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Purpose: The literature mostly investigates the business cycle transmission of the United Kingdom (UK) and France as a part of a wider group (e.g. European Exchange Rate Mechanism or G7), despite their historical links and regional significance. Thus, herein paper aims to analyse the inter-dependence of these economies and how a shock from one of them affects the other for the data since 1978 to 2019. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, first, preliminary statistics were calculated in order to describe the historical relationship between these countries. The econometric part estimates the vector auto-regression model (VAR) to assess the inter-dependence of the economies. VAR model allows further to inspect the impulse response functions that shows the shock dynamics from one country to another. In order to verify if a shock from one of the economies is important to another, the study uses granger causality test. Findings: The study establishes a strong link between these countries. A business cycle is transmitted significantly between the economies of France and UK, with a single standard deviation shock from France resulting in a long term effect of 0.4% change in gross domestic product (GDP) of UK and 1% vice versa. Additionally changes in GDP of both of the countries significantly Granger-cause change to GDP of the corresponding economy. Originality/value: This is the first empirical study investigating the business cycle transmission between France and UK and providing a quantitative assessment of their inter-dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Średniowiecze Polskie i Powszechne is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Slaskiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article explores the circumstances in which individuals become secondary school teachers in England and France. Using a social constructivist theoretical framework, it specifically considers how national contexts play out in this decision. The findings presented in this paper draw on a corpus of 60 interviews with a sample of teachers based in English and French secondary schools. They show that national frameworks remain relevant to an exploration of teachers’ identities and cultures, as French and English interviewees draw on distinctive reasons to explain why they became secondary school teachers. While becoming a teacher is often thought of as a ‘vocation’ or as the result of ‘intrinsic’ factors, this paper highlights the role of national contexts, as well as of gender and social class, in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cell-based regenerative therapies are presented as being able to cure the diseases of the twenty-first century, especially those coming from the degeneration of the aging human body. But their specific nature based on biological materials raises particular challenging issues on how regulation should frame biomedical innovation for society's benefit regarding public health. The European Union (EU) supports the development of cellbased regenerative therapies that are medicinal products with a specific regulation providing their wide access to the European market for European patients. However, once these medicinal products have obtained a European marketing authorisation, they are still far away from being fully accessible to European patients in all EU Member States. Whereas there is much written on the EU regulatory system for new biotechnologies, there is no systematic legal study comparing the insurance provisions in two EU countries. Focussing on the situation in the UK and France that are based on two different healthcare systems, this paper is based on a comparative methodological approach. It raises the question of regulatory reimbursement mechanisms that determine access to innovative treatments and their consequences for social protection systems in the general context of public health. After having compared the French and English regulations of cell-based regenerative therapy regarding pricing and reimbursement, this papers analyses how England and France are addressing two main challenges of cellbased regenerative therapy, to take into account their long-term benefit through their potential curative nature and their high upfront cost, towards their adoption within the English and French healthcare systems. It concludes that England and France have different general legal frameworks that are not specific to the reimbursement of cell-based regenerative therapy, although their two current and respective trends would bring more convergence between the two systems while addressing the main challenges for the reimbursement of these therapies. Nevertheless, despite their current differences, neither the English nor the French national healthcare system has yet approved the reimbursement of cell-based regenerative therapies. The paper highlights where both systems could be learning from each others' experiences to favour the adoption of cellbased regenerative therapies through the adaptation of their reimbursement methodologies. It also emphasises the gap between market access and patients' access, and it calls for research and discussions through reflexive agencies such as the Regenerative Medicine Expert Group in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic restrictions have placed many contractual parties under great strain to honour their agreements as contracts have become commercially impracticable and excessively onerous. This article explores the legal position in England, France and the Middle East under the doctrine of impossibility, impracticability and unforeseen circumstances. Strongly rooted in contractual autonomy and commercial certainty, this article argues that frustration in English common law is not sufficiently broad because the consequence (automatic discharge) is too rigid and does not allow a renegotiation of obligations. French civil law is more accommodating but only formally adopted imprévision in civil law in 2016, meaning it lacks traction. However, Middle Eastern civil law countries accept the doctrine as an integral part of their law and theory of justice, allowing obligations to be rebalanced in a more flexible manner. The English legal system should consider the advantages of a similar reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We develop a framework for analysing the role of Science Policy Interfaces in Flood Risk Governance. • We apply this framework to England, France and the Netherlands using policy analysis and stakeholder interviews. • SPIs help diversify FRM; increase their connectivity, facilitate decentralisation of FRM and foster inter-country learning. • SPIs can steer FRG, either along existing pathways, or towards new and potentially transformative change. • SPIs are an underexposed factor explaining dynamics in flood risk governance which merits more systematic empirical study. In the face of increasing threats from flooding, there are growing calls to strengthen and improve arrangements of flood risk governance (FRG). This endeavour requires an appreciation of the multitude of factors stabilising and driving governance dynamics. So-called catalyst flood events, policy champions and advocacy coalitions have tended to dominate this study to date, whilst the potential role played by Science Policy Interfaces (SPIs) has been somewhat neglected and often approached in a reductionist and fragmented way. This paper addresses this gap by drawing from in-depth policy analysis and stakeholder interviews conducted within England, France and the Netherlands under the auspices of the EU-FP7 STAR-FLOOD project. The analysis reveals four prominent ways in which SPIs shape FRG, by i) facilitating the diversification of Flood Risk Management (FRM) strategies; ii) increasing their connectivity, iii) facilitating a decentralisation of FRM and iv) fostering inter-country learning. It identifies different roles of specific interfaces (structures) and interfacing mechanisms (processes) in shaping governance dynamics. This way, the analysis reveals various 'entry points' through which SPIs can steer FRG, either along existing pathways, or towards new and potentially transformative change. The study shows that SPIs are a hitherto underexposed factor explaining dynamics in flood risk governance which merits additional systematic empirical study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines French and English average performances and educational inequality in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) between 2000 and 2018. It asks why English average scores in 2018 are much higher than those of France when they were fairly similar in previous PISA assessments. It questions why the impact of socio-economic background on educational performance in England decreased while the reverse has been the case for France. This is all the more damning given the French republican espousal of égalité. It examines policies in both countries and analyses to what extent PISA has impacted on these. It argues that in England, policies of autonomy, accountability and competition, in line with the OECD and its own tradition of liberalism, have been implemented rigorously. In France, because of left-right oppositional dynamics and the role of embedded republican principles, the status quo has been maintained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim In France, following a long-term decline in smoking prevalence, an increase in smoking was observed between 2005 and 2010, an unusual occurrence in countries in the 'mature' stage of the smoking epidemic. By contrast, smoking prevalence in England, the neighbouring country, continued its long-term decline. Methods We identified and translated recent reports on smoking and tobacco control in France and using these assessed the main data sources on smoking and compared them with similar sources in England, in order to explore possible explanations. In France, national smoking prevalence data are collected 5-yearly, minimizing opportunities for fine-grained analysis; the comparable study in England is implemented annually. Results We identified several probable causes of the recent increased prevalence of smoking in France, the primary one being the absence of sufficient price rises between 2005 and 2010, due probably to the lack of a robust tobacco control strategy, which also appeared to have empowered tobacco industry influence. Funding to compensate tobacconists appears to incentivize tobacco sales and is significantly higher than tobacco control funding. Conclusions Mindful of the limitations of a case-study approach, the absence of sufficient price rises in the context of a weak tobacco control strategy seems the most likely explanation for the recent increase in smoking prevalence in France. A new cancer control plan and a national smoking reduction programme have been proposed by the French government in 2014 which, depending on implementation, may reverse the trend. In both countries, the higher levels of smoking among the more disadvantaged groups are of great concern and require greater political leadership for effective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The guiding thesis of this article is that international comparisons have been shaped by nationalist, and thus potentially imperial, religious and consequently also latent missionary, motives. By means of selected milestones in the last 250 years, this thesis is made plausible by asserting a historical development of nationalism that started from an almost defiant national self-determination in the eighteenth century, leading to learning from strangers in the long nineteenth century, and resulting in the imperially minded instruction of others in the course of the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 1584, the States-General of the Union of Utrecht dispatched a special embassy to Paris to offer King Henry iii of France the titular rule of their estates. Henry was to replace Philip ii of Spain, the legitimate overlord of the seventeen provinces, whom the States-General had deposed in July 1581 in direct violation of the sacred institution of the monarchy. Although largely overlooked by historians, the special embassy provides a fascinating insight into the intricate European ramifications of the Union of Utrecht's search for overlordship prior to the foundation of the Dutch Republic in April 1588. This article focuses on the divided reception of the special embassy to France from the perspective of the Union of Utrecht, especially among the powerful nobility of Holland, many of whom shared anti-French sentiments, and from the vantage point of the English and Spanish ambassadors in Paris, who tried to either intervene or obstruct the Dutch-French negotiations in a bid to alter Europe's balance of power to their advantage. By bringing together dispatches and the reported reactions of Dutch, English, and Spanish emissaries that have not been studied in detail before, and never alongside each other, this article argues that Henry iii's calculated and pragmatic use of diplomatic ceremony played a defining role in managing the fraught relations between France and the Union of Utrecht, Spain, England, and the other Catholic powers at the French court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale, aims, and objectives: The article looks at how, during consultations, pregnant women identified as presenting an increased risk of giving birth to a child with an impairment, and practitioners in the field of prenatal diagnosis, decide whether or not to accept the risk of a miscarriage and proceed with a diagnostic examination. Methods: We conducted 63 observations of consultations in France and 22 in England. Participants were women for whom an elevated risk of abnormality had been identified and the practitioners involved in their care. Our analytical approach consisted in suspending the normative concepts of nondirectiveness and autonomy, and in drawing on Goffman's (1974) notion of "frame" to take account of the experiential and structural aspects that the protagonists bring into the (inter)actions. Results: We identified four frames: medico‐scientific expertise, medical authority, religious authority, and compassion. Observation of the ways in which the frames intertwine during consultations revealed configurations that facilitate or hinder the fluidity of the interactions and the decision‐making process. The medico‐scientific expertise frame, imposed by the guidelines, heavily dominated our observations, but frequently caused distress and misunderstanding. Temporary or sustained use of the compassion and/or medical authority frames could help to repair the discussion and create the conditions that enable women/couples to reach a decision. Variations in configuration highlighted the differences between practitioners in the two countries. Conclusions: Combining frames allows protagonists to exert reflective abilities and to maintain/restore interactions. The frame analysis promotes a vision of autonomy that is sociological, relational, and processual. The frames are anchored in different structural conditions in England and France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation and migration have brought new challenges to education in the past decades, raising questions about how schools can promote inclusion within contexts of increased diversity (Vertovec, 2017). The concept of inclusive education itself remains contested, with different meanings across national contexts. This makes a comparative focus on inclusion particularly relevant to understanding different languages of inclusion and the ways in which these are articulated across national and institutional contexts. This article examines these challenges to inclusive education through a comparative lens, by looking at the identity narratives of children from immigrant backgrounds in primary schools in France and England. Drawing on data from a cross-national ethnographic study which investigated the experiences of thirty four 10 and 11 year old children of immigrants in two primary schools (one in France and one in England), this article looks closely at the narratives of four girls from immigrant background, to investigate the way they negotiated linguistic, ethnic, cultural and religious differences as part of their identities in school. The narratives of the four girls were selected as particularly relevant for thinking about the role of values, structures and children's own understanding in defining modes of inclusion and exclusion in school. This article explores the interplay between the girls' representations of school as an institution (formal spaces), their collective narratives of difference and Otherness (social imaginary in informal spaces) and their individual forms of positioning (identity narratives). This article shows how, despite contrasting approaches to inclusive education ("indifference to differences" in the French school and recognition of differences in the English school), the girls' experiences of inclusion/exclusion presented strong points of convergence across countries. Their experiences were less dependent on school approaches to inclusion than on children's capacity to understand "contextual clues" (Gumperz and Roberts, 1990), implicit expectations from teachers and school values. This holds implications for thinking about mechanisms of inclusive education and their implementation across institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The appraisal of medicines is often a complex and iterative process. We compared the health technology assessment (HTA) process in England and France taking as a case study the example of ixazomib for multiple myeloma. Methods: We undertook an analysis of eight relevant published documents identifed from the websites of the French and English HTA bodies (HAS and NICE, respectively). We analyse patients' availability of ixazomib resulting in the different stages of the appraisal process. Results: We identified differences in the assessment, one of these being the use of an appraisal scope in England allowing the differentiation of populations and comparators according to previously approved treatments. Ixazomib became available earlier in France as part of an early access programme, but the availability was soon discontinued for newly eligible patients following an HAS determination that Ixazomib yielded no additional benefit. This opinion resulted in long pricing discussions. In England, despite the absence of an early access programme and following a process that included cost-effectiveness evaluation combined with pricing discussions, the medicine was fairly rapidly recommended for use. Conclusions: Differences in the HTA process may result in appreciable differences in time from marketing authorisation to health service adoption of newly licensed drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws together a comparative sociological analysis and a political theory perspective to interpret children's views on the role of school and being a pupil, and what these tell us about their conceptual representations of citizenship and belonging in France and England. The article presents research findings from a cross-national ethnographic study with children aged 10 and 11 years in two primary schools, one in France and one in England. This article shows that children's views generally reflected national value orientations around citizenship and belonging, but that these conceptions of citizenship were not always fully understood by children, and masked, in some cases, deeper mechanisms of exclusion. This raises questions about the place of citizenship in education in France and England, and calls for a deeper understanding of the ways in which conceptions of citizenship are formed through children's experience of school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the introduction of professional standards and competences in initial teacher education for secondary teachers in England, France and Germany has provided the cornerstone of education reform in all three countries. The precise number and specific content of a measurable set of skills for teachers have offered challenges for policy makers, teacher educators, student teachers and teachers alike. The concept of standardised teacher education feeds into the idea that there is some convergence towards a uniform teacher ideal. However, an examination of the skills required of teachers in each of the three countries in this study reveals distinct education systems where path divergence is more evident. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]