Vincent Sleebe Van vader op zoon, van moeder op dochter? Familienetwerken en culture of poverty in Noord-Groningen
Mieke Van Haegendoren en Bart Pluymers Belgisch-Limburgse mijnwerkers in de jaren twintig. Willige slachtoffers van het kapitaal of een `blauwe-maandag compagnie'?
Bert Altena Socialisme in de marge. Arbeiders, arbeidersbeweging, socialisme en verzuiling in Noord-Brabant
Vincent Sleebe, From father to son, from mother to daughter? Family networks and the culture of poverty in the province of Groningen
This article deals with the question whether some characteristics of nineteenth century rural society, i.e. a strong dependence upon poor relief and high rates of criminality and illegitimacy, constitute more general features of the rural working class or should be mainly attributed to a certain subculture. By investigating family networks it can be established that criminality and illegitimacy were fairly evenly spread within these networks. There were quite a few families with a very strong tendency towards so-called deviant behaviour. This behaviour seems to have constituted a widespread response to deteriorating economic and social conditions of the rural working class.
Mieke Van Haegendoren and Bart Pluymers, Labour-market strategies from Belgian-Limburg miners in the beginning of the twentieth century
We studied the Belgian-Limburg miners’ labour market strategies in the early stage of the mine exploitation, during the first decades of the twentieth century. All miners were very mobile. A closer view showed two mobility patterns: that of the farmers-miners and that of the migrants. The Kempish farmers-miners partly worked in the mine, partly in the family farm. The foreign miners completely depended on their work in the mines. They looked for the best wage and labour conditions; consequently there was a high labour turnover. The mine management reacted to the active, dynamic labour market behaviour of their employees by recruiting foreign miners out of East and Central Europe. Starting from the strategy model this research showed that the miners were capable to live up to their preferences and aspirations on the labour market during an economic period of boom.
Bert Altena, Labourers, labour movement, socialism and pilarization in North-Brabant. A review-article
This essay assesses four dissertations dealing with Socialism in the North-Brabant towns of Breda, Tilburg, 's Hertogenbosch and Eindhoven. Tilburg and Eindhoven were manufacturing towns, while industry was not absent at Breda and 's Hertogenbosch either. Therefore, the question arises why socialism failed to become a powerful force. A second question posed is whether the small Socialist movement in these towns bore a distinct Brabant character. The failure of socialism is explained from various factors like the uncompromising attitude of employers who had settled in the province for its low wages. Hegemonical aspirations of the Catholic Church and the general weakness of Dutch Socialism were important factors as well. Religious inspiration distinguished Brabant Socialism, but the essay fails to be conclusive here because of the narrowly localized and organization-centred approach of the studies under review.
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