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In France and Germany, significant networks of local initiatives have developed around energy issues. This article brings practitioners' viewpoints into discussion. It presents the way in which two of these networks – the CLER-network for the energy transition (France) and the 100% – Regions network (Germany) – each identifies itself, describes its action and build-up process in relation to government action, and conceives of justice issues in the field of climate energy policy. The analysis shows that these two networks share a lot, including political ends (localisation of energy production, empowerment of rural territories), but practice quite differently as intermediaries for local initiatives. This suggests overcoming the transition management vs grassroots divide present in the literature and paying more attention to hybrids. It also brings emphasis on a type of intermediary's work, which has not been covered by the academic literature, namely that of tinkering with multiple supports and embedding action in local-national-supranational networking in order to maintain continuity. In discussing justice dimensions, we emphasize that motives or ends of action are only reflectively related to ideas of justice: justice issues seem bound up with a politics of assembling, either as a marker of federative action (all fighting for justice) or as a potentially divisive issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of web analytics software has changed the way marketing is researched, monitored, planned, and managed, which suggests a new dimension of marketing interactions between firms. This paper describes digital marketing results in terms of customer attraction to e-commerce websites from different angles (cross-country, firm type, evolution) and investigates empirically how competitors' marketing activities affect a focal firm. Using a vector autoregression model applied to data for grocery e-commerce in the US, the UK, and France, we find differences across American and European firms in the composition of digital marketing techniques and the existence of interaction effects across firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

In 2019, Zolgensma, a gene therapy for patients suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), became famous for being 'the most expensive drug ever'. Its high price was justified by 'the value' that the drug will bring to patients and society, illustrating a rationale that has come to be known as value-based pricing. This paper builds on the literature in valuation studies and economic sociology, and on the debates that the case of Zolgensma triggered in France, to provide a conceptual and empirical analysis of a value-based formulation of prices. We argue that formulating prices out of value produces an orientation towards the future which has epistemic and political consequences. We analyse Zolgensma's value-based price as a composite of narratives and calculations that operates as a regulatory tool, a contractual arrangement, and an object of expertise. In these different settings, its distinctive temporality questions the commensurability of estimated benefits and desirable futures, the treatment of uncertainty, and the relevance of past costs and future value. [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 research project, reported in three parts, focuses on Henry Nock's 'screwless lock', or, as it is called in documents at the time of its manufacture, the 'Duke's Lock', in the most important production variant of this novel and sophisticated design. This is the 5.5in long 'Type 2' Duke's Lock, as fitted to the final design iteration of the Board of Ordnance's Duke of Richmond's Musket (DoRM), namely its rammer-to-the-muzzle (RTM) version. The three papers report the results of the first published systematic assessment of the Duke's Lock's interchangeability. No statement has yet been found in archival material to suggest that the lock is, or was considered to be, interchangeable, or that it has interchangeable components, but the authors of many secondary works think that it was, and therefore we set out to investigate this important matter systematically. This, the first paper, presents the findings of a five-lock component exchange experiment, which permits 20 component interchange tests. Measurements of key dimensions have also been made to assist in understanding the fits at which interchangeability was achieved. The exchange experiments establish that from 50% to 100% of the lock's small components are interchangeable, with two especially surprising results: all cocks exchange on the large centres of the locks (20/20 or 100%), and all sears which can be tested are found to exchange between bents (17/17 or 100%). Tests assessing the complete assembly of all components in the lock thickness direction, omitting problematic individual components, show success rates of 16/20 (80%) and 14/20 (70%). The results of this process are placed in a material context through metallographic analysis of components of a less well-preserved Board of Ordnance 5.5in Duke's Lock by Nock, and, for comparison, on an almost contemporary Board of Ordnance India Pattern Musket lock. The analysis has revealed that many components of the Duke's Lock are made of steel rather than wrought iron, and that, for the centres and some other key components, these steels were selected because their properties suited machine turning, and this reflects Nock's expert use of lathes within a factory that was using steam power by 1795. The analysis is supported by the disassembly and technical examination of some locks, including one that was partially completed, to analyse methods of construction. As regards archival sources, we have built upon Howard Blackmore's seminal paper of 1956 by discovering additional archival data in the Ordnance Bill books, specifically the records of transactions with Nock's executors after his death in 1804, to as late as 1808. This has allowed an improved understanding of the number of locks supplied and the uses to which they were put. The Ordnance Bill Books show that Nock delivered 12,010 Duke's Locks in only 29 months, between 4 July 1793 and 25 November 1795. Together the papers explore how Henry Nock was able to produce the remarkable figure of 12,010 interchangeable locks in 1793–95, five years before the production of 10,000 interchangeable locks was achieved in France by Honoré Blanc, who is widely regarded as the first in this field. Significantly, Nock's work also preceded that of Samuel Bentham, Mark Brunel and Henry Maudslay on the famous machines for making interchangeable components – in wood – for the blocks required for ships' rigging; the three principals began their work on this in 1799. The present three-part study not only firmly establishes Henry Nock's leading position in the field of firearm development but also as one of the pioneers of interchangeable manufacture at scale in engineering more widely, both nationally and internationally. Part 2 uses studies of the marks on a sample of 25 locks to reveal more about the manufacturing system for Duke's Lock and how the people within the system were organised. The final paper, Part 3, discusses the small changes in design and inspection made during and after production that are revealed in the earlier Parts, and also how the design of George Bolton's later patent lock was influenced by Nock's work and the experience of his workmen. [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 investigates cultural expertise as a theoretical framework guiding the use of social sciences knowledge as expertise to assess evidence in dispute resolution and rights determination in the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. With a focus on legal pluralism, the study examines whether cultural expertise can effectively reconcile multiple sources of law with state laws, thereby mitigating concerns about legal pluralism undermining the authority of state laws. The first part of the paper highlights challenges associated with recognizing multiple legal sources without a comprehensive understanding of cultural expertise, also including the objections raised against accommodating legal pluralism in diverse societies. In the second part, the paper reviews three potential models for cultural expertise: independent cultural experts with established experience and reputation, experts appointed by decision-making or investigative authorities, and a hybrid system combining both types of expertise. The analysis is informed by global legal pluralism, considering social inequalities and power dynamics as crucial factors in understanding the plurality of law. Drawing upon the perspectives of legal pluralists attentive to social inequalities, the paper concludes by exploring the potential of cultural expertise within the framework of new global legal pluralism. It argues that cultural expertise, when effectively applied, can facilitate the identification of ways in which state and non-state laws can address and alleviate inequalities. By bridging the gap between culture and law, cultural expertise holds promise for contributing to a more equitable and inclusive legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Anti-elite and anti-political resentment have become a permanent feature of political life in many if not most contemporary democracies, leading to support for populist parties, systematic anti-incumbent voting, and new types of movements, such as the Yellow Vests protests that shook France in 2018–2020. The aim of this paper is to explain the unusual popular support they mobilized. Going beyond the somewhat tautological "populist" label attached to the movement this paper proposes a class-based explanation. Using original data from a survey run after the European Elections of 2019, it shows that social precarity, combined with a lower /working class position, is the main driver of affinity with the YV. The movement is disproportionately supported by the most insecure segments of production workers (mostly men) and service workers (mostly women), giving an identity to those who feel excluded and not represented by mainstream parties and unions. This disaffected "precariat" can be seen as a magnifying glass of the crisis of political representation affecting most Western democracies. A reservoir of discontent that is here to stay and that the economic and political impact of the Covid-19 pandemic could revive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on direct observations in an out-of-school club in France, this paper discusses the different forms of actions grouped under the general term of 'play' initiated either by the children or their animateurs. After presenting the fieldwork, the first part of the paper aims to untangle the complex web of frameworks that organise out-of-school times and spaces depending on the different engagements and levels of involvement on the part of the children and their animateurs. The analysis then describes how games and other organised play activities can be formalised through an educational process led by adult agenda and contribute to a better understanding of the complexity of the relationships between leisure and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assignat, the French Revolution's innovative but failed currency experiment, is amongst the most instructive in the entire history of currency innovations. Although the example of the assignat is often invoked to demonstrate the importance of restraint in the issuance of token money, and to illustrate the evils of uncontrolled inflation, it has so far received little attention in the debate surrounding contemporary currency innovations, such as crypto-currencies and stablecoins. This paper pursues a three-pronged objective: first, to explore the core lessons of the unsuccessful assignat experiment for money, in general, and for contemporary currency innovations, in particular; second, to identify, on their basis, the main determinants for the success of currency experiments; and third, to apply to twenty-first Century currency innovations the lessons drawn from the assignat experiment's failure, with a view to assessing the prospect of their success, as viable alternatives to fiat currencies, relative to the assignat. [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]

Drawing on a longitudinal qualitative approach to corporate diversity policies in France, based on more than 80 in-depth interviews (N = 86), this paper examines the paradox conveyed within these policies by the rise of 'raceless' diversity concepts. This is what I term White diversity, exploring its construction and appropriation in the light of technologies of normalisation, referred to in English as standards. Building on a Foucauldian approach to normalisation, the paper engages with the case study of the French Diversity Label. It explores the ways in which market-based mechanisms of regulation have shaped the management of race difference. It demonstrates in particular how normalising antidiscrimination through voluntary social certification has contributed to upholding whiteness in organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses inflation in France since the early 1960s based on a standard conflicting-claims approach. Applying an empirical version of the conflict-inflation framework, we adduce evidence suggesting the theory is sound and can explain variations in inflation over the long run. We provide a method for estimating indicators of workers' and firms' bargaining power as well as their respective distributional aspirations. Based on the literature we identify four periods: the Fordist regime, the Neoliberal regime, and two transitional periods. Our results cast light on institutional regime changes. It is shown that the evolution from the Great Inflation to the Great Moderation was the consequence of a collapse in the bargaining power of workers (and of firms to a lesser extent); but the narrowing of the aspirations' gap because of workers' renouncement was also significant. This analysis allows us to highlight differences between the stagflation observed during the 1970s and the inflationary surge in the post-pandemic period (2021–2023). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes how (post)-migrant media outlets discussed the position of (post)-migrant people in France. (Post)-migrant media are periodicals, radio stations, and other forms of media produced by (post)-migrant actors and addressed to them. I argue that changes in the Global Cold War order, French national politics, and social changes in French (post)-migrant communities fostered a transition from anti-imperialist to multicultural understandings of migration in the examined media. The paper shows how these changes affected the experiences and identities of (post)-migrant people and adds a global history perspective to existing explanations about generational change and national political developments. It tracks how (post)-migrant media offered a space to negotiate the position in France against the backdrop of global developments such as the Cold War, decolonization, the disillusion with postcolonial governments, and the rising human rights movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the consideration of educational disadvantage should go beyond the micro-scale contextual level of individual students, and explore eventual connections with hybrid forms of disadvantage in the social field. The paper draws on the capability approach and the concept of dwelling to introduce dwelling in time as functioning. This refers to students' abilities to position themselves in an engaging and meaningful relationship within time, and depends on students first achieving the previous functioning of dwelling. Research results from 222 14–15 year-old vocational education students from Italy, France and Greece using the Future Time Perspective Scale for Adolescents and Young Adults (FTPS-AYA), revealed four main findings: a measurement error in four factors of the scale, an almost systematic lack of correlation of the future-planning factor with the other factors, a significant percentage of students who do not have a clear position on the future and an invisible correlation between the future-positive and future-negative factors and students' opportunities to choose their specialisations. The paper argues that these four findings should not be seen in isolation and concludes that widening the spectrum of the origins of educational disadvantage facilitates both more effective education policy making and localising conversion factors that can boost students' resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the promotion of modern jewelry and accessories in interwar France using the men’s fashion magazine Adam: la revue de l’homme as a case study. It focuses on a number of the magazine’s features on jewelry and accessories from the period 1925-40 in order to demonstrate how its mission to become “the magazine of the rue de la Paix” encompassed the promotion of jewelry and accessories. Recognizing that jewelry and accessories is an under-researched area, particularly in relation to studies of men’s formal attire of the period, this essay provides evidence of the seriousness with which the style commentators of Adam, complemented by its editorial decisions and advertisers’ contributions, were prepared to lend to the subject. Ultimately, the paper argues that a consideration of modern jewelry and accessories in the context of a relatively conservative men’s fashion magazine can help to further our understanding of the role played by modern objects of personal adornment in the interwar period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How is corporate investment affected by the weighted average cost of capital (WACC)? Since existing studies focus on listed firms, little is known of the case of private firms, in spite of their relevance in both developed and developing economies. In this paper, we attempt to fill this gap. We develop an empirical study on the impact of the WACC on private firms' investment rates. We exploit accounting information on a panel of around 1700 French private corporate groups in the non-farm, non-financial sectors, covering the period 2005–2015. We overcome the challenge posed by the lack of observable information about the cost of equity for private firms by developing a methodology that relies on estimates for comparable public firms. We find that a one-standard deviation increase in the WACC (2 percentage points) leads to a 0.7 percentage point decrease in the investment rate the following year. Increases in both components of the WACC, namely the cost of debt and the cost of equity, are associated with lower investment rates. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the heightened WACC following the euro area crises reduced the aggregate corporate investment rate of French private firms by a cumulative 1.6 percentage points over 2009–2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on firms' capital structure highlights that up to 25% of publicly listed firms are zero-debt firms, a stylized fact that challenges financial theory. In this paper, we study privately held zero-debt small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and identify that approximately 20% of our observations correspond to zero-debt firms. This result is especially surprising in the context of a bank-oriented economy, France. We show that the likelihood of being a zero-debt firm is higher when firms are new-born, which is not surprising, but also when they grow older. In other words, we observe a U-shaped relationship between age and the likelihood of being a zero-debt firm. Our results are consistent with the idea that new-born firms cannot access debt-financing because of a lack of reputation and high informational opacity. When firms grow older, they decide to become debt-free to preserve their financial flexibility and to reduce their dependency toward banks. Overall, this paper suggests that SMEs depend less on bank financing than currently assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature acknowledges the variety of local austerity policies, but has paid less attention to their geographical diversity. This paper questions the theorisation of space in this literature and investigates the relationships between local austerity policies and the diversity of local spatial systems. By combining two fiscal and socio-economic classifications of French municipalities, it provides a comprehensive and fine-grained mapping of local austerity for an entire country. Our findings demonstrate that austerity occurs in a wide range of local spatial systems and highlight numerous instances of mundane austerity that exist between affluent areas and those most severely impacted by austerity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, few studies have analysed the geography of the circular economy, especially its contribution to economic activity on a sub-regional scale. In this context, our paper aims to analyse the evolution of employment and activities in the circular economy at the local level in France. For this purpose, we use a database on job creation and companies in the circular economy between 2008 and 2015 and we propose for the first time a study measuring the creation of jobs and companies in the CE. We show that the growth of employment in the circular economy is higher than the growth of total employment. Moreover, we highlight that the number of companies in the circular economy is mainly concentrated in metropolitan areas. We also point out the regional effect of the growth of the circular economy, indicating the territorial embeddedness of this type of activity. Based on this observation, we assume that regional public policies play a significant role in the deployment of a circular economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operation Sussex was an intelligence operation undertaken by the Allies in occupied France shortly before the Normandy invasion. English and American officers trained French agents to parachute into France, spy on German military movements, and send information back to London via radio. The Germans exposed a number of the Allied agents; nonetheless, the operation proved a major success. The key threat to Sussex came not from the Nazis, but from bureaucratic conflicts among the Allies. Despite the operation’s significance, the scholarly literature on it remains sparse. The foundation of this paper rests upon little used documents from various collections. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

Quality and morphology of outcrop exposure places fundamental constraints on what ichnological observations can be made and the veracity of these observations. Whilst the limits and potential biases are well known and reported for core studies, in the majority of field studies the equivalent biases are typically overlooked. In this paper we present a widely applicable method for recording outcrop characteristics based on their morphology, and how these characteristics may affect observations. We consider the impacts of structural orientation, superficial cover, and outcrop location on outcrop quality. Finally, we present two case studies, from the Tumblagooda Sandstone of Western Australia and the Armorican Sandstone Formation of northwestern France, to highlight the importance of recording outcrop characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The New Chemistry, as practised by its early proponents in late eighteenth-century France, is often associated with quantification and a move away from sensorial perceptions. In this paper, I argue that the sensory, far from being discarded by the practitioners of the New Chemistry, thrived in one of their major productions: the Annales de Chimie. Viewing the New Chemistry through its relation to the sensory highlights the diversity of chemical applications and offers a new way of examining the connection of chemistry to state and industrial actors. Chemists utilised a precise vocabulary which allowed them to productively interact on the subject of the senses. Sensorial impressions were used for distinct purposes, including the identification of substances, and to track the progress of ongoing chemical transformations. Most important, the senses were frequently tied to the purpose of chemical work. As chemists put their expertise in support of the state, industry, medicine, and commerce, they aimed to improve the sensory qualities of their objects of study, be they dairy products or fabric dyes. Remaining attuned to the senses, therefore, was an essential prerequisite of the New Chemistry's claim to utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory Action Research (PAR) is often applauded for creating a more egalitarian relationship between researchers and research participants. Nonetheless, PAR studies, particularly those involving young people, have been critiqued for their claims about its benefits, particularly the assertion that PAR is 'more' empowering and/or morally and ethically 'better' than other research approaches. At the core of these critiques is discussion of the issue of power and the assertion that the very power structures that PAR researchers hope to deconstruct may be reinforced if they do not take measures to address the various power hierarchies that can emerge during the conduct of PAR. Drawing on a PAR study involving the participation of 12 separated young people in Northern France, this paper documents the use of a Structured Ethical Reflection (SER) framework to guide a critically reflective process. Researcher acknowledgement of power and privilege led to the implementation of approaches that supported greater participant engagement and ownership of the research. The SER not only enabled the identification of emergent power asymmetries, but also supported the development of strategies that aimed to address ethical dilemmas as they arose during the research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, politicians and practitioners have focused strongly on humanization of births, to enable fewer medicalized birth care procedures. In this paper, we explore policy efforts to support better births in order to comprehend developments in maternity care in Denmark and France, two countries previously identified as having different birth cultures. Our analysis has been fueled by the question of how birth policies have developed in both countries in an era in which medicalization of birth has been problematized internationally. Using discourse analysis, we examine the political constructions of specific problems in central policy documents. The analysis shows which problematizations around maternity care are discursively constructed, what solutions are discursively presented and on what assumptions the problematizations are based. The article supports the conclusion of other scholars that a pervading risk discourse on birth and birthing bodies constitutes how maternity care can be experienced and practiced. [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]

Phenomenon: The urgency of having fair and trustworthy competency-based assessment in medical training is growing. Simulation is increasingly recognized as a potent method for building and assessing applied competencies. The growing use of simulation and its application in summative assessment calls for comprehensive and rigorously designed programs. Defining the current baseline of what is available and feasible is a crucial first step. This paper uses anesthesia and intensive care (AIC) in France as a case study in how to document this baseline. Approach: An IRB-approved, online anonymous closed survey was submitted to AIC residency program directors and AIC simulation program directors in France from January to February 2021. The researcher-developed survey consisted of 65 questions across five sections: centers' characteristics, curricular characteristics, courses' characteristics, instructors' characteristics, and simulation perceptions and perspectives. Findings: The participation rate was 31/31 (100%) with 29 centers affiliated with a university hospital. All centers had AIC simulation activities. Resident training was structured in 94% of centers. Simulation uses were training (100%), research and development (61%), procedural or organizational testing (42%), and summative assessment (13%). Interprofessional full-scale simulation training existed in 90% of centers. Procedural training on simulators prior to clinical patients' care was performed "always" in 16%, "most often" in 45%, "sometimes" in 29% and "rarely" or "not" in 10% of centers. Simulated patients were used in 61% of centers. Main themes were identified for procedural skills, full-scale and simulated patient simulation training. Simulation activity was perceived as increasing in 68% of centers. Centers expressed a desire to participate in developing and using a national common AIC simulation program. Insights: Based on our findings in AIC, we demonstrated a baseline description of nationwide simulation activities. We now have a clearer perspective on a decentralized approach in which individual institutions or regional consortia conduct simulation for a discipline in a relatively homogeneous way, suggesting the feasibility for national guidelines. This approach provides useful clues for AIC and other disciplines to develop a comprehensive and meaningful program matching existing expectations and closing the identified gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes using Pauline Alexis Gumbs' re-definition of "Echolocation" in Undrowned (2020) as a means of re-thinking music intertextuality in the French Rap songs analyzed here. This process aims to identify discourses across transnational music by focusing on issues pertaining to race and environmental racism in the context of the French refusal to use the socially constructed term "race" to address racial discrimination in the country. This enables French rappers to inscribe their work within a discourse that embraces this vocabulary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much scholarship takes austerity-driven spending cuts as evidence of policy change, this paper shifts the focus to interrogate whether these budgetary cuts lead to actual policy change and if so how. Scholarships on institutional change and public policy illuminate how state actors mediate policy change through coping strategies, i.e. strategies by which state actors try to minimize budget decreases' negative impacts on policy. Taking French Defense Policy as an unlikely case of policy change, we show that state actors have adopted three types of coping strategies to minimize the spending cuts' impact: compensation, delaying, and re-categorizing acquisition procedures. These coping strategies have however contributed to a process of incremental change, which most of time is non-cumulative and creates additional policy problems. This article contributes to a better understanding of change underway in defense policies, but also more generally to literatures pertaining to austerity and policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents data from a Québec French-speaking child with protracted phonological development (PPD) who received phonological intervention based on a nonlinear phonological framework. At 5;3, he showed relative strengths in word structure compared with consonants (e.g., /s, f, v, k, ɡ/). Addressing segmental constraints in intervention led to higher overall accuracy and more consistent production of singleton consonants and word-medial consonant sequences and further gains in word structure. As part of a special cross-linguistic issue on individual profiles in PPD, the current paper provides an in-depth pre/post-treatment phonological analysis and contributes to emerging normative French-Canadian data on assessment and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times of crisis, governments have strong incentives to influence banks' credit allocation because the survival of the economy depends on it. How do governments make banks 'play along'? This paper focuses on the state-guaranteed credit programs (SGCPs) that have been implemented to help firms survive the COVID-19 crisis. Governments' capacity to save the economy depends on banks' capacity to grant credit to struggling firms (which they would not be naturally inclined to do in the context of a global pandemic). All governments thus face the same challenge: How do they make sure that state-guaranteed loans reach their desired target and on what terms? Based on a comparative analysis of the elaboration and implementation of SGCPs in France and Germany, this paper shows that historically-rooted institutionalized modes of coordination between state and bank actors have largely shaped the terms of the SGCPs in these two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the large map as an innovative visual art tool in a frontline art therapy project with refugees. In a volatile and hostile setting on the France-UK border at Calais, inhospitable spaces, for a time, become human places, and the capacity to imagine both other (people) and somewhere other (place) become possible. Within this emergency setting, a safe space is temporarily activated. In the complicated times in which we live, art therapists are uniquely positioned to offer crisis support to people in diverse contexts with ethical and imaginative practice, using both their psychological skills and the art itself in equal weight. Critical examination of art therapy interventions is a necessary aspect of ethical practice and can lead to adaptations. This can feed into contemporary debates about how to deliver crisis intervention work, social action, social justice, as well as issues of definition. Dialogue, collaboration and co-production can open debate, challenge injustices and lead to social change. Social media as an extension of practice can serve as a further innovation and offer an alternative potential space, particularly in crisis contexts and where face-to-face work is not possible. Plain-language summary This paper looks at the role of the large map in an ongoing frontline art therapy project with refugees in Calais, northern France. The authors write about the border context in which the work takes place. They then present some thinking about the use of maps within this setting. This is followed by an example of the work in practice in the form of one Facebook post written in February 2019. The authors discuss the themes and ideas about space and materials emerging out of this extract. The authors propose that the innovative choice and application of materials, which helps to create a safe space in this border setting, can be translated into other physically and psychologically challenging contexts. The core tenets of art therapy practice and the skills brought by art therapists are needed now as much as ever. The paper also invites art therapists to think critically and imaginatively about the materials and media they choose in relation to their own wider work contexts with people. The authors suggest that an important part of the art therapy intervention in a difficult place needs to be about reflecting and adapting to context, which includes crisis support. This in turn supports a dialogue that can challenge injustices and lead to social change. The collaborative reflections about the work, written into blog posts during the return journeys from France back to the UK, form a second practice innovation. The posts are shared with an online audience and sometimes read, commented upon and further shared by those who use the service in Calais. The posts attempt to present creative, impactful narratives about the human aspect of the refugee experience. This is in contrast to the dominant media narratives in which refugees are often depicted with negative stereotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Several student-centred and game-based approaches have developed in the last 40 years. Publications intended to describe the underlying theory and/or mechanics of each particular teaching/learning model have usually focused on modalities related to teacher-student interactions, taking into account the particular pedagogical content knowledge pertaining to the activities concerned. The extent to which a particular approach has students taking charge of their learning varies from one model to the other. Underlying learning theories, such as constructivism and nonlinear pedagogy, play an important role in explaining or justifying reasons for pedagogical choices. However, whatever approach is favoured by a teacher, there remains the matter of the regulation of learning in a student-centred teaching/learning environment. Purpose: The main purpose of this paper was to discuss the regulation procedures implemented in a particular team-sport related teaching/learning strategy called the 'Tactical-Decision Learning Model' (T-DLM). A second and preliminary objective was to examine various AfL models with regard to the regulation of learning. Scaffold of the paper: In the first section of the paper, a review of the literature is presented with regard to the diversity of the student-learning regulation construct, spreading from self-regulation to co-regulation and to shared/socially-shared regulation. In the second part of the paper, the authors discuss the regulation of tactical learning in team sports through the lens of T-DLM, considering the contribution of four basic features of the model: game-play in a small-sided game format, student observation, debate, road map, and their iterations. Conclusion: In a team-sport teaching/learning context, cooperative learning becomes, by definition, the pivotal characteristic of the learning and learning-regulation processes. Although ever present, self-regulation is intermingled with socially shared regulation in the sense that each student's self-regulation activities voluntarily mingle with that of his/her teammates to bring about a collective action plan. Due to its socio-constructivist foundation and particular features, T-DLM offers many opportunities for socially-shared regulation of learning and may, given the right conditions, open the way for socially-shared metacognitive awareness of learning-regulation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper proposes an integrated model for multi-machines dynamic lot sizing aiming to produce a single item, considering the energy consumption during the production horizon. The objective is to find, firstly, the optimal lot size as well as the number of machines that satisfy a random demand under given service level and secondly, maintenance plan depended to production planning to minimise the total production, energy and maintenance costs. In fact, the problem of energy consumption is one of the most evoked topics especially with the decision of many governments to reduce theirs (For example France is willing to reduce the total consumption by 20% by 2020). The keys of this study are to consider, firstly, the correlation between the forecasting of demand, the variation of the working machines as well as their production rates under energy constraint and secondly the correlation between the production cadences and the maintenance strategy of all machines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we address the remunicipalization question from a novel perspective: by looking at "who is at the helm". Using a comprehensive panel dataset covering the complete universe of French drinking water services from 2009 to 2021, we show that the type of local governments in charge of supervising water services (inter-municipal cooperation or not) influences the decision to remunicipalize. We argue that this is because the costs of negotiating the remunicipalization of water services as well as the level of involvement in the investment and supervision of water services vary according to the type of local government. We conclude by discussing the lessons to be learned from our study concerning the future of remunicipalizations in France. [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]

Sport federations have a variety of financial profiles, even those operating within a single political context. In France, some federations depend on public funds, whereas others rely on private resources. Existing attempts to understand these differences have been based on just one criterion (Olympic sport or not). This paper draws on resource dependence theory in order to shed further light on this heterogeneity and provide a taxonomy of national sport federations. We analysed the financial profiles of 76 French sport federations during the period 2012–2017. After performing a principal component analysis to reduce the quantity of information, a linear discriminant analysis tests the relevance of differentiating between Olympic/non-Olympic federations. Finally, k-means method is used to conduct a taxonomic analysis and to identify 10 clusters. Five clusters contain non-Olympic federations ("deficient", "focused on elite sport", "non-professionalized", "focused emergent", "elitist"). The others contained Olympic federations ("traditional", "elite federations on life support", "rich network dependent", "powerful mono-dependent", "broad based"). This taxonomic analysis enables to assess financial vulnerability factors for each cluster, notably its dependence on specific resources. The findings will help the public authorities tailor the support they provide to the characteristics of the federations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), accounting for approximately 50% of patients starting dialysis. However, the management of these patients at the stage of chronic kidney disease (CKD) remains poor, with fragmented care pathways among healthcare professionals (HCPs). Diagnosis of CKD and most of its complications is based on laboratory evidence. This article provides an overview of critical laboratory evidence of CKD and their limitations, such as estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR), Kidney Failure Risk Equation (KFRE), and serum potassium. eGFR is estimated using the CKD-EPI 2009 formula, more relevant in Europe, from the calibrated dosage of plasma creatinine. The estimation formula and the diagnostic thresholds have been the subject of recent controversies. Recent guidelines emphasized the combined equation using both creatinine and cystatin for improved estimation of GFR. UACR on a spot urine sample is a simple method that replaces the collection of 24-hour urine. Albuminuria is the preferred test because of increased sensitivity but proteinuria may be appropriate in some settings as an alternative or in addition to albuminuria testing. KFRE is a new tool to estimate the risk of progression to ESKD. This score is now well validated and may improve the nephrology referral strategy. Plasma or serum potassium is an important parameter to monitor in patients with CKD, especially those on renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitors or diuretics. Pre-analytical conditions are essential to exclude factitious hyperkalemia. The current concept is to correct hyperkalemia using pharmacological approaches, resins or diuretics to be able to maintain RAAS blockers at the recommended dose and discontinue them at last resort. This paper also suggests expert recommendations to optimize the healthcare pathway and the roles and interactions of the HCPs involved in managing CKD in patients with diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data which follow the educational trajectories of students during secondary education and measure health status during adulthood, this paper analyzes the effects of private schooling on a range of unhealthy lifestyle outcomes. To account for the non-random selection of students in French private schools I use propensity score matching. I find a positive effect of private schooling on the self-reported health status of girls and a negative effect for boys. These results are related to those on risky behaviours: I find that enrolment in a private school reduces the likelihood of daily smoking for girls, but increases the likelihood of drinking multiple times a week for boys, twelve years after sixth grade. A set of robustness checks confirms the robustness of my results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influence of climate on the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in France. Ordinary, time-varying, and threshold regressions of the number of cases and deaths are run on weather and government variables. The main findings support the role of climate in Covid-19 spread. The results reveal that a rise in temperatures is negatively associated with reported deaths, while an increase in relative humidity or wind and a decrease in precipitations are negatively associated with confirmed cases. These weather variables appear statistically significant only during the winter season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of parkour is to cross various obstacles in an efficient and creative way by jumping, swinging, climbing, and running. Parkour aligns with the SHAPE America national standards for K-12 physical education and has demonstrated its potential to highly engage both boys and girls in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). In this article, we present a knowledge packet for teaching parkour to elementary children. First, we discuss the knowledge packet by unpacking the content development together with common errors and suggestions on how to correct these. Next, we propose appropriate equipment that can be used during physical education lessons. After which we introduce organizational and pedagogical principles that strengthen the parkour unit, such as focused station work, modifying content and equipment and offering children high practice opportunities and the role of teacher's content knowledge. We end the paper by providing examples for assessing children in a formative and summative way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argillaceous rocks are candidate host and/or cap formations for the geological disposal of nuclear wastes in many countries, including Canada, France and Switzerland. The understanding of the long term mechanical behaviour of such rocks is an essential requirement for the assessment of their performance as a barrier against radionuclide migration. Due to the existence of bedding, argillaceous rocks are inherently anisotropic and the development of stress-strain models for their mechanical behaviour needs to take this anisotropy into account. This paper presents two examples of the practical implementation of stress-strain relationships in finite element models to simulate the excavation damage zones (EDZ) in bedded argillaceous rocks. The first example concerns the EDZ around a micro-tunnel in Opalinus Clay, in Switzerland. The second example relates to the EDZ around the century-old tunnel in Tournemire shale, in France. Both examples show the importance of developing robust stress-strain models that can replicate inherent anisotropy of the rock, and of calibrating and validating the models with a comprehensive set of laboratory experiments. The second example shows the additional influence of dessication and fault zone on the extent and shape of the EDZ. [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]