This highly original book -- the first in a series analyzing historical population behavior in Europe and Asia -- pioneers a new approach to the comparative analysis of societies in the past. Using techniques of event history analysis, the authors examine 100,000 life histories in 100 rural communities in Western Europe and Asia to analyze the demographic response to social and economic pressures. In doing so they challenge the accepted Eurocentric Malthusian view of population processes and demonstrate that population behavior has not been as uniform as previously thought -- that it has often been determined by human agency, particularly social structure and cultural practice. The authors examine the complex relationship between human behavior and social and economic environment, analyzing age, gender, family, kinship, social class and social organization, climate, food prices, and real wages to compare mortality responses to adversity. Their research at the individual, household, and community levels challenges the previously accepted characterizations of social and economic behavior in Europe and Asia in the past. The originality of the analysis as well as the geographic breadth and historical depth of the data make Life Under Pressure a significant advance in the field of historical demography. Its findings will be of interest to scholars in economics, environmental studies, demography, history, and sociology as well as the general reader interested in these subjects.

In recent decades, large-scale social changes have taken place in Europe. Ranging from neoliberal social policies to globalization and the growth of EU, these changes have significantly affected the conditions in which girls shape their lives. Living Like a Girl explores the relationship between changing social conditions and girls’ agency, with a particular focus on social services such as school programs and compulsory institutional care. The contributions in this collected volume seek to expand our understanding of contemporary European girlhood by demonstrating how social problems are managed in different cultural contexts, political and social systems.

Job-related spatial mobility is a subject of great importance in Europe. But how mobile are the Europeans? What are the consequences of professional mobility for quality of life, family life and social relationships? For the first time these questions are analysed on the basis of the findings of a large-scale European survey.The contributions in Volume 1 are directed at the diversity and the extent of mobility in six European countries (Germany, Spain, France, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium).

Will 'making a Living' remain a dream for the deprived and excluded? Jobs are one of Europe's most important problems. Employment provides the basic means of distributing wealth in society, in providing for families, and ensuring pensions for the elderly. Yet unemployment, and increasingly 'non-employment', continues at near record levels in the European Union. Making a Living in Europe shows how the culture of work has been transformed in the industrialised nations of the EU. Exploring the relationship between employment change, society and economic restructuring, the shift toward 'flexible' work for women in services, away from traditional industrial jobs for men, is demonstrated within three key sectors: business services, retailing and tourism. The outcome of change is discussed in terms of shifts of people and jobs from urban to rural areas. Europe must be understood in the context of the new Europe, of change in the USA and of global change. Drawing on examples from UK and European Regions and USA, the author challenges long-standing assumptions about changes in economy and society and highlights the need for stronger local and European policies to reduce inequality at large and contribute positively to local people's struggles to make a living in Europe.

Job-related spatial mobility is a subject of great importance in Europe. But how mobile are the Europeans? What are the consequences of professional mobility for quality of life, family life and social relationships? For the first time these questions are analysed on the basis of the data of a large-scale European survey. This vo l - ume analyses the causes and determinants of job mobility and their individual and societal consequences in cross-national comparison.

Pick a Weekend, Pick a City, and Go! This award-winning travel guide picks up where crowdsourcing leaves off, covering the skills you need for spur-of-the-moment trips to Europe's top destinations. Follow three-day plans to explore each city. Learn which cities match your interests and which can be easily combined for a longer trip, including itineraries for Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Dublin, Edinburgh, Florence, London, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Rome, and Venice. See iconic sights. Check the Eiffel Tower, the London Eye, and the Colosseum off your bucket list, and use Andy's tips to save time and skip lines. Hit the local hot spots. Chill at Amsterdam's coffee shops, study mixology at London's speakeasies, and bust moves at Barcelona's beach clubs. Enjoy the best and cheapest local cuisine. Graze at boulangeries in Paris, pubs in Dublin, and aperitivo bars in Rome. Become a temporary local. Engage with the culture to enjoy authentic, unforgettable experiences. Master digital travel. Make the most of your money in Europe with apps and other digital resources. Connect with other travelers. Head to the most popular hostels for a ready-made, real-life social network. Whether you're studying abroad or just looking to explore Europe without breaking the bank, Andy Steves' Europe will have you city-hopping like a pro.

Why did Europe experience industrialisation and modern economic growth before China, India or Japan? This is one of the most fundamental questions in Economic History and one that has provoked intense debate. The main concern of this book is to determine when the gap in living standards between the East and the West emerged. The established view, dating back to Adam Smith, is that the gap emerged long before the Industrial Revolution, perhaps thousands of years ago. While this viewhas been called into question - and many of the explanations for it greatly undermined - the issue demands much more empirical research than has yet been undertaken. How did the standard of living in Europe and Asia compare in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? The present book proposes ananswer by considering evidence of three sorts. The first is economic, focusing on income, food production, wages, and prices. The second is demographic, comparing heights, life expectancy and other demographic indicators. The third combines the economic and demographic by investigating the demographic vulnerability to short-term economic stress.The contributions show the highly complex and diverse pattern of the standard of living in the pre-industrial period. The general picture emerging is not one of a great divergence between East and West, but instead one of considerable similarities. These similarities not only pertain to economic aspects of standard of living but also to demography and the sensitivity to economic fluctuations. In addition to these similarities, there were also pronounced regional differences within the East andwithin the West - regional differences that in many cases were larger than the average differences between Europe and Asia. This clearly highlights the importance of analysing several dimensions of the standard of living, as well as the danger of neglecting regional, social, and household specificdifferences when assessing the level of well-being in the past.

"In FELICIE, the focus is on the health of the elderly, and on the resources at their disposal to cope with the severe impairments liable to affect their quality of life. Not only personal resources - economic well-being and educational attainment - but also the potential support of close kin, i.e. their partner, of course, and their children, if available. This leads to the more specific question of care. One major conclusion of the FELICIE study is that the disabled older adults of the future will fare better, on average, than those of today, both on a personal level, thanks to higher levels of education, and on a social level, thanks to the more frequent presence of their spouse and, at least potentially, their children. The conclusions are based on the experience of nine countries across Europe (north: Finland, Netherlands; west: Belgium, France, Germany, United Kingdom; south: Italy, Portugal; east: Czech Republic). In terms of both demographic and social indicators, the participating countries are fairly representative of their region."--Publisher.

This book is the result of three symposia of the Dutch Society for Landscape Ecology. The first symposium in 2005 was about the National Ecological Network in the Netherlands . The reason was that the implementation of the NEN, decided upon in 1990, was halfway. The second symposium, in 2006, was about urban ecology and the third one, to be held in 2007, will be about civil infrastructure. This book does not cover the conferences completely and new contributions are added. The three themes are important contexts in which landscape ecologists do their research and apply their knowledge and skills. Of course, there are many more subjects to hold conferences about, for example climate change, urbanisation, agriculture, landscape ecology itself etc. The focus of the conferences is on the Netherlands, with its urbanisation, intensive land use and water management as characteristic features. Although many WLO members do their work abroad or in an international context, these conferences offer a window on what happens in the Dutch context. The experiences may be of value for other contexts and that is why we present the results in English. The selected themes and the focus on the Dutch context are serious demarcations of what landscape ecology in the Netherlands is all about. The book does not represent all research and applications of landscape ecology.