Transport costs: measures, determinants, and regional policy implications for France

We develop a methodology to accurately compute transport costs.Based on the real transport network, our measure encompassesthe characteristics of infrastructure, vehicle and energy used,as well as labor, insurance, tax and general charges borne bytransport carriers. Computed for the 341 French employment areas,road transport shipments and the period 1978–1998, thisnew measure is compared to alternative ones such as great circledistance, real distance, or real time. We conclude that theseproxies do a very good job in capturing transport costs in cross-sectionanalysis. However, important discrepancies limit the possibilityof using them in time series analysis. Moreover, our measureallows us to identify the policies that most impact transportcosts. We show that transport technology and market structureare responsible for most of the transport cost decrease. Infrastructureimprovements only condition the spatial distribution of thegains. Finally, some implications for researchers and regionalpolicy makers are derived.     

Contexts of Monumentalism: regional diversity at the Neolithic transition in north-west France

The origins of funerary monumentalism in north-west France remain inextricably linked to questions surrounding the Neolithic transition in that region. Debate continues over the relative importance of influences from earlier Neolithic communities in north-east or southern France on the Mesolithic communities of western France. An alternative interpretation places these influences within the context of broad processes of change affecting indigenous communities throughout northern and western France during the fifth millennium BC. The evidence from several regions of northern and western France is reviewed in this perspective, with emphasis on the regional character of monument traditions. Though at one level these regional narratives must have been interrelated, the regional diversity of the process must also be underlined. The argument moves us away from simplistic notions of extraneous influences to a more nuanced understanding of change within the context of individual communities at the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition.     

On Neanderthal subsistence strategies and land use: A regional focus on the Rhone Valley area in southeastern France

This study of Middle Palaeolithic assemblages from the Rhone Valley, in the South-East of France, increases our understanding of Neanderthal subsistence strategies and modes of territorial organisation by comparing a wide corpus of human occupations in limited chronological and geographical frameworks. The Neanderthal occupation modes may be examined using sites located in a reduced area, linking medium-altitude territories (Massif Central and the Alpine foothills) to the Rhone corridor. Through the combined analysis of the occupation levels of ten sites, all dated to between Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 7 and the beginning of MIS 3, we identify three types of occupation durations: (1) type 1 as long-term residential camps, (2) type 2 as short-term regular hunting camps and (3) type 3 as brief stopover camps. We discuss this variability of habitat types according to various parameters: site age, technical behaviour, environmental conditions, and site localisation and occupation seasons. The aim is to discern the underlying motivations behind Neanderthal group mobility. One of the main features of the Rhone Valley area is the great homogeneity of behaviours reflected within the sequences. This homogeneity, linked to the variability of the site occupations, supports the hypothesis of Neanderthal groups anticipating their land use requirements, and furthermore suggests that another type of circulating model was used in this area.     

The interpretation of stratified sites: A view from underground

This paper reports on an experiment designed to study the role of trampling in the vertical dispersal of artifacts in the soil, and in the mixing of originally separate sets of materials. The experiment is part of a study of the archaeological stratigraphy and patterns of site use at a large stratified cave in southern France. The experiment was designed to replicate conditions prevailing at the cave. The results strongly suggest caution in the interpretation of living floors and stratified assemblages in sandy deposits.     

France enters the information age: A political history of minitel

National communication systems--while they serve a universal human need--do not follow a universal logic of development. Instead, networks emerge from the interaction of ideas, culture, and politics within specific national contexts. This article develops a culturally and politically grounded analysis of technology via an exploration of the videotex saga in France; the only large advanced industrialized state where videotex succeeded. Particular attention is given to the way in which the French government designed videotex as a public strategy not only to modernize the telecommunications network, but also to bolster French economic and national security in relation to the United States. The article concludes that French videotex provides strong support for the thesis that communications technologies resolve and reflect unique cultural and political dilemmas, in addition to fulfilling their more technocratic function as scientific/engineering projects.     

Napoleon's France: History and heritage

In 1992 a group of activists initiated a new project of citizenship aiming to give gay and lesbian couples in France the status and rights they had been denied. This project was a form of social contract also designed for heterosexual couples, whether or not they had a sexual relationship. The final version of this contract, the Pacte civil de solidarité, is now called the PACS. This article argues that the PACS activists were unable to formulate their project outside the principles of universal citizenship inherent in French republicanism. They also came to rely on the Left in power for support. The Senate rejected the PACS bill in March 1999 and again in May 1999. A final decision on the PACS bill is to be made by the National Assembly before the end of 1999.