Contemporary societies are characterised by new and more flexible working patterns, new family structures and widening social divisions. This book explores how these macro-level changes affect the micro organisation of daily life, with reference to working patterns and gender divisions in...

Is it sufficient to reduce working time to improve the work and family balance? This article attempts to answer this question by analyzing the impact of the French law reducing the working week to 35 hours on the daily life, as perceived by parents with a young child under six years old. Six out...

Since the 1990s, dramatic changes in German family policy have occurred and legislators have increasingly placed more distance between themselves and the traditional male-breadwinner model through the introduction of new laws in the domain of parental leave and child care provision. France, for...

A comparison of socio-occupational structures of married, single, widowed and divorced women, between 21 and 50 years of age, living in the Ile-de-France region is developed. The latter hold more frequently privileged jobs but the sharpest contrasts are observed between married women and single...

We explore certain aspects of the 'gentrification' process in the city of Paris and try to explain the growing fashion among upper-middle-class families for the centre of the capital. Based upon data from a survey and in-depth interviews of couples who had recently moved, we focus on their...

France has evolved a nuclear energy policy markedly different from that of the United States and other technologically advanced western nations. The roots of the difference lie in French governmental processes which allow French officials to impose policy in the face of resistant public opinion,...

[eng] Daily commuting time : the stakes for working mothers - The length of daily commuting time between the home and the place of business accentuates the difficulties met by salaried mothers in reconciling their professional and familial roles. The majority refuse too great a distance from...

[eng] Coordination of investiment policy of small firms and its cohrence with the conditions required for innovation. [fre] L'adéquation des investissements de modernisation avec les autres ressources de l'entreprise est une condition nécessaire à la réussite des démarches d'innovation....