Post-doctorats
iacchos | Louvain-la-Neuve
Epidemics and inequalities in Belgium from the plague to covid-19: What can we learn about societal resilience? (EPIBEL)
Promoteur : Thierry Eggerickx
Chercheurs : Mélanie Bourguignon, Yoann Doignon, Jean-Paul Sanderson
Collaborations nationales : Université de Gand, Université d'Anvers.
Financement : Brain 2.0 - BELSPO
EPIBEL mobilizes the wealth of information on differential vulnerability and resilience following major epidemics in the history of Belgium/the Southern Low Countries, in order to improve our understanding of societal resilience today, in three interacting domains: health, economy and social care. In order to do so, EPIBEL first of all examines the role of socio-demographic and -economic inequalities in Covid-19 mortality. Who died as a result of the pandemic? Besides age and gender, how did place of residence, occupation, education or income shape the risk of dying from Covid-19? Secondly, EPIBEL investigates whether inequalities in Covid-19 mortality differed from previous epidemic outbreaks, both in their short-term impact and in longer-term resilience. Thirdly, EPIBEL aims to understand whether inequalities in the economic impact of epidemic outbreaks mirrored pre-existing socio-economic inequalities, how they interacted with health inequalities, and how they compromised societal resilience. Fourthly, EPIBEL investigates how the scale and organisation of social care and welfare systems might mitigate the effects of an epidemic outbreak on the poor and foster their resilience. Finally, EPIBEL informs policymakers on the importance of inequalities when promoting societal resilience. How have «epidemic policies» in the past affected resilience? Are policies which explicitly take into account inequalities more efficient in promoting resilience than more «universal» policies?
INEQKILL
Promoteurs : Thierry Eggerickx, Philippe Bocquier
Chercheurs : Jean-Paul Sanderson, Audrey Plavsic, Marina Vergeles
Financement : FWO, FNRS
INEQKILL is a four-year interdisciplinary research project that focuses on a crucial dimension of inequality in society, the disparity in death, coined ‘ultimate inequality’. How inequality kills. The COVID-19 pandemic has incited renewed interest into infectious diseases as potential drivers of social and spatial mortality inequalities, alongside life-style disease (cardiovascular diseases and cancer) and external causes of death. The project aims at generating new knowledge and insights into the origin and development of inequalities in all-cause and cause-specific mortality in Belgium. It tackles the long-term evolution of mortality inequalities (1800-2025) using an interdisciplinary approach based on expertise from demography, social epidemiology, medical geography and socioeconomic history. INEQKILL addresses the following questions concerning how inequality kills: How have social and spatial differences in cause-specific mortality evolved in the context of rising living standards, improved social security and medical progress? How did these mortality patterns vary according to age, gender and migration status? And which factors can explain these? Besides using Belgium’s rich and unique statistical heritage, the project takes advantage of state-of-the-art geographic information systems and statistical techniques. Integrating micro and macro level data, linking past and present, and engaging with the wider public, INEQKILL embodies a major and original initiative in enhancing our understanding of mortality inequalities in Belgium and beyond.
Care, Buffering Effects and WELL-being at the time of the pandemic and after (BE-WELL)
Promotrice : Ester Rizzi
Chercheureuses : Hequn Wang, Damiano Uccheddu, Ashira Menashe-Oren
Financement : BELSPO
Collaborations : University of Antwerp (Dimitri Mortelmans, Z-eynep Zümer Batur, Fee Van den Eynde), University of Luxembourg (Anja eist), University of Padua (Bruno Arpino)
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted various facets of people’s lives. For young adults who were on the verge of transitioning into adulthood, these disruptions may have had an especially profound impact. Similarly, older individuals were particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, and their day-to-day routines have been significantly affected. Family ties may have acquired a special importance to buffer some of the adverse consequences of the pandemic and to preserve health and well-being. Consequently, caregivers may have encountered new challenges pertaining to their well-being. At the same time, the role of non-family ties has received limited attention in research on the COVID-19 pandemic. The BE-WELL project is an interdisciplinary research initiative, involving demographers, sociologists, and researchers in public health. Focusing on Belgium, and adopting a comparative and life-course perspective, the project examines four main domains where care relations and well-being were affected by the COVID-19 crisis: young adults’ residential shifts (Work Package 2, WP2), the variance and impacts of informal care on well-being of caregivers (WP3), the role of family and non-family ties on older people well-being (WP4), and unmet (mental) healthcare needs (WP5). The gender dimension, the socio-economic disadvantage, and welfare policies are incorporated as overarching themes of each WP. In WP3-WP5, the goal is to measure objective and subjective well-being (loneliness, physical and mental health, healthcare needs, etc.) according to specific profiles of individuals. By focusing on measurable goals, the BE-WELL project will inform federal policies, for improved care, health, and well-being during global crises.
Ashira Menashe-Oren
Child Migration and Parental Death in Rural and Urban Sub-Saharan Africa
Promoteur : Philippe Bocquier. Financement : FNRS
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is characterized by both high adult mortality where HIV/AIDS related deaths have disrupted families, and high rates of rural-urban migration of adults. In this setting, children may migrate with their parents, or be left in the care of other family members. Additionally, becoming an orphan may also drive children to migrate. Yet evidence on child migration in SSA, especially of orphans, is limited. This research proposes examining child migration while accounting for parental death and household composition in SSA. It focuses on migration across rural/urban settings in particular since these movements change the environments in which children reside and what they have access to including health care and educational opportunities. I propose using Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) data available through the International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health to explore the probabilities of child migration. HDSS monitor births, deaths and migrations within a specific location, providing a unique opportunity to examine child migration, especially in SSA where vital registration is poor. The sites cover rural, semi-rural, peri-urban and urban settings in twelve SSA countries, representing more accurately children’s living environments, rather than the binary rural/urban definition. This research proposes to identify from which area along the rural/urban gradient children are most likely to out-migrate, and to what extent children’s living arrangements and being an orphan affect these migration probabilities.
Atiqul Haq Shah Md.
Are fertility preferences related to perception of climate change and extreme weather events in Bangladesh? A comparative study
Promoteurs : Schoumaker Bruno (UCLouvain), Bartiaux Françoise (UCLouvain)
Financement : FNRS
Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to climate change and many people in this country are vulnerable to the adverse impacts of extreme weather events. My project aims to explore how people living in areas prone to extreme events such as floods, cyclones, and drought perceive climate change and climate change impacts. This project also tries to explore how climate change perception varies with different extreme weather events and its relationship with fertility decision. This study proposes to compare the variations of fertility decisions with the impacts of different extreme events in Bangladesh. This study tries to calculate fertility differentials and trends for highly flood affected and less affected areas in Bangladesh by using GPS coordinates and census data. This project also aims to enhance a comprehensive and multidisciplinary understanding of Bangladeshi people representations on climate change and their perception about the impacts of climate change on fertility decision.
Brée Sandra
Approche longitudinale de la fécondité en Belgique et en France de la fin du 19ème siècle à 1940 à travers l’utilisation rétrospective des recensements de population
Promoteur : Eggerickx Thierry (UCLouvain)
Financement : FSR et actions Marie Curie de la Commission européenne
À partir de l’exploitation inédite des données rétrospectives et individuelles des recensements belges et français de la seconde moitié du 20ème siècle, cette recherche a pour but de reconstituer la vie génésique des générations féminines nées à partir des années 1890 jusqu’aux années 1940. La prise en compte de différents milieux dans un ensemble géographiquement restreint mais composés de populations très hétérogènes – langues (français, flamand), cultures (Nord et Sud de l’Europe), activités économiques (villes industrielles, bourgeoises, commerçantes), situations géographiques (villes portuaires, isolées, frontalières) – permettra d’affiner, d’enrichir et de mettre en regard les conclusions des monographies existantes ; notamment en ce qui concerne l’assimilation extrêmement rapide des comportements urbains par les nouveaux arrivants.
Lessons from Childlessness in Rouen before the Industrial Revolution & Remise en couple des pères selon le mode de garde des enfants
Promoteurs : Baudin Thomas, Rizzi Ester (UCLouvain)
Financement : ARC « Family Transformation – Incentives and Norms »
La première partie de ce post-doc consiste à analyser les niveaux d’infécondité des précurseurs du déclin de la fécondité en France en s’appuyant sur la recherche effectuée par Jean-Pierre Bardet (1983) pour essayer de comprendre le rôle des couples sans enfants dans ce processus. La seconde partie du post-doc porte sur la remise en couple des pères selon le mode de garde des enfants. À travers l’exploitation de la nouvelle enquête de l’INED, EPIC (Étude des parcours individuels et conjugaux), il s’agit de comprendre si les pères qui ont la garde de leurs enfants (partagée ou en totalité) ont des comportements de remise en couple qui diffèrent de ceux qui n’en ont pas la garde.
Carpentier Sarah
LIMA – Aspirations personnelles et des processus d’adaptation: comment le cadre légal influence l’agentivité des migrants ?
Promoteur : Schoumaker Bruno (UCLouvain)
Financement : ARC
Ce projet s'étend de 2015 à 2020 et réunit des juristes, des sociologues et des démographes pour étudier les aspirations, le développement du parcours de vie, la satisfaction de la vie et la capacité d'agentivité des primo-arrivants en Belgique dans une perspective holistique. Le projet examine les possibilités offertes par le cadre juridique pour développer les aspects de la vie susmentionnés, ainsi comme il ressort des entretiens qualitatifs, des données administratives longitudinales et des données d'enquête liées. Théoriquement, le projet mobilise des idées à partir de l'approche des capacités, de la perspective du parcours de vie et des droits de l'homme pour contourner une approche empirique des moyens et des catégories de risques fixes. Le projet de recherche postdoctorale de Sarah Carpentier vise à développer des mesures pour le développement du parcours de vie et des libertés dans les années qui suivent l'arrivée des migrants sur la base de données administratives et d'enquêtes liées. Comme la carrière socio-économique peut jouer un rôle d'ouvre-porte pour le développement du parcours de vie, l'étude commence par l'examen des carrières socio-économiques. La stabilité, la volatilité et la mobilité dans les carrières socio-économiques des migrants ayant différents statuts légaux à l'entrée sont étudiées. En outre, le projet examine comment la stabilité, la volatilité et la mobilité sont vécues subjectivement et liées aux aspirations.
Chen Mengni
Second Demographic Transition in Asia
Promotrice : Rizzi Ester (UCLouvain)
Financement : FNRS
The theory of the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) has often been proposed to understand changing family profiles not only in western societies but also in eastern societies. Currently, in Asian societies such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, many features of the SDT have been observed, including the low fertility rate, late marriage and childbearing, increasing singlehood, surging divorce. However, the ingredients of cohabitation and out-of-wedlock births seem to be missing in these societies; and there are also very few up-to-date empirical studies to investigate whether the observed changes in family behavior have reflected the ideational changes. Therefore, this research project takes efforts to fill in these gaps. The project aims 1) to investigate the prevalence and trends of cohabitation and non-marital births in the five Asian societies over the past decade, 2) to identify the factors associated with these behaviors, and 3) to reconstruct and compare the family normative frameworks between the West and the East.
Doignon Yoann
La diffusion spatiale de la Seconde Transition Démographique en Belgique et en France depuis 1970
Promoteurs : Eggerickx Thierry (UCLouvain), Rizzi Ester (UCLouvain)
Financement : FSR (UCLouvain)
La seconde transition démographique (STD) a été développée pour comprendre les transformations socio-démographiques en Europe du Nord-ouest à partir des années 1970. De nombreuses dimensions de la STD ont été étudiées dans la littérature, mais la dimension spatiale de ces changements démographiques reste beaucoup moins étudiée. Ce projet propose de combler ces manques en analysant la diffusion spatiale des changements démographiques de la STD en France et en Belgique depuis 1970, et à un niveau géographique fin. Les objectifs du projet sont les suivants : 1/ Décrire comment la STD se propage dans l’espace, en questionnant en particulier les effets de frontières (politiques et culturelles) ; 2/ Identifier les facteurs qui expliquent ce schéma spatial ; 3/ Analyser l’impact des migrations sur la progression de la STD dans un territoire.
Kim Younga
Women’s Retirement Intentions and Work-Family Life History
Promoter : Rizzi Ester (UCLouvain)
Financement : MOVE-IN Louvain project cofunded by European Commission Marie Curie Actions
My project is to evaluate the effect of work-family life histories on retirement behaviors among women. This proceeds by comparing countries with different conditions of reconciliation between family life and work. By doing so, I involve the themes of ageing, gender and the relationship between the life course, work, and family life. The project comprises three papers. The first concerns the effects of work and family trajectories on retirement intentions: a comparison of 13 European countries. The second is about associations between women’s retirement intentions and the subsequent retirement behaviors in South Korea, by addressing the question of who makes their wishes come true. The third focuses on changes in women’s retirement intentions over time in Europe from 2004 to 2013.
Le Guen Mireille
Changes in contraceptive uses in time of “pill scare”: a comparison between Belgium, France and Switzerland
Promoteur : Bruno Schoumaker (UCLouvain)
Financement : FSR (UCLouvain)
At the end of 2012, following the media coverage of a complaint against a pharmaceutical company by a young woman who had suffered a stroke and was blaming it on her use of new-generation oral contraception, a media controversy, also called “pill scare” broke out in France and echoed in the French speaking media in Belgium and in Switzerland, two countries were the pill is also the most widely used method of contraception. As a result, pill use dropped in France and in Belgium while in Switzerland a decrease in pill sales was observed and social inequalities in access to contraceptives available under prescription have increased in France. Using data from 11 representative cross-sectional surveys conducted in Belgium, France and Switzerland, we compare recent trends in contraceptive uses in the three countries according to women’s social background in order to know how “pill scare” differently affect contraceptive practices in the three countries characterized by great differences in health care insurance reimburses medical consultation and contraceptive methods. I will also seek to understand, by conducting qualitative interviews in Belgium and Switzerland, to what extent these changes are result from difficulties in accessing certain contraceptives or from consumption practices for health care and medical goods that differ according to women’s socio-economic background.
In-Migration and Out-Migration of Primary and Secondary Migrants from South European Countries to Belgium Around the Economic Crisis of the Late 2000s
Promoteur : Bruno Schoumaker (UCLouvain)
Financement : UCLouvain
In Europe, the global economic recession of the late 2000s strongly affected PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain). The rapid deterioration of the labor market conditions affecting natives and immigrants from these countries led to an increase in outmigration to Western and Northern European countries less affected by the crisis, such as Belgium. To understand how economic crises modulate the selection process of migration differently among men and women according to their migration status, we study immigration of people came from PIIGS to Belgium before and after the crisis of the late 2000s among natives (primary migrants) and non-natives (secondary migrants). We also study primary migrants and secondary migrants’ emigration from Belgium according to their insertion on the Belgian labor market before and after the crisis.
Ma Li
Social policy, life-course transitions, and family dynamics in China
Promoteur : Rizzi Ester (UCLouvain)
Financement : MOVE-IN Louvain project cofunded by European Commission Marie Curie Actions
China is a developing society that has not only experienced remarkable economic growth over the past few decades, but has also faced a series of demographic changes and challenges, such as the reduction of marriage and fertility, the diffusion of cohabitation, and the rise of divorce. So far, one study on marriage and three studies on divorce have been conducted. All these studies provide empirical evidence that socioeconomic changes at the macro level interacted with behaviour changes at the micro level. This project not only improves our understanding of the family dynamics in Chinese society, but also give implications for life-course transitions in developing societies at large.
Mikucka Malgorzata
Life course events and well-being. The importance of family obligations and support
Promoteur : Rizzi Ester (UCLouvain)
Financement : FSR et actions Marie Curie de la Commission européenne
The project focuses on well-being consequences of difficult life transitions, i.e. transitions into unemployment and into parenthood. It also investigates the buffering effect of support received from family and other networks during these periods. Literature has shown the negative effect of unemployment on wellbeing, and suggested that in the long run parenthood also has a negative effect. Moreover, these effects are heterogeneous across individuals and social contexts. The evidence on the buffering effect of family and nonfamily support in the context of parenthood and unemployment is scarce. The results showed that the buffering effect of family and non-family support during the transition to unemployment in Germany is rather weak, which is not in line with theoretical expectations and suggests the need for further investigations, which would broaden our understanding of social support during difficult life transitions. The study of support from relatives during parenthood in Switzerland demonstrated that support increases slightly when people become parents, but the effect on subjective well-being of parents is small and sometimes inconsistent with the buffering hypothesis.
Family transformations. Incentives and norms
Promoteur : Rizzi Ester (UCLouvain)
Financement : ARC
The project focuses on two questions. First, we analyze the parental gender preference using the recent developments of happiness research. Second, we analyze the role of religiosity in moderating the relationship between parenthood and subjective well-being. Both studies aim at providing general conclusions, thus they use broad comparative data sets as their empirical base: European Social Survey and World Values Study. The project contributes to better understanding fertility decisions and consequences of parenthood and childlessness for contemporary societies, and to better understanding the interplay between religiosity and fertility decisions.
Care, retirement and wellbeing of older people across different welfare regimes
Promotrice : Ester Rizzi (UCLouvain)
Financement : BELSPO
As societies age, the well-being of the elderly increasingly becomes a priority and challenge. CREW is an inter-disciplinary team from six institutions in five countries poised to examine the interrelationships between social participation (in the forms of paid work and caregiving) and health and wellbeing. Our proposed research covers four broad topics. First, we investigate the determinants of health and wellbeing in older age and critically examine new and old measures. Second, we describe patterns of caregiving and the impact of providing care on the wellbeing of caregivers. Third, we analyze the challenges faced by pension systems as consequence of changes in family dynamics and work patterns. Finally, we examine the population of older adults without close kin, analyse its characteristics, and how the welfare state shapes their well-being. Gender and welfare policies are transversal themes of each topic, as they shape all of the dynamics analyzed.
Munno Cristina
La démographie différentielle : une approche syndémique à l’étude de la mortalité en milieu urbain
Promoteur : Eggerickx Thierry (UCLouvain)
Financement : FNRS
Ce projet met en évidence les mécanismes qui ont marqué l’évolution de la mortalité à Venise au 19ème siècle, l’une des plus grandes villes italiennes, où les taux de mortalité sont parmi les plus élevés en Europe. Cela suppose d’observer les différentes composantes de la mortalité, par cause, sexe et âge, leur distribution dans l’espace et le temps, et leurs influences réciproques. Une étude détaillée de la mortalité est rendue possible par un ensemble exceptionnellement riche de données extraites des registres de la population d’une ville composée d’environ 130 000 habitants. D’autres données concernent les conditions de logements (disponibilité de l’eau et de l’assainissement), les causes de décès, les températures quotidiennes et les rapports hebdomadaires des prix des denrées alimentaires.
Nie Wanli
Internal migration and Urbanisation in Asia
Promoteur : Philippe Bocquier (UCLouvain)
Financement : Globmig project
In Asia, internal migration has led to rapid expansion of urban borders. However, as rural/urban definition varies by countries and across time, and in some circumstances absent, it is hard to come up with a robust estimation of historical trend of urbanization. To fill this gap, this project is dedicated to provide a harmonized estimation of urbanization and to understand to what extent internal migration has contributed to changes in urbanisation. We used micro-level data available at IPUMS-international, DHC among others, and adjusted our estimates according to those published by the World Urbanization Prospect.
The mobility transition in Asia between 1970-2011
Promoteur : Philippe Bocquier
Financement : Globmig project
The mobility transition hypothesizes that in parallel to the demographic transition, defined patterns of migration are notable. These shifts in migration are also expected to change over the course of urbanization. We aim to investigate empirically whether a mobility transition in Asia exists, or whether it diverges from theory, by directly estimating migration from 27 census samples. We pool together census from ten Asian countries, and covering four decades, and model migration rates by sex, age and educational attainment using Poisson models. Preliminary results suggest that internal net migration fluctuated over time, and peaked in the 2000s in Asia. Intra-rural migration is especially high throughout the period, suggesting that countries in Asia are still at relatively early stages of the mobility transition. That said, there is also relatively high migration within other urban areas.
Sanderson Jean-Paul
Fin de carrière et parcours de vie, en Belgique, du 19ème au 21ème siècle
Promoteurs : Eggerickx Thierry (UCLouvain), Burnay Nathalie (FUNDP)
Financement : FNRS
Cette recherche s’inscrit dans le débat sur l’âge à la retraite et dans le cadre théorique de l’analyse des parcours de vie. Les objectifs visent à retracer l’évolution de la gestion individuelle et collective des fins de carrière, du 19ème siècle à nos jours ; comprendre les interactions entre trajectoires professionnelle et familiale en fin de vie active ; et comprendre l’organisation de cette période au regard des parcours migratoires et des relations intergénérationnelles.
L’homicide conjugal parmi les morts violentes en Belgique
Promoteurs : Thierry Eggerickx (UCLouvain), Xavier Rousseaux (UCLouvain)
Financement : BELSPO/BRAIN
Cette recherche vise à étudier l’évolution de la mortalité violente en Belgique et comprendre les mécanismes des violences entre conjoints et homicides conjugaux. Les données proviennent du Registre national, des recensements, du système informatique des parquets correctionnels, mais aussi de dossiers de justice et d’entretiens avec des auteurs et des victimes.
SODA : Social sciences and humanities data archive
Promoteurs : Thierry Eggerickx (UCLouvain), Bruno Schoumaker (UCLouvain)
Financement : BELSPO
L’objectif de ce projet est de constituer une archive belge des enquêtes et données collectées en sciences humaines afin de pouvoir les réutiliser pour d’autres projets.
Measuring Invisibility Brussel (MEASINB)
Promoteur : Thierry Eggerickx (UCLouvain)
Financement : INNOVIRIS
La recherche vise à appréhender les processus d’invisibilisation liés à la disparition de certaines personnes des registres administratifs et à leurs conséquences sur l’accès aux droits.
Singh Akansha
Spatial modeling of child mortality at the district level in India
Promoteur : Masquelier Bruno (UCLouvain)
Financement : MOVE-IN Louvain project cofunded by European Commission Marie Curie Actions
Cette étude vise à développer des estimations du taux de mortalité infantile au niveau des districts en Inde afin de décrire les tendances sur plusieurs décennies et analyser les facteurs socioéconomiques et sanitaires associés.
Uccheddu Damiano
The Education of Adult Children and the Health of their Ageing Parents (DARLENE)
Promotrice : Ester Rizzi (UCLouvain)
Financement : F.R.S.-FNRS
Le projet DARLENE étudie comment le niveau d’éducation des enfants adultes influence l’accès aux soins, les transitions vers les maisons de repos et les résultats de santé des parents âgés.
Veljanoska Stefanija
Understanding the determinants of migration through new data sources and new methodologies
Promoteurs : Bocquier Philippe (UCLouvain), Docquier Frédéric (UCLouvain)
Financement : ARC - GLOBMIG
Ce projet combine données socio-économiques, big data téléphoniques et données géographiques pour analyser les dynamiques de migration interne et internationale.
Zuzana Zilincikova
Family ties that bind: A new view of internal migration, immobility and labour-market outcomes
Promotrice : Christine Schnor (UCLouvain)
Financement : ERC
Le projet FamilyTies vise à analyser le rôle des liens familiaux dans les décisions de migration interne et leurs effets sur les trajectoires professionnelles.