Title Participants Abstract "Between corporatism and capitalism? Urban industry and labour in eighteenth-century Flanders" "Wouter Ryckbosch, Anne Winter" "This article uses returns by nineteen Flemish cities to an industrial survey undertaken by the central authorities in the Austrian Netherlands in 1738, to explore the state of urban industries in the County of Flanders on the eve of an economic revival that would lead into the first industrial revolution on the European continent. By focussing on three empirical questions – the extent and nature of industrial activity, the importance of craft guild organization, and indications of capitalist labour relations – the study aims to contribute to wider debates on the relationship between guilds and economic change in the run-up to industrialization. While the sundry nature of the data complicates their quantitative analysis, they provide valuable insight into the underlying diversity of both social realities and conceptions of ‘industry’ and ‘work’ in this period of transformation. The resulting image confirms a continued dominance of textile production in Flemish cities, in which mixed fabrics have replaced traditional woollens, while showing the tentative emergence of new consumption-culture oriented sectors (such as earthenware, tobacco, soap) and signalling the presence of varied organizational forms (workshops, manufactures, subcontracting, domestic workers, family labour). While the bulk of urban industrial activity was still craft-organized, this did not preclude the presence of highly proletarianized labour relations in both guild-based and non-guild-based activities." "Welfare and demography in the time of Malthus. Regional and local variations in poor relief and population developments in Flanders, c. 1750-1810" "Isabelle Devos, Thijs Lambrecht, Anne Winter" "Flanders represents a particularly interesting region for research that aims to investigate the development of socio-economic inequalities at the local and regional level. The relationship between and effects of structural socio-economic characteristics on the one hand and micro-level variations on the other hand remain unclear. The data collected by the STREAM project (streamproject.ugent.be) together with its tailored geographical information system (GIS) allow us to explore these relationships for the rural parishes of early modern Flanders. In this chapter we examine spatial patterns in poor relief and demographic behaviour and how these were interrelated." "Micro-Mobility in Flux: Municipal Migration Levels in the Provinces of Flanders and Antwerp, 1796-1846" "Anne Winter, Nick Deschacht" "In this paper we use new, unique data on population composition and socio-economic structure for the c. 670 municipalities of the Belgian provinces of East Flanders, West Flanders and Antwerp in 1796, 1815 and 1846, in order to gain insight into the changing patterns of local migration intensity from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Although so-called micro-mobility is often disregarded in migration studies, this paper argues that a spatial and diachronic analysis of local migration rates provides insight into dynamics of social and economic change in relation to migration behaviour. The data show that the proportion of non-native residents varied strongly in accordance with different regional economies at the end of the eighteenth century, but that spatial variation declined markedly as overall migration rates converged on a higher average level by the mid-nineteenth century – leading to a re-interpretation of the mobility transition hypothesis." "Preindustrial welfare between regional economies and local regimes" "Nick Van den Broeck, Thijs Lambrecht, Anne Winter" "This study uses data on income and distribution of relief payments from local poor relief tables for 512 rural parishes in Flanders (present-day Belgium) in 1807 to examine spatial variation in poor relief practices in a region characterised by well-established local poor relief institutions and marked socio-economic differences. By combining data on poor relief with local data on population, landholding and occupational structure, we map out the relative importance of regional economies and local variation in producing distinct poor relief regimes. The results show that although local variation was considerable, the nature and extent of this variation interacted with structural socio-economic characteristics to produce regional patterns, signalling that local variation did not so much contradict as constitute regional patterns in poor relief regimes. The importance of socio-economic characteristics in determining both regional patterns and local variation supports our more general contention that local and regional levels of analysis represent a more fruitful avenue for understanding variations in poor relief practices than national differences in legislation, and therefore has implications for the comparative study of poor relief practices in a wider international context." "De vele gezichten van zorg" "Thijs Lambrecht, Anne Winter" "Migratie maakt de stad. Een historisch perspectief op stad en migratie" "Anne Winter" "De humane stad." "Pieter Ballon, Gily Coene, Karen Donders, Rob Heyman, Ilse Mariën, Michel Maus, Rik Pinxten, Kristien Van Den Houte, Shenja Van Der Graaf, Michiel Van Meeteren, Lieve Vanderstraeten, Anne Winter" "Alone and Far from Home: Gender and Migration Trajectories of Single Foreign Newcomers to Antwerp, 1850-1880" "Anne Winter" "On the basis of nominal data from local foreigners’ files, this article examines gender differences in the trajectories of more than 3,000 single foreign newcomers to Antwerp between 1850 and 1880. The data demonstrate an overall expansion, ruralization, and feminization of the migration field over time, attuned to the evolution of the port town’s dual labor market. Foreign single women were less specialized than their skilled male counterparts and immigrated in large numbers only toward the end of the period under study, supported by the facilitation of travel via rail. Engaged in a catch-up process as well as in the founding of new patterns of migration, single female migrants emerge from this study as both followers and pioneers. By highlighting the latter’s dual role, the results shed new light on gender stereotypes in migration research and on the oft-assumed connection between migration distance and occupational specialization." "Wandering men? Mobility among convicted vagrants in Belgium (1870-1914/30)" "Rik Vercammen, Anne Winter" "This paper investigates the mobility patterns of men convicted for vagrancy in Belgium between 1870-1914/30 on the basis of a representative sample of 851 prisoners’ files from the Belgian State Benevolent Colonies. By demonstrating the existence of various degrees of mobility in our sample, we question the oft-made equation between vagrancy and mobility. The vague legal definition of vagrancy left ample room for different interpretations according to distinct preoccupations, from urban authorities removing local ‘nuisances’ to destitute men presenting themselves at the gates of the Colonies. Rather than a direct reflection of growing numbers of ‘wandering men’, therefore, the burgeoning vagrancy convictions in the Belle Epoque appear to have served as a passe-partout in complex responses to the challenges and vulnerabilities of the time’s ‘social question’." "Rural crisis and rural exodus?" "Nick Deschacht, Anne Winter" "This article analyses the migration dynamics in the wake of the 1845–1847 subsistence crisis in Flanders by means of a quantitative analysis of key demographic and economic data at municipal level. The data are unique in that they allow to directly measure in-migration and out-migration at the level of individual villages and towns. The results show that contrary to the powerful image of a push-driven rural exodus, it was not the villages hardest hit by the crisis that recorded the highest levels of migration. Rather, in-migration and out-migration rates often moved in tandem, and were determined primarily by existing migration traditions."