Suchergebnisse

AbstractIn the second half of the twentieth century small family businesses were still widespread in France. An important reason for this resilience was the share of unpaid work performed by kin in producing for the market. The unpaid work of family members in a range of craft and commercial family businesses – particularly by spouses, sons, and daughters – contributed to both the survival of the businesses and the well-being of the families, as is testified to in numerous sources, albeit statistically undocumented. Although social rights in France are considered to be some of the most advanced in Europe, the French Parliament was extremely slow to define the legal status of these family workers. It was not until 1982 that a law was finally enacted to bestow occupational status on collaborating spouses and to define a procedure optionally to register this unpaid work and to secure social security benefits for those carrying it out. This article focuses on the process that led to a new definition of the demarcation between the marital duty to assist, and work that exceeds this moral and legal obligation, thus creating a legal right to be compensated. Two empirical perspectives, involving an analysis of the reasons behind the shifting position of trade associations on this issue, and an assessment of the influence of long-standing gendered institutions, such as marital authority, on the formal and informal rules regulating family business are used to illustrate this slow and tortuous process of acquiring occupational rights for family workers.

The Amorini and landholding in the XIXth century. The landholding policy of a noble family from Bologna
The choices made by the marquess Amorini Bolognini of Bologna in the management of their estates were hardly expressive of some noble atavistic landholding behavior having been carried on continouslv since the modern era ; on the contrary, they turn out to have undergone considerable change in the XIXth century, while still privileging the ownership of land. This article analyses the innovations the Amorini introduced in the management of their considerable landed estate -approximately 1 100 ha situated on fertile soils in the Pô basin -, with the help of a regressive analysis capturing the dynamics of the family investments by comparing synchronic sources, for instance probate inven¬ tories of the XIXth century with those of the XVIIIth. It turns out that Antonio Amorini quickly adapted to the upheavals which took place on the land market around the napoleonic era, and succeeded in increasing quantitatively and qualitatively his landed estate while rationalizing its cultivation. Thus, his approach was similar to that of the bourgeois elites of the time ; as the century wore on, himself and his heirs wove increasingly close economic and social relationships with these elites.

Cette étude propose d'observer d'un point de vue genré l'un des univers ouvriers les plus emblématiques du XIX e siècle : la Fabrique lyonnaise des tissus en soie. L'organisation de l'industrie de la soie à Lyon permet d'étudier, d'une part, la division genrée du travail dans une multitude de métiers très spécialisés et, d'autre part, les hommes et les femmes au travail dans le même espace et effectuant des tâches semblables. Cette mixité professionnelle, peu fréquente dans bien des espaces de travail au milieu du XIX e siècle, est au cœur de ce travail. L'article dessine, tout d'abord, les contours de cet univers mixte dans un moment charnière de la transformation de la Fabrique lyonnaise, et de son expansion vers les pentes et le plateau de la Croix-Rousse. Il aborde ensuite une question peu étudiée dans la vaste historiographie qui s'est intéressée aux « canuts » : la diversité et l'hétérogénéité du groupe des chefs d'atelier. Pour cerner quelques traits marquants de cette diversité, il s'approche enfin de l'atelier familial en prenant le mariage comme moment fondateur de l'atelier et de resserrement des liens professionnels indispensables pour son fonctionnement.

Today as in the past, most often crises take people by surprise. This fact has recently provoked strong criticism of the ability of an economic theory to predict crises, to understand their course and to establish solutions to mitigate their effects. History can thus serve as a reservoir of facts and experiences, and the use of a broad chronological perspective has been recently highlighted as essential to providing a wider, comparative knowledge of past crises. Recent economic historiography has highlighted the importance of studying financial and commercial crises alongside agrarian and demographic crises, as well as questioning specific aspects of these shocks. Another important dimension stressed by recent historical studies is the importance of recognising that crises in the past occurred against a background in which uncertainty was the norm. In societies that experienced various forms of ordinary uncertainty (linked for example to the 'dead' season in food or textile production), crises constitute peaks of exceptional uncertainty.