This colloquium focuses on urban and princely space in the Duchy of Brabant in the late Middle Ages and early modern period. The focus is on how territorial developments were perceived in different social milieus. After all, urban elites, the monarch and his entourage had different - but sometimes similar - opinions about what Brabant actually was and used various media to communicate their ideas about it. Administrative, narrative and cartographic sources, architecture, literature and art bear witness to this. The Belgian-Dutch "Stichting Colloquium De Brabantse Stad" organizes an international meeting every three years at which various aspects of the history of the cities and of urban life in the old Duchy of Brabant are examined. The colloquium is organized alternately in the provinces of Antwerp, Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant, North Brabant and in the Brussels Capital Region. The XIXth colloquium, taking place in Brussels at the Université Saint-Louis, is being organized in cooperation with the NWO research project Imagining a territory.
Over the last decade life-course arrangements have been introduced in several EU Member States with the aim of enhancing in a coherent way individual flexibility and employability over an employee's whole working life. In this article we examine the effects of existing schemes with a life-course dimension in terms of employability, comparing four schemes in three countries. The conclusion we arrive at is that the schemes are mainly used for early retirement or achieving short-term benefits, while the uptake of provisions specifically related to employability is not very high. More attractive forms of working-life accounts should refocus on easily accessible basic schemes with short-term objectives and endowed with a sufficient budget for achieving long-term employability goals. They need to be underpinned and supplemented by collectively bargained company-level agreements.Au cours de la dernière décennie, des accords portant sur l'ensemble du parcours de vie ont été introduits dans plusieurs Etats membres de l'UE, dans le but d'améliorer de manière cohérente la flexibilité individuelle et l'employabilité sur l'ensemble du parcours professionnel d'un travailleur. Dans cet article, nous examinons les effets en termes d'employabilité des régimes actuels présentant une dimension portant sur l'ensemble du parcours de vie, en comparant quatre régimes dans trois pays. La conclusion à laquelle nous arrivons est que ces régimes sont principalement utilisés en vue d'une retraite anticipée ou pour obtenir des avantages à court terme, cependant que l'intérêt des dispositions spécifiquement relatives à l'employabilité n'est pas très élevé. Des formes plus attractives d'équilibre entre travail et vie privée devraient se recentrer sur des régimes de base aisément accessibles, dotées d'objectifs à court terme et d'un budget suffisant pour atteindre des objectifs d'employabilité à long terme. Ces efforts doivent être soutenus et complétés par des conventions collectivement négociées au niveau de l'entreprise.In den letzten zehn Jahren sind in mehreren EU-Mitgliedstaaten Regelungen eingeführt worden, die den gesamten Lebensverlauf in den Blick nehmen und darauf abzielen, die individuelle Flexibilität und Beschäftigungsfähigkeit der Arbeitnehmer über ihr gesamtes Berufsleben hinweg auf kohärente Weise zu erhöhen. In diesem Beitrag werden die Auswirkungen bestehender Regelungen mit einer Lebensverlaufsperspektive auf die Beschäftigungsfähigkeit untersucht. Der Vergleich von vier Regelungen in drei Ländern zeigt, dass diese hauptsächlich der vorzeitigen Pensionierung der Arbeitnehmer dienen oder ihnen kurzfristige Vorteile bringen, während die Bestimmungen, die ausdrücklich auf die Verbesserung der Beschäftigungsfähigkeit ausgerichtet sind, nur in geringem Maße umgesetzt werden. Es müssten attraktivere Formen von Lebensarbeits(zeit)konten geschaffen werden, in deren Mittelpunkt Grundsysteme stehen, die leicht zugänglich und auf kurzfristige Ziele ausgerichtet sind, aber mit ausreichenden Mitteln ausgestattet werden, um langfristige Ziele im Bereich der Beschäftigungsfähigkeit zu erreichen. Diese Regelungen müssen durch kollektiv ausgehandelte betriebliche Vereinbarungen unterstützt und ergänzt werden.
AbstractSchematically one can distinguish two traditions related to ethnic statistics in Europe. In France, Germany and most southern European countries, the dominant statistical categorisations merely distinguish individuals on the basis of their nationality. In contrast, most northern European countries have been producing data on the ethnic and/or foreign origin of their populations. Belgium is caught somewhere in between these two traditions. The French speaking part of Belgium tends to follow the French tradition of refusing ethnic categorisation, while the Flemish try to copy the Dutch model in distinguishing "allochthones" and "autochthones." This contribution offers an analysis of the construction of ethnic categories as it has been undertaken in the Dutch context and (partially) imported in Belgium.
In the 1980s and 1990s subsidised work has developed into a highly differentiated system involving both reductions in labour costs and integrated employment programmes operating in the private as well as the public sector. With the 'activation' concept becoming the key reference in both social and employment policy in the 1990s, employment programmes are also more sensitive to (at least the formal) profile of the jobseekers. The Netherlands, notably, are characterised by a comprehensive workfare approach. Although Belgium more typically has a mixture of mutually competing programmes, there is an equal pressure on the unemployed to engage in at least one of the employment programs. A more flexible view of activation should, however, also imply more possibilities for individual choice. Not everybody should be expected to be ready for the routine of full-time regular work. There seems to be at least some indications that policy is beginning to recognise this: the Netherlands are offering a few possibilities for voluntary work, while in Belgium some programmes allow for a combination of guidance, training and work.
Selection of scale in science and planning is often guided by ad-hoc decisions and arguments of accuracy and availability of existing data and resources. A more analytical approach to selection of scale and a bridge between theoretical insight and practical application is required. This paper reviews recent developments in thinking on theoretical concepts on scale from the perspective of geo-information science and compares these with a real life case. The concept of scale is framed as a three dimensional boundary object that explains scale choice as resultant of rationalities in reality-, model- and data scales. It is applied to a case-study of how issues of scale were handled in the Reconstruction program of the Province of North Brabant in The Netherlands. The Reconstruction is an ongoing regional spatial planning exercise that started in the year 2000 in response to major veterinary, environmental, social and economic problems in areas with concentrations of intensive livestock keeping. It combines legislation and policies at international, national, regional and municipal levels. Geographic information was produced to support and present the results of the plan process and related SEA. Scale of various intermediate and final geo-information products varied from 1:5000–1:400,000 and was dependent on the plan stage, plan status and target audience, plan instrument, level of participation, data characteristics, costs and technology. By comparing theory with the case study we bring out the criteria and conditions of selection of appropriate scale whereby the usefulness of academic research in geographic information science for planning and decision making could be improved.
Defence date: 28 March 2014 ; Examining Board: Professor dr. Pavel Kolář, (European University Institute); Professor dr. Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, (European University Institute); Professor dr. Joep Leerssen, (University of Amsterdam); Professor dr. Tom Verschaffel, (KU Leuven) ; This dissertation has studied the discourses around national history education in Belgium and the Netherlands in the middle of the nineteenth century. The literature on nation building and cultural nationalism often observes the importance of education as an instrument of nation building. Expanding school networks were one of the important conduits through which national awareness was spread among the populace. They helped to disseminate knowledge of the national language, culture and history, thus teaching the future generations about their 'home' and 'nation'. At the same time, historians often note the significance of narratives, often historical narratives, in fostering a sense of pride and attachment to the fatherland. Nevertheless, studies of the contents of and controversies surrounding history education are sparse. In this study, I hope to show that the field of (history) education is an important locus of nation building and therefore worthy of scholarly attention. Following Jörn Rüsen, I argue that history education knows a specific configuration of epistemological, aesthetic and political dimensions that makes it unique. It prioritises the political dimension over the two other dimensions, thus setting it apart from scholarly or literary and artistic forms of history-writing. Due to its pedagogical objective, furthermore, it is also different from other political forms of history-writing. History education addresses the future citizen directly and presents them visions of the good citizen. I argue that the civic virtues are an indispensable part of national identity. The education thereof should consequently be studied more in-depth. This dissertation therefore analyses notions of good citizenship present in the debates and contents of history education. Furthermore, it dissects ideas of national identity along the lines of nation and religion, nation and language, the national territory, nation and dynasty and the nation in the world.
As a result of the "new geological map of Wallonia" program undertaken by the Walloon Government since 1990, all the maps at 1/25 000 scale covering the outcrop areas of the Brabant Massif have been finalised. During the long period of mapping (1993-2017) our understanding of the stratigraphy and tectonics of the Brabant Massif has evolved significantly and this led to several inconsistencies between different maps. We present here an overarching geological map of the outcrop areas of the Brabant Massif, resulting from the merging of these 21 maps, updated according to the most recent findings and insights. The resulting map, at a scale of ~1/200 000, shows a coherent image of the outcrop areas of the Brabant Massif. This map better illustrates the geological history and structural architecture of the Brabant Massif compared to previous maps (e.g. Fourmarier, 1921; Legrand, 1968) and allows for a better understanding of the geology of the Brabant Massif. Also, it fully complements the subcrop map of the Brabant Massif of Piessens et al. (2005, in prep.).
