Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / Vol. 4 (TH-000223) / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Our study aimed at contributing to the understanding of party policy preferences in Belgium, i.e. how far can we explain the attention that political parties allocate to different policy issues in their electoral manifestos. One of the added values of our study was located in our research design. We reversed the perspective that is used in most of previous works and we used party policy preferences – via the analysis of party manifestos – as a dependent rather than an independent variable. We were not interested in what could be explained by party preferences but in what could actually explain them. In addition, we observed that, in the few works that considered party policy preferences as a dependent variable, party competition was rarely mobilised as an explanatory variable. Our study aimed at contributing to the understanding of the content of party manifestos by confronting the hypothesis of party competition with other possible explanations.<p><p>With the help of new data about party preferences in Belgian party manifestos collected in the framework of the CAP project, we quantitatively analysed the content of all party manifestos between 1977 and 2007 and coded them according policy domains and issues (up to about 250 policy issues and coding categories). Based on the selection of four specific policy issues (environment, decentralisation, migration and morality issues) and on regression analyses (panel data), we hypothesised that party preferences on theses policy issues is best explained by party competition variables.<p><p>Our findings confirmed that party policy preferences are not static but rather that they evolve over time. Party preferences are different over time and space and we aimed at providing clues about what could explain these differences. Based on the literature, a large set of potential explanatory variables has been mobilised in order to explain these differences. But most of these independent variables have no or few impact on party preferences, such as the fractionalisation of the party system or ‘real-world’ indicators. Contrary to previous findings, changes in party manifestos are not explained by the fact that the party grows in size and gets older or by the fact that it wins or loses the elections. Similarly, we observed that party strategies – including party name change and the creation of electoral alliances – had no impact of the content of part manifestos. Even if our bivariate analyses indicated the importance of phenomena related to the government formation and participation, we found out that this effect disappears in multi-variate analyses.<p><p>Still, the introduction of our party competition variables – based on the niche party’s size, electoral fortunes and government participation – provided ambiguous results, depending on the policy issue at stake. Party competition contributes to the understanding of party policy preferences on environment and migration. Nonetheless, our models do not demonstrate an impact of party competition on preferences concerning decentralisation and morality. When controlling for party families, we observe that party competition has a significant impact on party preferences, meaning that political parties react to the electoral strength of a niche party by paying more attention to the niche party’s issue in their manifesto. Finally, the observed impact of party competition on policy preferences concerns certain parties only and the other parties display preferences that appear independent from the existing patterns of party competition. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Parental leave schemes across the developed world are becoming increasingly more relevant in women’s decision to participate or remain in the labor market. France, Belgium and Luxembourg have very different but relatively effective parental leave schemes. A distinguishing factor in their policies is their emphasis on paternal participation. Through increased paternity leave rights, all three countries have come to better support women in the workplace and in the household. The US is the only country in the OECD that does not offer any form of paid maternity leave, let alone paternity leave. By outlining the historical and cultural context of women in all four nations including work and family habits, I will assess the nature of each policy. I find that culture and tradition play a big role is women’s decision to participate in the labor market. I uncover some of the benefits of the addition of paternity leave is in its respective country based on the female labor force participation rate and the wage gap among other indicators. Using France, Belgium and Luxembourg as case studies, I outline the benefits the US forgoes by excluding paternity leave.

of the thesis Author: Rostislav Tomis Department: Department of Administrative Law and Administrative Science Title: A comparison of the administrative judicial system in the Czech Republic and Belgium Supervisor: doc. JUDr. Vladimír Mikule Year: 2010 This thesis studies and describes the current model of the administrative justice system used in the Kingdom of Belgium. The basement of the thesis consists in the institutional and material view-points, the organization of administrative justice as well as the material aspect. Obtained knowledge is compared with the current model of the administrative justice under the law of the Czech Republic. The main purpose of the thesis is to compare the above- mentioned models of administrative justice and to delimitate subsequently certain identical, similar and different elements.

This thesis examines literary representations of the city of Brussels in Francophone diasporic writing. Drawing on and exploring the usefulness of memory and trauma studies, postcolonial theory, and spatial studies in a Belgian context, this thesis reads six novels, spanning a contemporary period from 1985 to 2011, by Francophone writers, who themselves or whose parents originate from countries with a history of Belgian and French colonialism: Leïla Houari’s Zeida de nulle part (1985), Pie Tshibanda’s Un fou noir au pays des Blancs (1999), Saber Assal’s A l’ombre des gouttes (2000), José Tshisungu wa Tshisungu’s La Flamande de la gare du Nord (2001), Mina Oualdlhadj’s Ti t’appelles Aїcha, pas Jouzifine (2008) and Patrick François’s La dernière larme du lac Kivu (2011). In doing so, this thesis investigates the multiple ways in which these writers imagine and construct the urban space of Brussels through intersecting transnational trajectories and histories of violence. By analysing how they ‘write’ Brussels, the very architecture and landscape of which are clearly marked by colonialism and labour migration, this thesis offers a critical exploration of how experiences and memories of displacement and exile shape the perception of the urban space in these texts. I argue in particular that these writers either recode certain urban spaces or create new ones in order to construct narratives of marginalisation and belonging. Finally, this thesis aims to join the emerging discussion of ethnic-minority writing in Belgium by providing an understanding of the ambiguous role of Brussels as a postcolonial metropolis and post-war destination for labour migration, while seemingly remaining a peripheral location for Francophone literary production in a cultural sphere that still gravitates towards Paris.

Cette dissertation doctorale constitue une étude sociolinguistique visant à évaluer le rôle des identités régionales dans la variation linguistique observable sur l'axe diatopique (ou géographique), en Belgique francophone. Nous avons essayé de démontrer que si la variation diatopique dans les communautés francophones contemporaines était parfois considérée comme non pertinente, c'était principalement parce que cette forme de variation était souvent appréhendée dans une perspective n'envisageant pas d'autre source de différenciation topolectale que celle due à l'influence des langues de substrat. C'est pourquoi nous avons proposé une approche renouvelée de la variation diatopique, fondée sur l'idée de la structuration sociale de l'espace : cette approche consiste à concevoir la variation diatopique comme le reflet de l'existence de collectivités associées à des entités géographiques particulières et instituant des normes linguistiques qui leur sont propres au sein du « marché linguistique » dans lequel prennent place les pratiques sociales de chacune de ces collectivités. La variation diatopique résulte en ce sens de différences relatives aux attitudes des locuteurs et à l'identité qu'ils partagent ou non avec certaines collectivités régionales ; elle n'est pas simplement la conséquence de la diversité des substrats dialectaux. Nous avons intégré cette conception de la variation diatopique dans un cadre théorique plus large, essentiellement dans le but de pouvoir cerner l'imbrication fondamentale des faits de variation liés à l'axe géographique d'une part, et à l'axe socio-économique ou socio-culturel d'autre part. Ceci nous a amené revoir des concepts sociolinguistiques traditionnels comme celui de variété régionale. Nous avons souhaité illustrer l'intérêt de ce cadre théorique à travers l'analyse de quatre variables phonologiques (l'assourdissement des consonnes sonores finales, l'allongement vocalique, la prononciation de /r/, le statut et le comportement des schwas). Ces variables ont été étudiées sur la base d'enregistrements d'un échantillon d'informateurs contrasté selon l'origine géographique, le niveau de scolarité, l'âge et le sexe des locuteurs. De manière générale, ces analyses nous ont conduit à revoir la place des attitudes et des aspects identitaires dans l'explication de la variation linguistique : nous avons ainsi montré qu'il était nécessaire d'interpréter le comportement linguistique des individus en tenant compte non seulement des pratiques linguistiques qui sont courantes dans l'environnement social immédiat du locuteur (et qui forment son parler « vernaculaire »), mais aussi de son orientation vers certains modèles normatifs associés à différents groupes définis en termes géographiques ou socio-culturels. Nous avons par ailleurs mis en exergue l'influence de la trajectoire sociale des locuteurs sur leur positionnement en faveur de certains groupes de référence et sur l'adoption de normes linguistiques données qui est en le corollaire. Notre recherche nous a permis, d'une part, d'actualiser la description de la prononciation du français en Wallonie et à Bruxelles et, d'autre part, de mieux comprendre les processus de divergence qui conduisent les locuteurs à préférer dans certains cas le respect des normes endogènes (régionales) à l'adoption inconditionnelle des normes standard. / This doctoral dissertation is a sociolinguistic study aiming to evaluate the role of regional identities in the linguistic variation observable at the geographic level, in French-speaking Belgium. We tried to show that geographic variation in francophone communities is often viewed as non relevant because it is explained in a restricted way which considers the influence of the rural dialects as the sole source of regional differentiation. This is the reason why we proposed a renewed approach of geographic variation, based on the idea of the social structuration of space: this approach states that geographic variation results from the existence of collectivities associated with particular geographic entities and setting up specific linguistic norms within the “linguistic market” where each collectivity's social practices take place. In fact, regional variation reflects inter-individual differences regarding the speakers' identities and attitudes towards their local community; it is not simply the consequence of the diversity of dialectal substrata. We conceived this approach of geographic variation within a larger theoretical framework, in order to understand the relation between the effects of geographic and socio-economic or socio-cultural factors on linguistic variation. This implies a redefinition of several linguistic concepts (ex. regional variety). We illustrated the interest of our theoretical framework through the analysis of four phonological variables (final consonants devoicing, vowel lengthening, pronunciation of /r/, status and behavior of French schwas). These variables were studied on the basis of recordings from a speaker sample composed of individuals from different geographic origin, educational background, age and gender. Globally, our analyses led us to evaluate anew the importance of identity and linguistic attitudes in the explanation of linguistic variation: we showed that it was necessary to interpret individuals' linguistic behavior not only in the light of the speaker's social environment (which determines his “vernacular” speech) but also through his orientation towards some normative models associated with groups defined in geographic or socio-cultural terms. Moreover, we underlined the influence of speakers' social trajectories on their orientation towards certain reference groups and on the correlative adoption of given linguistic norms. Our research allowed us to actualize the description of the pronunciation of French in Wallonia and in Brussels on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to better understand the processes of divergence which lead speakers to prefer in certain circumstances the adoption of endogenous (regional) linguistic markers instead of the unconditional respect of standard norms.

Thesis--Bonn. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 286-310).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2008. / Vita. Advisor : Jeffrey Muller. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 441-491).

Univ., Diss--Liège, 2004.

Le Goût piquant de l'Univers is written by the Francophone Belgian writer Elisa Brune. Brune holds a Ph.D. in environmental sciences, and this novel does not stray far from her training in science. The setting of this oeuvre is that of a Provençal village of Peyresq, the premiere annual rendezvous for the world's foremost cosmologists. The vocabulary employed in this book is that of highly scientific coteries. The work's sentence structure is a mix of dialogue, and unruly compound phrases. These two aforementioned stylistic choices made the translation of this work especially difficult. In translating, I worked with Dr. Gaëtan Brulotte, a French-language writer and professor; Dr. Roberta Tucker, a French literature professor; and Dr. David Rabson, a theoretical physicist. All of their unique knowledge, in tandem with my familiarity with French and English, allowed for engaging exchanges on subtleties, nuances, and technicalities in the translation.