Alastair Owens – författare

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries witnessed significant developments in the structure, organization, and expansion of financial markets and opportunities for investment in Britain and its empire. But very little is known about how men and women engaged with these markets and with new opportunities for money-making. In what ways did the composition of personal fortunes alter in response to these developments? How did individuals make use of new financial opportunities to further their own priorities and ensure their families' well-being? What choices of securities did they make, and how did these reflect their attitudes to investment risk? What were the implications of a rapidly growing investor population for corporate governance and the regulation of markets? How significant is gender in understanding new patterns of wealth holding and investment? This interdisciplinary book brings together a range of leading international scholars to answer these questions and to develop important new research agendas. Foremost among these is a concern for gender, with several of the chapters exploring the growing importance of women within investment markets. These findings open up dialogues between economic and financial historians with social, gender, and feminist historians, and add a significant new dimension to existing research on women's economic agency. The volume also breaks fresh ground by analysing aspects of wealth holding and finance in British colonial settings: Canada and Australia. Understanding the extent to which global financial processes shaped the economic lives of those on the 'periphery' as well as at the 'heart' of empire will offer new insights into the social and geographical diffusion of financial markets.

The history of welfare provision has generally focused on the rise of the so-called welfare state and institutional provision for the poor. Recent studies have begun to look beyond the state to other ways in which assistance, care, and support were provided in the past, but the focus remains primarily on the poor. This work widens our understanding of welfare by focusing not on the poor but on those who have some wealth. It draws attention to the importance of family as part of a mixed economy of welfare provision that also incorporates the state, the market, and the voluntary sector.This book offers an exciting new approach to the history of welfare by focusing attention on the complex range of sources of support drawn on to meet family needs. The chapters highlight the significance of the family as a link in in the provision of assistance. They also focus on the role played by gender relations in shaping welfare strategies. An extensive introduction is followed by ten chapters presenting detailed studies of the provision of family welfare across western Europe and the United States over the past four hundred years.

Feminist scholars have long pointed out the relevance of the unpaid work that goes on within European households in sustaining the well-being of the continent's populations. However, care work and domestic labour continue to be largely unremunerated and unequally distributed by gender. This unique volume of interdisciplinary essays casts new light on the roles that households play in securing the well-being of individuals and families, uncovering the processes of bargaining and accommodation, and conflict and compromise that underpin them. Contributors put gender at the centre of their analyses, demonstrating the uneven experiences of men and women as both providers and receivers of welfare in European households, in both the past and the present. As European states grapple with changing family forms, a growing population of dependent people, increased participation of women in labour markets and a profound shift in the nature and organisation of work, this book makes a timely contribution to our understanding of the critical role played by households in mediating processes of economic and social change. It offers new challenges to scholars, researchers and policy makers eager to address gender inequalities and enhance well-being. This book is the second of four volumes being published as part of Ashgate's 'Gender and Well-Being' series that arise from a programme of international symposia funded by the European Science Foundation under the auspices of COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research).

Property is central to any historical analyses of production, reproduction and consumption. It lies at the heart of discussions of material culture, class relations and the household economy. Recent work has begun to look beyond the acquisition and possession of goods to examine what the disposal, transmission and giving of property might tell us about changing society and culture. This landmark collection of articles represents a wide range of approaches to and perspectives on the ownership, use and transmission of property in eighteenth and nineteenth-century towns. An introductory essay highlights the importance of property and inheritance in shaping social, cultural, economic and political structures and interactions within and between towns and cities. Writing from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, the contributors then explore in detail the changing meaning of property to households and individuals; the social, economic and geographical contexts of inheritance practices; the geography of wealth; the role of gender in shaping property relations and, perhaps above all, the enduring link between property, the family and the household in urban contexts.

Feminist scholars have long pointed out the relevance of the unpaid work that goes on within European households in sustaining the well-being of the continent's populations. However, care work and domestic labour continue to be largely unremunerated and unequally distributed by gender. This unique volume of interdisciplinary essays casts new light on the roles that households play in securing the well-being of individuals and families, uncovering the processes of bargaining and accommodation, and conflict and compromise that underpin them. Contributors put gender at the centre of their analyses, demonstrating the uneven experiences of men and women as both providers and receivers of welfare in European households, in both the past and the present. As European states grapple with changing family forms, a growing population of dependent people, increased participation of women in labour markets and a profound shift in the nature and organisation of work, this book makes a timely contribution to our understanding of the critical role played by households in mediating processes of economic and social change. It offers new challenges to scholars, researchers and policy makers eager to address gender inequalities and enhance well-being. This book is the second of four volumes being published as part of Ashgate's 'Gender and Well-Being' series that arise from a programme of international symposia funded by the European Science Foundation under the auspices of COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research).

Property is central to any historical analyses of production, reproduction and consumption. It lies at the heart of discussions of material culture, class relations and the household economy. Recent work has begun to look beyond the acquisition and possession of goods to examine what the disposal, transmission and giving of property might tell us about changing society and culture. This landmark collection of articles represents a wide range of approaches to and perspectives on the ownership, use and transmission of property in eighteenth and nineteenth-century towns. An introductory essay highlights the importance of property and inheritance in shaping social, cultural, economic and political structures and interactions within and between towns and cities. Writing from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, the contributors then explore in detail the changing meaning of property to households and individuals; the social, economic and geographical contexts of inheritance practices; the geography of wealth; the role of gender in shaping property relations and, perhaps above all, the enduring link between property, the family and the household in urban contexts.

Looking at women, business and finance in the long nineteenth century, this book challenges our traditional understanding of 'separate spheres' - whereby men operated in the public world of work and women in the private realm of the domestic. Drawing on case studies throughout Europe, this book reveals that there was much greater diversity in women's economic experience across all social strata than has previously been understood.International contributors take a new look at women's roles in finance and investment, family-owned businesses, retailing, service activities, and the artisanal trades. They reveal that elite and middle-class women often manipulated financial resources in a highly sophisticated manner. Family-owned businesses and retail trade geared to women, such as grocery and fashion, also offered women opportunities. Throughout, the book considers the impact of industrialization on women's economic agency and examines women in the accommodation business in London, female entrepreneurs in Italy, prostitutes in Germany, family businesses in Sweden, women in publishing in Spain and much more.