka. It recognizes the paper for offering a convincing normative position on citizenship education. It assesses the proposed inclusion of citizenship in the curricula of England and France. The securitization of immigration is also discussed.

In both England and France, looked after children are more likely to have problems in school, experience relatively low levels of academic achievement and drop out early from education in comparison with other children. Children in residential care in both countries also tend to represent those in most need. This paper is based on a comparative study into the education of children in residential care in France and in England, with a specific focus on identifying positive responses and initiatives. The research seeks to compare and transfer ideas about how to address the issue of educational engagement and school 'dropout' in children's residential care. The study is conducted within a consideration of both national care systems and public policies. One of the objectives is to identify protective factors and good practice with respect to the promotion of school engagement and positive achievement within the residential care systems for children in England and France. This paper will present the first results and analysis of this research, which compares how both countries respond nationally and locally to the needs of these children. The research took place in two French departments (departements) between 2008 and 2009 and in two English county local authorities between 2009 and 2010. The research includes observations and secondary data analysis as well as interviews with children and professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to enhance our understanding of interactions between French/English Foreign Language Assistants (FLAs) and their school mentors (MEs), and, more specifically, of how ‘advice’ is sought, given and received. More generally, it will articulate a pragmatic approach (employing the notion of ‘activity type’) that can help achieve this aim. The paper draws on a sub-set of the data produced for the Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication (PIC) project, a project which deployed multiple and different methodologies, including, for example, not only transcriptions of live interactions, but also retrospective reflections on those interactions. We focus on the first non-casual meetings between FLAs and their MEs, a crucial part of which concerns ‘advice’. We argue that advice can be viewed as a ‘discourse type’, and show how it is deployed in the context of the activity types constituted by those meetings. We conduct a detailed qualitative analysis of one audio-recording of a meeting based in England, and then compare it with one based in France, our interpretations being informed by the participants' reflections, especially those of the FLA. We also deploy quantitative analysis and explore whether the patterns identified in our case studies can be generalised. Finally, we reflect on the implications of activity types and discourse types for pragmatics research, particularly politeness theory and cross-cultural pragmatics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, in many parts of England and France a mismatch between housing supply and demand has resulted in an increasing number of neighbourhoods experiencing problems of empty properties, depressed house prices and high stock turnover. This paper looks at the response of policy makers and social housing landlords in one area in France – Vaulx En Velin, Greater Lyon – to this phenomenon. It does so with reference to four key themes that have been a recurring feature of attempts to tackle the problem of unpopular (or low demand) housing in England: partnership working; community participation; neighbourhood management and demolition. The paper draws on a range of data sources including an in-depth case study, which encompassed a number of interviews with key local actors and documentary data analysis. The paper concludes by offering some initial insights into how policy and practice appear to differ between England and France and relates these to their specific national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the European policy initiative to increase the number of teachers able to teach a modern foreign language in primary schools. It particularly focuses on the exchange placement which is an integral part of a training programme run by a university faculty of education in England and an Institut de Formation des Maîtres in France. Through an analysis of interviews with trainees about their placement experiences a number of tensions emerged as trainees' own assumptions about approaches to teaching and learning were challenged. The paper points to the benefits of the placement in both helping trainee teachers reflect upon their own national education culture and language and also understand and appreciate the differences that underlie another educational culture and language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines conversations in the 18th-century London and Paris financial marketplaces. The aim is to highlight the place of conversations as the key form of interaction in the marketplace, and to evaluate financial conversations against the broader cultural background of literary and scientific dialogues of the time. The relevance of this enterprise is that it leads to a better understanding of how the verbal interactions of the marketplace shape transaction outcomes and contribute to forms of rationality specific for financial markets. Grounded in the analysis of empirical material, the paper distinguishes between conversations-qua-transactions and conversations-about-the-world. It shows how they produce and require specific forms of knowledge from the participants; at the same time, they shape the transactions' outcomes. On this basis, the paper argues that the phenomenon of sudden mood swings in the marketplace cannot be entirely explained in irrational, psychological terms, but must be seen as the outcome of a particular conversational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years religious clothing has become prevalent across many European cities, making religious bodies more visible in public spaces. This paper brings together our separate research on Jews in Paris and Muslims in London. While recognising the clear differences between these two socio-political contexts and distinct religious groups, we suggest that a focus on clothing allows us to consider some points of similarity and difference in the presentation of gendered religious bodies, particularly in situations of heightened stigmatisation. We draw upon Goffman's notion of impression management, in contexts of risks and threats, to explore how individuals experience and negotiate self presentation as members of stigmatised religious groups. We use rich qualitative data based on indepth interviews to consider how, when faced with collective stigmatisation, actors make deliberate and measured choices to present themselves and attempt to impression manage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promotion of ‘critical citizenship’ has become a key objective of official school curricula around the world. Using an analytic framework developed by the authors, this paper identifies the diverse conceptions of critical citizenship that are promoted, by comparing the official school curricula for citizenship in England and France. The analysis goes beyond the dichotomous distinctions prevalent in comparisons of education in the two countries, especially those that focus on the contrasting degrees of centralisation–decentralisation, and suggests that there were significant differences in the goals promoted in their curricula with regard to four key dimensions: ideology, the collective, the individual and action. While these differences reflect historical, political, social, economic and cultural differences between the two nations, the analysis indicates a lack of symmetry across the levels of the curriculum, which contributed to the significant spaces that were found to exist which have the potential for teachers and students to creatively interpret how critical citizenship can be understood and implemented in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article approaches the phenomenon of the continuing influence of French and English pedagogical cultures in Africa relying on post-modern notions of time and space. It reports on a project carried out in Cameroon where both cultures are in contact and where the teachers from two primary schools were observed and interviewed over a period of five weeks each. The data collected is interpreted as revealing divergent professional contexts within which the teachers' discourse about their professional roles and the place of languages rests on assumptions reminiscent of the pedagogical values of the former colonisers. However, teachers from both schools are strongly in favour of maintaining French and English as medium of education. The significance of the phenomena reported is critically discussed to highlight new discontinuities in present day Cameroon which transform these apparently sharp distinctions: the disjunction between the notion of place and the medium of education, the fast evolving meanings of ‘French’ ‘English’ and ‘bilingualism’ in the twenty first century and the fact that schools are multilingual sites. The paper concludes that the differences in the way teachers construct their professional identities has prevented them from developing a joint pedagogical repertoire and that lack of mutual understanding might be a reason for the reported mere ‘cohabitation’ provided by bilingual schools. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This paper explores the research evidence from England and France on the mental health of young people aging out of care and into adulthood. It represents the first comparative review based on the evidence from these two countries. Set in the legal, policy and service framework for both countries, it reviews evidence on the mental health of young people in the general population, young people living in care, young people aging out of care, and young adults. It shows: the high levels of psychological adversity of young people entering care; the high rates of mental health problems of young people in care compared with the general population of young people; the increased risk of mental and physical problems at the time of aging out of care, and the general improvement in longer-term outcomes for young adults, although some continue to have serious mental health problems. In conclusion, it suggests that interventions across the life course of young people are needed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]