Preliminary Programme

PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT

This paper aims to show the survival strategies developed by working families to adapt themselves not only to the economic and demographic transformations parallel to the Catalan industrialization but also to the institutional change that represented, for the public assistance policy, the coming of the liberal state in 1750-1850 Spain.

The parts of this communication are as follow: a) the change in the assistance policy and in the institutions network underpinning it analyzed through the comparison of two moments of the assistance system in Barcelona: 1767 and 1850; b) a comparison of the resort to this assistance by working families, as a part of the set of diverse survival strategies developed by these family economies.

The sources analyzed correspond, respectively for 1767 and 1850, to the welfare institutions ("Casa de Misericòrdia de Barcelona" and to the "Casa de Caritat de Barcelona") ; the Mont de Piété (institution of social economy) other sources are used for demographic aspects (the Census of Floridablanca (1787) and the "Monografía estadística" of Ildefons Cerdà for 1850).

The results of this investigation point to provide elements to a greater unterstanding of the dynamics generated between the adaptive power of families and the degree of flexibility and capabylity of change of the assistance system itself, when both sides were confronted to the public policies designed by the rising liberal state. (Show less)

I will discusss the population trend and sex selective infanticide
with demographic analyzing system in Tokugawa Japan using the relational
database of historical documents (DANJURO ver.2).

North-eastern Japan has been thought to be a less advanced and
poor region during the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868) because of
its population decrease. Also it has been believed that infanticide
was a main cause of the population decrease and that poor people
having many children had no choice but to resort to infanticide
in order to survive. Evidence suggests, however, we should change
some of the images of this area. (Show less)

This paper will examine the relationship between perinatal mortality rates and measures of social capital in Bologna and Utrecht between 1880 and 1940. First articulated by the political scientist Robert D. Putnam in 1993, the concept of social capital has since had a broad influence. It has shaped research strategies and public policy formation within the health sciences in the international health community. Its impact has been largely interdisciplinary, a conceptual bridge linking the social with the biomedical sciences, and both with health delivery systems.

Social capital is now commonly identified as a leading determinant of health. According to the World Bank, the term ?refers to the institutions, relationships and norms that shape the quantity and quality of a society?s interactions?. [It] is not just the sum of the institutions which underpin a society ? it is the glue that holds them together? According to R.G. Wilkinson, social capital ?enable[s] participants to act together more effectively to pursue shared objectives.? The concept of social capital has most often been employed to assess the quality of civic or social life in modern societies. I intend to explore the links between the multiple causes of perinatal death and the past forms of social capital identified by Putnam, in particular public participation in co-operative and mutual aid societies, emerging institutions of political democracy and religious humanitarian organizations. The broad goal of the paper is to test the validity of the social capital hypothesis and its utility in explaining variations in perinatal mortality rates in western societies during the epidemiologic transition. (Show less)