Faith and Community Threatened? Roman Catholic Responses to the Welfare State, Materialism and Social Mobility, 1945-62

The Beveridge Report and the election of a Labour governmentin 1945 both reflected and created a new climate for Catholics,no less than for other groups. A debate raged about how Catholicteaching, with its emphasis on limiting state encroachment,squared with the Welfare State, with respect to the way in whichpeople should make provision for the basic needs of themselvesand their families. The battle lines were drawn between thosewho rejected the notion that the state should provide socialservices, believing instead that individuals should be freeto make their own arrangements, and those who felt at ease withthe new system of state-prescribed benefits. While the vastmajority of Catholics fell into the later camp, others, notablythe eminent economist Colin Clark and his Jesuit champion FrPaul Crane, were firmly in the former. They drew upon ideasfrom a well-established tradition of native Catholic thought(typified by the Distributist movement) to argue against a Britainbased on Beveridge, and that society should be organized soas to provide each individual with the opportunity to fulfiltheir godly destiny. ¹Thanks are due to Tony Carew and Peter Thompson and the refereesfor Twentieth Century British History for their comments onearlier drafts of this piece     

"Between Belonging": Habitus and the migration experience

This paper explores the impacts of migration both on the small island community of Grand Manan, New Brunswick, and on the group of Newfoundland families who have moved there from their homes 1500 km away. Based upon personal interviews with individuals and families, impacts and meanings are examined in terms of social networks, community cleavages, and intergenerational differences. The complexity of patterns and the ambiguities experienced by both groups are related to Bourdieu's concept of ‘habitus’, and its relevance for changing meanings of ‘place’ and ‘community’. In exploring the changing patterns of social relationships and meanings of community, this paper highlights issues of social cohesion and tensions associated with forging new identities, and examines the particular impacts upon youth whose sense of belonging is explicitly between homes. The experience of migration for those who decide to stay permanently is shown to be different than for the majority who come as seasonal migrants. In the decision to stay through the winter or not, crucial factors are both the sense of belonging back in Newfoundland and whether or not families have children, whose abilities to forge new relationships are the everyday concerns for parents. While the importance of jobs provides the main incentive to migrate, the difficulties associated with integrating into new social groups, negotiating new identities, and adjusting to different educational requirements pose almost insurmountable challenges for many families. It is in the details of family lives, values and perceptions, told through their narratives of experience, that we begin to discern the ambiguities and fluidity of evolving habitus for both groups. Cet article analyse les effets de la migration à la fois sur la petite communauté insulaire de Grand Manan au Nouveau‐Brunswick et sur les families qui s'y sont déplacées, depuis Terre‐Neuve, à plus de 1500 km de distance. Basé sur des entrevues auprès d'individus et de families, il examine le sens et l'effet de la migration en accordant une attention particulière aux réseaux sociaux, aux disparités communautaires et au fossé intergénérationnel. On y fait appel au concept d'habitus de Bourdieu pour rendre compte de la complexité des pratiques propres à chacun des deux groupes et de l'ambiguité du sens qu'ils confèrent à leur expérience. L'analyse contextualisée de la dynamique des relations sociales et du sens de la communauté met en lumière des questions liées à la cohésion sociale et aux inévitables tensions liées à ces dynamiques. Plus particulièrement, l'article examine les effets de la migration sur les jeunes dont le sentiment d'appartenance se définit précisément entre deux ‘chez soi’. L'éxpérience de la migration chez ceux qui ont décidé de s'établir de façon permanente est bien différente de celle vécue par la majorité qui se déplace de façon saisonnière. Le sentiment d'appartenance à Terre‐Neuve et le fait d'avoir ou non des enfants (leur capacité de tisser de nouvelles relations sociales étant un souci permanent pour les parents) sont des facteurs fondamentaux dans la décision de ‘passer l'hiver’ ou non. Bien que les emplois soient la principale motivation pour migrer, les difficultés d'intégration au sein de nouveaux groupes sociaux, le développement de nouvelles identités, l'adaptation à un nouveau régime scolaire sont très difficiles à surmonter pour de nombreuses families. Par l'entremise du récit de leur expérience, qui révèle les détails de la vie de famille, des valeurs et des perceptions individuelles et collectives, il est possible de cerner les ambiguïtés et la fluidité de l'habitus changeant des deux groupes.     

William O. Douglas Remembered: A Collective Memory by WOD's Law Clerks

William O. Douglas (WOD), who was the longest-serving Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, was an Associate Justice from April 17, 1939 to November 19, 1975, and thereafter was a retired Justice until his death on January 19, 1980. During this period he employed fifty-four law clerks, one for each Term of the Court except for the 1950, 1967, and 1970 Terms, when he employed two clerks, and starting in the 1971 Term, when he had three clerks until his retirement. Forty-one of his law clerks are still alive, including his first law clerk, David Ginsburg, who at the age of 95 remains mentally and physically active and only recently “retired” from his law practice.