Month: September 2016

The Cold War context led to the emergence of new fears in Europe, including those related to nuclear weapons. Scientists, pacifists and citizens expressed their emotion, usually in combination with reasoned debate, in the face of the threat of global destruction. The 1970s witnessed a shift towards fears associated with nuclear power, expressed both as a fear of major accidents and through protests against the day-to-day environmental impact of this energy source.

Disasters have an international echo and reveal national characteristics. In 1906, all Europe was shocked by a mining accident in Courrières, the biggest industrial disaster suffered by France in modern times (with over a thousand fatalities). While at first reactions of solidarity were unanimous, fears of social unrest later began to break the initial harmony. But in the case of Courrières, German rescuers came to the aid of French miners: this episode briefly transformed the tragedy into a symbol of hope for peace among men.

For more than two centuries, Europe has been confronted with natural catastrophes and industrial risks, with its reactions to these events evolving over time: fatalism of humans in the fact of their destiny, Enlightenment humanism, the scientistic certainties of the nineteenth century, and lastly doubt arising from the emergence of the principle of precaution, the goal of zero risk, and the great number of second assessments.

If the Europe of flows was built quite quickly, the Europe of common reflection and comparable legislation regarding risk and security still remains incomplete in the face of broad cultural diversity. A tendency toward convergence, however, has seemingly been taking shape over the last few decades.

Single-sex schools developed in Europe in the early modern period since boys and girls were expected to lead different lives and hence acquire different skills. In the late 19^th century feminists and pedagogues increasingly questioned this separation, especially when they discovered the prevalence of coeducation in the United States. Coeducation gradually became the dominant mode of schooling in Europe in the 20^th century for ideological, pedagogical and pragmatic reasons, although the rate at which it progressed varied a great deal depending on the age of students, the religious and political culture of the society, and the availability of schools.

Emerging at the end of the nineteenth century, Progressive Education became a major international educational movement in the 1920s. Its advocates demanded profound educational reforms based on a scientific understanding of the child and on a reversal of educational logic. School, it was argued, should adapt to the child by respecting his or her needs and interests and allowing him or her to learn through experience, activity and cooperation. It was therefore a question of rethinking the curricula, teaching methods and the respective roles of teachers and pupils so that the latter could appropriate knowledge for themselves. Those who promoted Progressive Education campaigned for coeducation, so that boys and girls could benefit from the same teaching in a shared environment. For them, education should be natural, close to life, and should prepare pupils for social life through an experience of community life in school. This is how they would learn tolerance and respect for others, both children and adults.

The movement towards compulsory and prolonged schooling since 1800 had a greater impact on girls than boys in European countries because girls’ education significantly lagged behind that of boys in 1800. Early 19^th-century schools were strictly divided by both sex and class: elementary education was directed toward the poor, whereas secondary education was mainly for wealthy boys. By mid-century national networks of schools increasingly allowed girls to pursue studies, particularly within vocationally-oriented and teacher-training programs. Between 1850 and the 1920s, many countries mandated compulsory elementary education for both sexes and single-sex secondary schools for girls developed. Feminist movements also promoted girls’ schooling, including in the colonies. Women, and particularly nuns, were very present in the “civilising mission” that encouraged the creation of schools in the Empire and in Europe. From the inter-war period on, the most dramatic changes in educational systems have been the spread of comprehensive secondary education and the disappearance of single-sex schooling. After 1945 this meant that the numbers of students attending secondary schools soared.

Abolitionism is a European movement for the abolition of regulationism, which began in England in 1869. The movement brings together prohibitionists, advocating the end of regulationism and the banning of prostitution, and abolitionists opposed only to regulated prostitution. At the end of the nineteenth century, abolitionism extended its scope to include the struggle against the white slave trade. In the twentieth century, regulationism having been abolished, the term most often refers to opponents of all forms of prostitution.