Culture or politics

Furet, F., and Ozouf, M., eds., Terminer la révolution; Mounier et Barnave dans la révolution française (Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 1990), 181pp., 98F., ISBN 7 06 10391 4

Furet, F., Ozouf, M., eds., The French Revolution and the Creation of Modern Political Culture: Vol. 3. The Transformation of Political Culture 1789–1848 (Pergamon Press, 1989), 693pp., £80, ISBN 0 080 324260 4     

Contemporary European migrations, civic stratification and citizenship

Since the late 1980s there has been a diversification of European migratory flows. States, which remain the key actors in migration policies despite growing European harmonisation, have responded to these complex patterns and contradictory pressures by diversifying migrant categories and statuses. The heterogeneity of migrant statuses, especially the growth in the number of those on temporary statuses and the undocumented, challenges the thesis of a post national citizenship as having been achieved in relation to non European Union or third country migrants in the European Union. The recent proposals to extend mobility and socio-economic rights to third country nationals in the EU will only apply to long-term residents with evidence of adequate resources. The inability to confront the contradictions and tensions between economic needs and political closure will lead to more repressive conditions for undocumented migrants and reinforced border controls, especially in the light of the electoral success of Far Right parties and widespread anti-immigrant attitudes in a number of European Union states.     

Teaching Historical Research Skills to Undergraduates: Thoughts on Microcomputers and the Classroom

Abstract. In a classic article written in 1994, Robert Fogel assumed that the distribution of calories per head is log normal and that the variance of income per head is greater than the variance of calories per head. Using these assumptions, Fogel was able to conclude that approximately 50 percent of the economic growth since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution is due to changes in nutrition. The author tests those two assumptions with the 1888 cost of living survey (U.S. Department of Labor 1890). Although he finds that the variance of income is greater than the variance of calories per head, distributional tests reveal that the distribution of calories per head is not log normal. In particular, the calorie distribution is skewed to the left, and the tails of the distribution are thicker than those of a log-normal distribution. Graphical tests, however, show that the log-normal assumption is appropriate, and departures from log normality are quite modest. Kernel density estimates further confirm that the distribution of calories per head is approximately log normal. Given the nature of the departures from log normality, Fogel's calculations may understate the role that nutrition has played in economic growth.     

Gender and Global Labour Migrations: Incorporating Skilled Workers

Female labour migration has increased in the past two decades, and has become more complex and interconnected, attracting considerable attention from researchers and policy makers. Earlier debates on the relationship between production and reproduction have resurfaced in a period of changing configurations of welfare states; contemporary theorisations of global labour migration are now paying attention to the role of women in the reproductive sector. However, much of the literature has focused on migrants who enter the lesser‐skilled sectors, in particular domestic labour. In this paper we argue that the migration of women into skilled sectors of the labour market, especially in health, alters our understanding of the role of migrant women in social reproduction. Migrant women are present in multiple sites and spheres of reproduction beyond the household and recognising the different ways in which they are incorporated into globalised labour markets challenges simplistic representations of migrant women and draws out a fuller appreciation of their contribution to social reproduction and welfare in the First World.