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Copyright of Education et Societes is the property of INRP 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.)

Introduction: Trans-fatty acids (TFAs) can be produced either from bio-hydrogenation in the rumen of ruminants or by industrial hydrogenation. While most of TFAs' effects from ruminants are poorly established, there is increasing evidence that high content of industrial TFAs may cause deleterious effects on human health and life span. Material and methods: Indeed, several epidemiological and experimental studies strongly suggest that high content of most TFA isomers could represent a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases by a mechanism that lowers the 'good HDL cholesterol' and raises the 'bad LDL cholesterol.' Results: With respect to the general precautionary principle and considering the existence of an international policy consensus regarding the need for public health action, some industrialized countries, such as France, are still not sufficiently involved in preventive strategies that aim to efficiently reduce TFAs content and TFAs consumption and produce alternative healthier fat sources. Conclusion: In this manuscript, we provide an overview about TFAs origins, their use and consumption among French population. We also discuss their potential human health implications as well as the preventive and regulatory measures undertaken in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Drawing on the French case, this article examines the size and scope of poverty resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the diversity of poverty's manifestations and the role of public action (among other actors) in addressing the poverty. This reflection unfolds at the confluence between the international literature on the economic effects of COVID-19 around the world and the methodological and conceptual issues on poverty. Design/methodology/approach: Following a research report to the French Government in 2021, a new academic collaboration is initiated to assess the conceptual issues underlying the report's nine quantitative, qualitative and participatory studies. A thematic analysis is used to elaborate on an original framework. Findings: COVID-19 not only had detrimental economic effects on specific groups, such as precarious workers and students, but also serious effects on social isolation, mental health, access to welfare and public services. Together with assessing the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on poverty in France, this paper highlights the lack of recognition of community support in the face of hard times. Originality/value: The COVID-19 outbreak has not only deteriorated socioeconomic situations in France, but has also unmasked structural, long-term components of poverty. The paper discusses three policy implications of these revelations, concerning (1) the monitoring of non-monetary dimensions of poverty, (2) the needs of various groups under a welfare state with a dual structure and (3) the role of communities in public policy schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Waste production and management from residents and collection for sorting are systems heavily dependent on territorial dimensions. Ergonomic research needs to better integrate such territorial determinants to improve work conditions and design sustainable work systems. OBJECTIVE: Through studies in France and Brazil, this paper analyzes the territorial relations that raise work systems' sustainability challenges for materials recovery facilities (MRFs) and waste management in both countries and examines the links between work activity and territory in MRFs. METHODS: Both studies were based on the principles of activity-oriented ergonomics and used analyses of work activity and sociotechnical systems. The French study focused on interventions conducted over a 42-month period in five MRFs. The Brazilian study was based on a 20-month longitudinal qualitative and quantitative study. RESULTS: In this paper, we argue that territory is a key determining factor in waste production and work. Notably, the consumption patterns of residents and the economic flows within a geographic space determine the waste composition; and the territorially specified public policies, which define technical and social dimensions of waste collection and sorting. However, the territorial dimensions of waste are poorly considered in facility design. Workers' health and sorting system performance are thus affected and negatively compromising plant performance. CONCLUSION: The territory appears as a blind spot in the design of work systems. One of the challenges is to create interfaces and devices that could help to integrate better human activity and waste territorialized anchorage, in a multilevel organization, from local communities to the global recycling chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Raumforschung und Raumordnung is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH 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.)

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]

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]

Objective: Previous research in various countries has found that employment–family trajectories characterized by early or single motherhood, or weak ties to employment, are associated with poor well-being among older women. Our paper explores whether this differs (1) in France, characterized by a high female employment rate and supportive family policies; (2) across dimensions of well-being. Method: We used the Health and Occupational Itinerary survey to identify 10 common patterns of employment–family trajectories (derived from multi-channel sequence analysis) and analysed their association with six indicators of well-being in 2010 (N = 2882 50–78 years old women). Results: Continuous full-time employment is associated with better well-being, except for women who had a first child around 24 years old, who reported increased anxiety and lack of support. Discussion: Employed mothers' well-being seems to be protected in a context of family friendly policies, but we identified one group with lower well-being, which merits further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a pseudo-panel approach to examine household electricity demand behavior through the household life cycle and its response to income variations to help strengthen the energy policy-making process. Our empirical methodology is based on three rich independent microdata surveys (the National Housing Surveys), which are representative of the French housing sector. The resulted sample covers the 2006–2016 period. Using within estimations, this paper finds striking evidence that the income elasticity of French residential electricity demand is 0.22, averaged over our four cohorts of generations. In light of other works, our estimate stands in the lower range. The empirical results also show that residential electricity consumption follows an inverted U-shaped distribution as a function of the age of the household's head. Most notably, it appears that households at the mid-point of their life cycle are relatively the largest consumers of electricity. This outcome has important implications for policy-making. Any public policy aimed at reducing household energy consumption should consider this differentiation in consumption according to the position of households over the life cycle, and therefore target as priority households at the highest level of consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to explore the legal consciousness of migrant children in transit at the France–UK border. Based on secondary analysis of legal measures to help ensure child protection, and on ethnographic fieldwork in Calais, this paper shows that the legal consciousness of migrant children is shaped by several factors such as their experience of migration, their previous interactions with public institutions in Europe, their living conditions in transit areas, the police's harassment strategy, the influence of migrant peers and by their own migration plans. We will show that these factors have a deep impact on the legal consciousness of unaccompanied minors and consequently on both their (non‐)claim of protection and (non‐)use of legal tools. By mobilizing biographical sets of data, we will also show that their legal consciousness results from the combination of these contextual factors with their individual experiences and sociological characteristics (education, origin, ...). From a methodological point of view, this contribution provides evidence of the importance of adopting a child‐centred approach in ethnographic research. This approach highlights discrepancies between policy aims and children's needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the relationship between investments in five distributed generation technologies and hourly net withdrawals from over 2,000 electricity distribution networks in France between 2005 and 2018. We find that investments in distributed wind and solar generation have little or no impact on the annual peak of hourly net withdrawals from the distribution grid, while investments in hydroelectric and thermal distributed generation significantly reduce it. An optimistic analysis of the impact of investments in battery storage suggests that high levels are required for distributed wind and solar to deliver similar reductions in the annual peak of hourly net withdrawals. Our results imply that public policies favoring distributed wind and solar generation over utility-scale generation cannot be rationalized by savings in future grid investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiculturalism as a theoretical concept is an extension of communitarianism and emerged out of the liberal-communitarian debate. Multiculturalism emerged as a doctrine to defend minority rights in the context of communitarian critique of liberal individualism and how these minority rights fit into the broader issue of liberal-democratic theory. It is a theory to counter the dangerous tendencies which are inherent in the theory of liberalism and communitarianism. Liberal concept of justice was not enough to defend the sort of group specific rights that minorities need to protect themselves from assimilation and similarly communitarianism has a dangerous tendency to limit the freedom of individual to question and revise traditional way of life. In this paper I had tried to work out how multiculturalism as a doctrine emerged out of communitarianism and how composite culture which is an essential prerequisite of multicultural societies can be created. In this I had tried to show that Multiculturalism emerged as a doctrine to defend minority rights in the context of communitarian critique of liberal individualism and how these minority rights fit into the broader issue of liberal-democratic theory. In this paper I had also tried to chalk out significant differences in the concept of multiculturalism and communitarianism. In a multicultural society, the growth of composite culture is necessary for the formation and growth of national identity and for composite culture to easily develop in multicultural society I had recommended deliberative form of democracy. Most of the modern societies are multicultural societies with each cultural community offering a conception of good life. Coexistence of different conceptions of good life creates a situation of moral conflict which is confined not only to public sphere but stretches over to private domain also. Different cultural groups often grudge that their view and concerns are often sidelined by representative bodies while formulating public polices, which eventually make them apathetic to state authorities and creates a problem of legitimacy. Like in France, the state in 2010 decided to ban all religious symbols in public which created lot of resentment in minority community. Similarly in India, The Muslim Women (protection of rights on Marriage)bill, 2019 banning and criminalizing triple talaq was passed by parliament as a social reform measure without having consultation with the members of concerned Muslim community. This spurred the debate in India that shouldn't the government have brought in this legislation after having wider consultation with the concerned community and does the state has the right to criminalize a civil act pertaining to marriage whereas no such provision exists for any other community. Modern multicultural societies are faced with the dilemma how to reconcile this discontent and resolve the disputes arising out of such moral conflicts. There have been numerous instances in multicultural societies where people belonging to different religious groups have resented such legal legislations which encroach upon their religious beliefs. There is therefore a growing feeling that while formulating public policies different cultural groups should be consulted. In this article we have tried to show that Multiculturalism emerged as a doctrine to defend minority rights in the context of communitarian critique of liberal individualism and how these minority rights fit into the broader issue of liberal-democratic theory. Apart from this we have also tried to chalk out significant differences in the concept of multiculturalism and communitarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides new stylized facts about labor earnings inequality and dynamics in France for the period 1991-2016. Using linked employer-employee data, we show that (i) labor inequality in France is low compared to other developed countries and has been decreasing until the financial crisis of 2009 and increasing since then, (ii) women experienced high earnings growth, in particular at the bottom of the distribution, in contrast to the stability observed for men. Both result from a decrease in labor costs at the minimum wage and an increase in the hourly minimum in the aftermath of the 35h workweek policy, (iii) top earnings (top 5 and 1%) grew moderately while very top earnings (top 0.1 and 0.01%) experienced a much higher growth, (iv) inequality between and within cohorts follow the same U-shaped pattern as global inequality: it decreased before 2009 and then increased until 2016, (v) Individual earnings mobility is stable between 1991 and 2016, and very low at the top of the distribution, (vi) the distribution of earnings growth is negatively skewed, leptokurtic, and varies with age. Then, studying earnings dispersion both within and between territories, we document strong differences across cities aswell as between urban and rural areas, even after controlling for observable characteristics. We also observe a continuous decrease in earnings inequality between territories. However, a larger inflation in rural territories mitigates this convergence. Finally, we document a strong reduction in inequality within rural and remote territories, again driven by changes at the bottom of the wage distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of the Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees in 2018 marked a turning point in international migration governance. According to objective 13 of the Global Compact for Migration, States Parties have committed to use immigration detention as a measure of last resort and work towards alternatives. As for the Global Compact on Refugees, States Parties and relevant stakeholders also pledged to contribute to the development of non-custodial and community-based alternatives to detention, particularly with respect to children. Five years later, the enhancement of human rights protection for migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers within national territories remains a challenge. We argue that two states of the Global North – Canada and France – are actually using the Global Compacts to push forward their own agenda on the international scene, as a tool to influence other states. Even if Canada and France have engaged in multilateral discussions on the regulation of migration and the protection of refugees through soft law instruments, we find that national practices have not been altered since 2018. As such, this paper will demonstrate that the implementation of the Global Compacts is, in fact, used to advance foreign national policy for both states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regionalization processes across Western Europe have triggered analyses of regional policy divergence. Yet, in a number of cases, regional governments appear to have deliberately strived to achieve policy conformity. Previous research tends to emphasize exogenous explanations of regional policy convergence. In contrast, this paper addresses the issue of regional policy convergence by focusing on endogenous explanatory factors. Its objective is to carry out an investigation of when, how, and with what effect a ‘desire for conformity’ arises, and contends that regional governments may actively cultivate policy similarity as a strategy to develop or secure their policy capacity. Specifically, the paper argues that the adoption of this strategy is contingent upon two requirements that may or may not be met, and that its outcome is the convergence on targeted dimensions of regional policies. The two requirements are: (i) a countrywide public preference for policy uniformity in the policy area of concern, and (ii) the presence of a threat posed to regional policy capacity by various political entrepreneurs, including the central state, who blame regions for providing divergent policies on particular dimensions. This paper is based on the comparison of two case studies where regional governments deliberately pursued policy conformity on targeted dimensions of their education policy: school-building policy in France and curricula policy in Germany. The two case studies also present dissimilar features that make it possible to investigate the effects of institutional setting and policy distribution on the adoption and operation of the active-cultivation-of-policy-similarity strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines young people's experiences of open access youth work in settings in the UK, Finland, Estonia, Italy and France. It analyses 844 individual narratives from young people, which communicate the impact of youthwork on their lives. These accounts are then analysed in the light of the European youth work policy goals. It concludes that it is encouraging that what young people identify as the positive impact of youth work are broadly consistent with many of these goals. There are however some disparities which require attention. These include the importance young people place on the social context of youth work, such as friendship, which is largely absent in EU youth work policy; as well as the importance placed on experiential learning. The paper also highlights a tension between 'top down' policy formulation and the 'youth centric' practices of youth work. It concludes with a reminder to policy makers that for youth work to remain successful the spaces and places for young people must remain meaningful to them 'on their terms'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to outline the contents of the special issue on public management reform in countries in the Napoleonic administrative tradition, discussing alternative explanatory frameworks, and proposing paths for future research. Design/methodology/approach - This article provides reviews of the papers in the special issue. Findings - Same broad sets of factor affecting implementation of public management reform in Napoleonic countries are outlined, schematised in a specific table, and discussed in the light of potential alternative frameworks, like cultural analysis. Research limitations/implications - Research limitations include the availability of empirical evidence given the width of the phenomenon under investigation (public management reform in five countries). Implications for the development of a broader comparative research agenda on countries in the Napoleonic administrative tradition (and others) are proposed. Originality/value - The special issue, of which this paper provides an overview, fills a gap in the literature by providing systematic and comparative analysis of public management reform in tire under-investigated countries in the Napoleonic administrative tradition, arguably an important contribution to the widening of the comparative research agenda in public management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the actors, institutions and changing rules of the French system of industrial relations (IR). It questions whether the traditional view of the French model as “state-centric” is still adequate.Design/methodology/approach Based on institutionalist IR theories of social regulation and neocorporatism, the paper analyses the evolution of the French IR system from a “State-centric” model to the development of collective bargaining, both at the sector and company level, as well as of tripartite concertation.Findings Initially based on adversarial relations between trade unions and employers, compensated by strong state interventionism, the French IR system has experienced a series of reforms, adopted under the pressure of the unions in the 1980s and mostly under the pressure of the employers’ organisations since the turn of the century. These reforms boosted collective bargaining at the workplace level and tripartite concertation at the peak level. The paper analyses the limits of both developments and explains why a reversal of the hierarchy of norms was imposed in 2016 by law without prior concertation.Originality/value The paper presents an original explanation of the change of the initial French IR model, stressing the importance of power relations and the role of IR experts in the different reform moments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an instructive case study showing how strategic communication designed to achieve European Union directives regarding energy saving plays out in practice. The two-year qualitative study examined the impact of a French energy supply company's strategic practices. These practices were designed to transform not only the way consumers think about energy but also their consumption practices and how they made sense of these practices. Paradoxically, the texts that the supply company exchanged with customers, as their primary form of strategic practice, acted in ways that blocked the achievement of their strategic intent. The texts exhibited alternative forms of agency that (re)constituted the company-customer interface. In revealing this outcome, the paper contributes to a scant literature on the performance of mundane strategic tools, offering a unique example of an "ideological fantasy of 'empowerment'" (Wright, 2012) that was not realized in practice. The findings provide a warning, in this case to energy suppliers, that strategic texts have unintended and independent agency in the collaborative process of negotiating customers' understanding of energy and consumption options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Copyright of Investigaciones Feministas is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid 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.)

Urban sprawl and the process of peri-urbanization have been important challenges for cities all around the world, generating car dependency. Public policies have taken up this issue with the aim of managing peri-urban mobilities by considering the opportunity of rail services through a sustainable approach. Indeed, the enhancement of the railway system has been at the heart of concerns of land use public stakeholders since the early 2000s. This paper suggests a specific approach to assess how rail may contribute to a sustainable management in peri-urban areas. It aims to analyse if railway enhancement is really a topic taken into account by all the stakeholders, whether they are inhabitants, elected representatives or representatives of economic societies. It relies on analysing the representations they have for peri-urban areas. Based on a specific methodological approach, it shows a certain convergence of interests in living near peri-urban railway stations, which could contribute to strengthen 'urbanity' in a sustainable way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the working practices of a mobile mental health outreach team in a large French city, one that ‘targets’ homeless people with severe psychiatric disorders who are considered ‘hard to reach’ by the public health authorities and medical services. Analysis of the team's work – where acts of curing and caring are closely tied – reveals the importance of moving beyond a polarized vision ofcureandcare. The paper departs from much of the literature on the medicalization of social problems by arguing that medicalization is not only a means of social control, but has ethical value as well. In examining the practices of frontline health workers, it aims to show that integrating the methods and theoretical approaches of social work in medical practice is necessary to address the specific problems of homeless people, to enable health professionals to pursue medical cures, and to challenge the shortcomings of public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the multi-stage policy process of brownfield regeneration in France and in Switzerland, two decentralized although different countries that have not fully addressed the issue of brownfield regeneration at a national level. It makes a contribution in developing a framework to analyse the different stages of policy development, with regard to brownfield regeneration. It also fills a gap in comparative studies as French and Swiss contexts lack from coverage in the English speaking literature. It aims to understand why they have not shared and are still not sharing a similar path towards the inclusion of brownfield sites in national planning frameworks. Drawing on the examples of national policies implemented in England, in Germany and in the United States, the paper argues that whereas Switzerland is moving quickly to a national programme of brownfield regeneration highly anchored in an ambition of preserving natural spaces against urbanization, France is sustaining a persistent national concern for social housing estates giving flexibility and leeway to local and regional authorities as regards land-use management and brownfield regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the reasons behind the absence of central Government funding for enterprise and innovation at Further Education Colleges (FECs). Enterprise and innovation are, according to conventional wisdom, crucial in rebuilding the UK's economy and providing jobs. In pursuit of this, the Government has provided central funding for enterprise promotion and education for both Universities and Secondary Schools, but not for FECs. The review starts by looking at recent Government policy papers on enterprise and innovation, then briefly considers the current economic characteristics that lay behind the need for enterprise education and innovation. The efficacy of the current proposals is questioned, looking at the concepts concerning the type and level of intelligence entrepreneurs need, also touching on what types of innovations can be expected to increase employment. The paper concludes by asking if elitist or class bias plays a part in the exclusion of Vocational Education & Training students at FECs from central funding for innovation and enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When it comes to public policies that recognize and accommodate ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, cities are active and innovative. However, policy adoption can differ greatly from case to case, with different policy processes leading to different types of instruments across local contexts. This paper focuses on two cases from France, a country usually associated with hostility towards recognizing group-based diversity. In Marseille, there has been a decades-long consensus around group-based multiculturalism. The impetus has come from mayors ("policy entrepreneurs") of both the centre-left and the centre-right. In Grenoble, the uninterrupted dominance of a strong left-wing administration has infused diversity policy with more traditional themes, such as anti-discrimination, universalist participation and civil-society support in the city's stigmatized southern neighbourhoods. The study demonstrates that local-level diversity policy may feature a mix of multicultural, intercultural and universalist elements, and that tracing local policy processes can explain puzzling policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Law, State & Telecommunications Review / Revista de Direito, Estado e Telecomunicações is the property of Grupo de Estudos em Direito das Telecomunicacoes (GETEL) 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.)

Trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation of Nigerian women in France is a phenomenon addressed by the abolitionist movement and national security policies. Both currents have created the category of ideal victim, generating that many Nigerian women have been expelled from the country as illegal migrants or prostitutes guilty of pimping. In this way, this paper presents the difficulties that Nigerian women face and the strategies they develop to remain in France. At the same time, I present my results of an investigation into the racialization interactions and processes that occur within a social assistance association for Nigerian women in situations of sexual exploitation. In conclusion, Nigerian women are not defined based on their trajectories or the identities they build, but instead categories defined by the public policies of victims, pimps and illegal migrants are imposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper investigates the notion of scientific 'excellence' at the heart of public research policies by comparing it with the situation regarding the regional development of scientific activity in France. The case presented is based on bibliometric analysis of chemistry publications in French cities between 1985 and 2010, during which the policies of excellence were still not effective. It is asserted that the trend was towards an identical level of excellence across the country's different cities and that the dynamics of regional cities depends on them being 'equipped' with researchers, internationalized and specialized in emerging fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to a significant increase in the complexity of the care demands of older people having multiple care needs, the necessity for integrated care is increasingly acknowledged. Proposing a qualitative approach based on a secondary literature analysis and an empirical survey, this paper explores the integration policy of health and social care for older people having complex needs in two European countries – France and Sweden – where various policy measures aiming at developing and delivering integrated care can be identified: at the national level, through the supportive measures of organisational, institutional and/or professional integration from central government, and at the local level, with the implementation of concrete integrative initiatives. Using a comparative qualitative approach, the authors investigate both of these levels, as well as the interplay between them. They show the importance of this double – local and national – approach of the issue of integration and highlight the continuous negotiation process which underlies the integration activities. Local integration initiatives are in fact constantly reshaped by top-down and bottom-up dynamics which appear to be strongly interconnected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Language & Law / Revista de Llengua i Dret is the property of Revista de Llengua i Dret 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.)

French colonialism resulted in the inclusion of large numbers of West Africans into French educational institutions. Furthermore, the Senegambian region has a long history of intermarriage with French citizens. This paper draws on this history to explore the interplay between migration, education and binational marriage over several generations of West African students, with a particular focus on Senegal. Students from Francophone countries continue to seek educational opportunities in France, but in recent years they have been increasingly affected by the tightening up of immigration policies. In this context, this paper suggests that marriage to a French spouse often plays an important role in the fulfilment of educational projects, and that this role is contingent on issues of gender and class. At times, however, tensions between marriage in France and social expectations back home end up compromising education altogether. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The deployment of wind power induces deep changes in landscapes and territories. The politicization of wind power generates new ad hoc collectives. In the French case, because of the institutional framing resulting from landscape and wind power policies (centralization, feed-in tariffs, private developers), collectives of emerging wind power landscapes are regularly set apart from wind power planning processes. This paper explores the extent to which these recompositions and new collectives could be part of emerging wind power potentials. The empirical evidence stemming from our case studies shows that wind power technology, like any other technology, is not endowed with a potential per se. Wind power potentials differ - 'capitalistic', 'controversial', 'negotiated', 'conditional' - depending on planning processes and inherited configurations. The notions of striated space and smooth space enable us to adopt a relational perspective on these emerging collectives and to account for the role of inherited sociogeographical configurations and planning processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Research on ideological attitudes has identified two main dimensions that refer to two fundamental features of group organization: social solidarity and social control. In response to prior research that has studied their relationship mainly from a correlational perspective, this paper introduces a social reality model based on psychological functionality of ideological attitudes. Social position variables (education, income and material vulnerability) and insecurity variables (fear of crime and distrust) are used to predict the interplay between ideological attitudes towards social solidarity and social control. Using K-means cluster analysis, a typology with four patterns of support for solidarity and control ('socials', 'repressives', 'minimalists' and 'social-repressives') was created, on the basis of representative survey data for the UK, France and Germany ( N = 7034). Results from logistic regression analyses show that the proposed social reality model explains membership in typology categories, with similar results across the three countries. Overall, the model underscores the social origins of ideological attitudes as functional responses to perceived social reality. The paper illustrates how the social psychological study of ideological attitudes may be enriched by a typological approach that examines patterns of attitudes rather than single dimensions. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As each emerging socio-technological system, the fuel cell technology is characterized by hype and disappointment. This paper analyses from an historical perspective, the main events and the role of actors (policy makers, industrials, researchers) in this phenomenon in France from 1960 to 2010. It highlights three ages of fuel cell research. The emerging phase (from 1960 to 1980) is marked by the dominant role of the state and the weight of geopolitical considerations supporting research growth. From 1980 to 1990, a withdrawal phase is explained by the limited prospects for industrial application, the weakening of the state's strategic role and the balance of power within the academic world. In 1990s, the renewal phase seems to come from manufacturers and the European Union, the French state being content to support the process from the side-line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse whether tourism (measured by real tourism receipts) causes growth in an asymmetric fashion in a panel of G-7 countries over the period of 1995-2014. Our results reveal that the tourism-led growth hypothesis holds for France, Germany, and the US, with negative tourism shocks being more important for Germany, Italy, Japan, while positive shocks are more important in UK and the US. Our results imply that, policy makers in Germany, Italy and Japan should be more concerned when tourism receipts decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a synthetic presentation of French water governance and its evolution since the 1960s. Through this French experience, it discusses the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) water governance cycle showing disputes as the main drivers of change. France has been a pioneer in introducing water river basin management some 50 years ago. It is also noted for its water services management by local authorities, leaving a significant role to private and public companies. But French water governance has not been frozen since the 1960s and continues to change radically within a framework based upon its unique history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into the paradoxical nature of post-2008 fiscal policies, where there is a simultaneous emphasis on valuing public investment on the one hand, and maintaining austerity on the other. It sheds light on this paradox through the concept of "Investor State," which refers to contemporary states' ambition to redefine their role in the economy by no longer limiting themselves to a regulatory role but rather seeking an active role as "investor." We argue that this redefinition of the state's role is of piece with the elevation of investment as a new standard for legitimizing state actions. On the flipside, by making investment the main criteria of public policy legitimacy, it simultaneously delegitimizes spending that is not deemed an investment. Because the adopted economic definition of investment is limited to traditional "productive investment" related to industrial policy, other policy sectors—that is the majority of state intervention—are subject to spending cuts. Thus the Investor State suggests an evolution of the fiscal order that Streeck described as the "consolidation state": the primary goal is no longer to reduce public debt and deficits. But the neoliberal objective to reduce the "size" of the public sector in the economy absolutely remains. Drawing on the case of France, the article shows how the right-wing government started placing investment at the core of its fiscal policy after 2008. The article then highlights the continuation of this dual fiscal policy discourse to date despite changes in government leadership and the pandemic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Both enhancing life expectancy and decreasing inequalities in lifespan between social groups are significant goals for public policy. To date, however, methodological tools to study progress in both dimensions simultaneously have been lacking. There is also a consensus that absolute and relative inequalities in lifespan must be studied together. Methods: We introduce a novel graphical representation that combines national mortality rates with both absolute and relative measures of social inequality in mortality. To illustrate our approach, we analyze French and German data stratified by place of residence. Results: For all-age mortality, in France we find a steady pace of decline in both mortality and in regional inequalities in mortality over recent decades. In Germany, substantial progress was made in the 1990s, mostly driven by convergence between eastern and western Germany, followed by a period of slower progress. Age-specific analyses for Germany reveal a worrying divergence in regional trends at ages 35–74 in recent years, which is particularly pronounced among women. Conclusion: Our novel visual approach offers a way to simultaneously examine two dimensions of progress in longevity, and facilitates meaningful comparisons between populations, even when their current mortality rates differ. The applied methods can be easily reproduced in any country for which long-term mortality series stratified by region, or any relevant socioeconomic characteristic, are available. It is useful for both scientific analysis and policy advice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Originally part of the private domain of families, care of the older people is now the concern of public policy. Yet, in the European context of cost containment, it is not easy to make a case for increasing public support and the caring function of families remains prominent in social policy. In this paper, the authors question public policies around care of the older people in relation to both the needs of old people, but also those of adult children, mainly women, who work and provide care for their old parents. We investigate the interactions between public support in long-term care and the caring function of families. The paper presents some results of a comparative research study based on the identification of the policy measures which have been implemented in different European countries in the sector of care of the older people, and on the detailed analysis of care arrangements set up by a sample of 86 family carers in these various national contexts. We argue that in a context of cost containment, whatever the usual patterns of care and the role given to the family and public authorities, the policy measures which have been introduced since the 90s aim to support family carers in various ways with the common objective of giving them the flexibility they need in the organisation of care arrangements, combining various resources (formal professional care, unpaid informal care, semi-formal care). Different patterns of flexibility can be identified according to the regulation of the policy measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does sustained and increasingly transnational immigration weaken the national character of citizenship regimes? This paper addresses this issue by examining French responses to immigration over a 40-year period. In spite of the changing character of immigration and changing state strategies, all governments throughout this period have sought to maintain the national character by making full access to rights contingent on one's conformity to national values and moralities. As the government made accessing rights dependent on conformity to national norms, the legitimacy of immigrant activists seeking to expand their rights has depended on their abilities to conform to the rules of the national political game. Resisting marginalization therefore requires the assimilation of the immigrants into nationally specific political cultures, which contributes to reinforcing the national character of citizenship regimes. By examining the particular case of France, the paper aims to show how top-down and bottom-up processes by states and activists work in different ways to keep the nation at the center of citizenship regimes in spite of the ongoing and very real challenges presented by transnationalism and globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to analyse the ways in which the partnership legislation introduced through the French parliament in 1999 (the ‘Pacte Civil de Solidarité’ or PaCS) has brought in its wake a re-examination of contemporary models of Republicanism and citizenship. Viewed by some as a threat to social cohesion (for Philippe de Villiers, for instance, the PaCS represented ‘le retour à la barbarie’), for others the PaCS represents a means to examine, but also to strengthen, the ‘elasticity’ (Gunther, 2009) of the Republic, thus illustrating the ability of the latter to adapt to social and political change. Through an analysis of the evolution of the definitions of key terms in the PaCS debates, this paper charts the ways in which the partnership legislation can be seen to offer a practical, political and social means for a queering of citizenship in the contemporary Republic with its roots in the realm of sexual citizenship, but a reach that extends far beyond it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the similarities and differences in the development of psychological therapies in three European Union countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France) in the context of national policies about health services and public mental health. Design/methodology/approach – Three case studies are utilised for this purpose as historical descriptions. The latter are then discussed in the light of traditional approaches to the sociology of the professions. Findings – Whilst some similarities are identified across the three countries (for example the recent convergence of policy interest in "evidence-based practice") it is also clear that the particular national cultures have shaped developments and their different forms of healthcare organisation have been reflected in national legislative and regulatory arrangements. Research limitations/implications – These case studies draw attention to the need to explore national variations in policy formation about the same matter (in this case the professionalization of psychological therapies) and to extend discussions within the sociology of the professions to ones of healthcare organizational contexts. In addition, the contested nature of applied psychology may require special attention relative to other forms of health work practice. Originality/value – This paper provides a particular form of understanding about psychological practices within modern healthcare and public health policies, in the light of the peculiar and contextualised aspects of the case studies provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis of financial market efficiency predicts that the stock prices show instantaneously all the applicable information available on the market (Fama, 1970). If the market is efficient, and if the investors are neutral to the risk, then the stock prices are unpredictable. This paper studies the predictability of stock returns listed on the French stock market. The objective of this paper is to examine the nature of the phenomenon characterizing the behavior of the prices. It is about examining the phenomena of underreaction and overreaction on the French stock market during the period 1974-2004. If these two phenomena do not exist, then the stock prices follow a random walk. We adopt the methodology of De Bondt and Thaler (1985) for the construction of winning and losing portfolio and performed different econometric tests to study the phenomena of underreaction and overreaction. We find that the hypotheses of overreaction and underreaction are rarely significant. Therefore, we can say that the variation of stock returns is often unforeseeable which is based on the sets of ex post returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a distinction between 'explicit' or 'nominal' cultural policies (policies that are explicitly labelled as 'cultural') and 'implicit' or 'effective' cultural policies (policies that are not labelled manifestly as 'cultural', but that work to prescribe or shape cultural attitudes and habits over given territories). It begins by defining the distinction through reference to a suggestive inconsistency located within the work of the French thinker Regis Debray. It then specifies the distinction further in relation to certain anglophone references in cultural policy studies and wider political thinking (Geoff Mulgan and Ken Worpole, Raymond Williams, Joseph Nye). Finally, it explores the history of laicity in France conceived initially in terms of a conflict between the implicit cultural policies of the Catholic Church and the republican State, as well as certain tensions implied by the realpolitik of laicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - To explore and explain differences in reform of activation policies, comparing the shifts in governance in France and The Netherlands from the 1990s onwards. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on in-depth case studies of the reform process in activation policies, using documentary sources and interviews with several stake-holders. The theoretical scope is the debate on institutional change, path-dependency and convergence. Findings - Although both countries demonstrate converging tendencies in the transformation of their activation policies, there are remarkable differences in the new modes of governance. Moving away from a traditionally hierarchical organisation, France is gradually developing a network model with more emphasis on decentralisation. Alternatively, The Netherlands privatised their public employment services and explore principal — agent realtions in activation. The institutional context of both nation, in particular the concept of path-dependency, seems crucial in the explanation of these differences. However, some new elements are path-breaking in a national context but do not illustrate converging trends. Research limitations/implications - This comparative study is aimed at the fields of employment services, social benefits and social assistance in two countries. For a more complete approach of the changes is activation policies, further research is needed to include other fields of social policy and other nations within Europe. Originality/value - The paper develops both empirical and theoretical conclusions on the path-dependent and convergin elements in transforming labour market coordination throughout Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In France, there is an apparent shift towards integrating what is referred to as “evaluation” and sometimes “impact assessment” in the implementation of public policies, including crime policies. However, this trend is very tentative and fragile. In addition, the meaning of evaluation remains vague. The paper explains the French interpretation of evaluation, presenting a case study of community policing evaluations (1997–2002), the most important police reform in the country and the most thoroughly evaluated public safety policy. The paper also offers a description of how evaluation is perceived among the preventive actors as well as among the police and sociologists in France. Finally, the paper discusses both the forces encouraging more use of “evaluation” (European directives or networks, changes in the budget, national legislation, emergence of new partnership schemes, decentralization of powers, the growing role of expertise in general) as well as those working against “evaluation” (organizational reluctance, ideological reluctance, risk aversion among politicians). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the example of French flood-control policy, this paper illustrates the general change taking place in the relation of societies and governments to risk. Former policies based on structural measures to reduce the a lea were found excessively expensive, but liberal approaches based on insurance mechanisms were not suited to face extreme events. Better solutions depend on the re-appraisal of water as a common property and the design of corresponding institutions. In France, these could have been the a gences de l'eau, which are now in charge of implementing the Water Framework Directive. But back in 1966, central government refused to involve them in flood control, keeping the latter in its own realm. After 1983, successive Governments preferred to develop c at'nat', a solidarity scheme based on taxes added on insurance premiums, and on local risk protection plans ( PPR-i) constraining land use rights. This system's benefits and shortcomings are discussed, including the discrepancies between national post-disaster solidarity and local pre-disaster vulnerability reduction; it lastly shows recent evolutions towards catchment-based approaches in complex multi-level governance, in which the hydrographic district level, adopted to synthesise the flood risk management plans ( FRMPs), is supplemented by catchment programmes on flood risks called PAPI. Implementing the FRMPs in France illustrates the need for economic incentives and common-pool institutions in multi-level governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supported by the omnipresent State in the past, French music education leans increasingly towards a more liberal and competitive model. In the current context of a decentralized economy and European integration, music conservatories are called upon to contribute to regional and municipal development and enhance European student mobility. How do conservatories react to the restructuring of the competitive field? How do they affect European territorial cohesion? Are they managing adaptive or hybrid strategies with new conceptions of music education? Alternatively, do they gradually move away from the marketplace and become an obsolete and difficult heritage to maintain? To answer these questions, it is necessary to analyze the current balance of power among the different elements of the French multi-level system of conservatories, including communal, inter-communal, departmental, regional, national and European institutions. By combining different sources of spatial and statistical data, this paper contributes to constructing a comparative institutional geography of French multi-level territorial divisions. Extraction and treatment of the small data with SPSS statistical software allowed us to build a number of small-scale datasets that were merged to broader geographical databases from the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). The geographical units that structure the INSEE databases (the zip and district codes, codes of regions, departments, GPS coordinates) made possible the location of each conservatory within municipal, departmental, regional and national spaces. A cartographic approach to studying music conservatories allows the identification of problems that deserve further detailed qualitative and statistical study in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]