Alain Bideau – författare

The main demographic revoulution in modern history has been the increased survival of children - the gradual elimination of the biological waste linked to the high mortality of the past. This volume examines the trends of early-age mortality across time and space and the methodological and theoretical problems inherent in such studies. It widens the discussion beyond the standard European focus by including data from Asian and American sources, showing that they offer enormous potential for researchers. At the same time, it makes clear the need for cautious treatment of historical data and points towards the design of techniques for appraising their quality, correcting distortions, and filling gaps.The analysis demonstrates that levels of infant and child mortality are linked not only to material conditions of life but also to social and cultural factors. The authors argue that a better understanding of these interactions can only come from an interdisciplinary approach, where demography joins forces with biology, medicine, public health, and social and economic history.

La démographie des minorités traite d’un sujet extrêmement complexe. Les minorités sont multiples et les relations qu’elles entretiennent avec leur majorité sont tout aussi diverses et toujours susceptibles de changer. Les études rassemblées dans ce volume présentent différents groupes minoritaires dans leur contexte politique et culturel et développent avec soin les modes de définition et leurs influences. Les auteurs traitent aussi des évolutions: d’une part, la reproduction de sous-populations à partir de comportements démographiques qui sont des héritages culturels, plus ou moins altérés par des contraintes qui sont des construits politiques; d’autre part, la démographie de l’intégration, de la mixité et des transformations identitaires. Minority demography deals with an extremely complex subject. Minorities are highly diverse in size and characteristics and the relations of a minority with its respective majority are also varying and controversial. The contributions to this volume analyse various minorities in their cultural and political settings and offer new interpretations of definitions and their impact. The contributors also deal with evolutions: reproduction of sub-populations through demographic behaviours culturally transmitted but altered by politically constructed constraints; demography of integration, mixing and identity changes.