JBH - BTNG - RBHC
Journal of Belgian History
Revue belge d'Histoire contemporaine
Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis
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Transitions de fécondité et évolutions économiques du 18e au 21e siècle. Le cas de la Wallonie

Thierry EGGERICKX Sandra BRÉE & Mélanie BOURGUIGNON

L’objet de cette étude est de mettre en évidence sur le temps long, tant d’un point de vue théorique qu’empirique, les interactions entre les transitions de la fécondité et les évolutions économiques en Wallonie durant les 18e, 19e et 20e siècles. Une attention particulière est accordée aux principales crises économiques qui ont émaillé l’histoire au cours des derniers siècles. Cet article est subdivisé en deux parties. La première fera état des théories qui envisagent un lien entre l’évolution de la fécondité et celle des tendances économiques.

Demography
Economics
Fertility

Measuring employment in the food industry: comparing the Belgian censuses, 1910-1930.

Peter Van der Hallen
Erik Buyst
We examine the historical value of the population census and of the two surveys organised within the industrial and commercial census for the measurement of employment. The food industry is taken as a case study. We find that these censuses offer comparable results. In contrast to previous research we see no reason to discard some of these datasets.
Economics
Demography
Quantitative History
Industrialisation
Demographic History

Belgian Historical Demography as Viewed from North America: Protoindustrialization, Fertility Decline, and the Use of Population Registers.

George Alter
Myron Gutmann
Research in Belgian historical demography played an important role in two debates widely discussed by North American scholars. Protoindustrialization, the spread of rural industry, was linked to declining ages at marriage, population growth and poverty. Belgian research on the transition to low fertility showed that culture played an important role and that economic conditions affected the spread of family limitation within communities.
Demography
Social History
Economics

Mortality in Ghent, 1850-1950. A social analysis of death.

Jeroen Backs
Is death unjust? Do rich people live longer than poor people? Research for the city of Ghent has succeeded in eluding this issue. During the nineteenth and twentieth century there was an important social differentiation of death. This inequality increased until the beginning of the past century, due to a growing infant and child mortality caused by bad feeding habits and a widespread use of child labour.
Demography
Social Demography

The decline of infant mortality in the Belgian districts at the turn of the 20th century.

Marc Debuisson
This analysis studies the decrease of infant mortality in Belgium at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. In a cluster analysis Belgian districts are grouped together according to the level of infant mortality and the rhythm of decline. These results are confronted with contemporary literature, in particular with medical commission reports. It appears that the spread of the basic principles of child care, through the creation of infant dispensaries, played an important role around World War I.
Children's History
Demography
Social Demography

Paths to the city and roads to death: Mortality and migration in East Belgium during the industrial revolution.

Michel Oris
George Alter
We offer an interpretation of the migration-mortality complex in the nineteenth century at the time that the population was escaping from the grip of hunger and recurrent famines. This study uses results from several case studies, based on both aggregate statistics and cross-sectional analyses of nominal data. In addition, we present some original multivariate longitudinal analyses from Belgian population registers, which are famous for their precise recording of migratory movements.
Industrialisation
Migration
Social Demography
Demography

Epidemiology of Town and Countryside: Mortality and Causes of Death in East Belgium, 1850-1910.

Muriel Neven
The mortality analysis in East Belgium during the second part of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century reveals a deep disparity between town and countryside, which however disappears at the end of the period. Although its interpretation is difficult, the statistic of causes of deaths locates the original gap in the context of an epidemiological depression which affects the urban centres between 1830 and 1870.
Social Demography
Demographic History
Demography