40 years of Quetelet Seminars in 25 minutes ! Dominique Tabutin & Bruno Schoumaker Centre de recherche en démographie et sociétés Université catholique de Louvain

A brief historical overview 1974: Quetelet Day, 100 years after Quetelet’s death, famous Belgian statistician 1975: first annual Quetelet Seminar in Leuven : a long uninterrupted history. A successful challenge !

A standard Quetelet Seminar A 3-day seminar, with only plenary sessions presentations participants, nationalities Bilingual A mix of generations and statuses Time for discussions and debates A selection for publication (book or now Quetelet Journal) A nice cocktail !

In total, over the 40 years Close to 1500 communications and 1600 different authors Institutions from around 50 countries 29 books until 2010, pages, 700 papers The Quetelet Journal since 2011

The spirit, objectives and themes Classical objective of scientific exchanges Objective of high quality With emphasis on Critical approach of paradigms and methods Interdisciplinarity Emerging themes and syntheses. For example: – Typologies and classifications (as soon as 1977) – Systemic approaches (as soon as 1978) – Qualitative approaches (as soon as 1985)

The most frequent themes Methodologies and theories (6) Mortality and health (5) Demographic transitions and history (5) Migration and urbanisation (4) Population, development, poverty (4) Information systems (3) The future of demography (3)

21st Quetelet Seminar: useful or futile?

Source: Titres des articles publiés dans le Chaire Quetelet Taille des mots proportionnelle à leur fréquence

Selected titles of papers Le court / The short « Un âge en trop ? » (1986) « From Death to Cause » (2003) Le long / The long « Profession, statut social, classe: un tiercé gagnant pour la sociologie? Du bon et du mauvais usage des nomenclatures et des catégories professionnelles, des échelles de prestige, des indices de statut et des mesures de classe » (1981) Le réversible / The reversible « Etre intelligent ne dispense pas d’être statisticien » (1985) Or, our version… « Etre démographe ne dispense pas d’être intelligent »

Selected titles of papers Le jeu de mots / The pun « Du temps qu’on fête au temps qu’on fait » (1993) L’engagé / The committed « Grandeur et misère de l'analyse matérialiste en démographie : une application au domaine des politiques démographiques » (1989) « Limites, illusions, misères et fraudes de l’analyse quantitative » (1985) L’énigme / The enigma « Les sens et les non-sens d'un nominalisme démographique » (1997)

Some evolutions over time Diversification of statuses among authors and participants (junior and senior researchers, teachers, PhD students…) Feminization of authors

Feminization Proportion of female authors, by period

Some evolutions over time Diversification of statuses among authors and participants (junior and senior researchers, teachers, PhD students…) Feminization of authors Bilingual from the first seminar, but a rapid progression of English in recent years

Proportion of communications and published papers in English Bilingual

Some evolutions over time Diversification of statuses among authors and participants (junior and senior researchers, teachers, PhD students…) Feminization of authors Bilingual from the first seminar, but a rapid progression of English in recent years Growing internationalisation of Quetelet seminar

Share of authors by country/region

2000 Quetelet Seminar Population and Development

1st book in 1976

Last book in st number of Quetelet Journal (Seminar 2011)

Some recipes for our longevity

An annual challenge for a small centre A scientific priority A collective and friendly work of organisation, with a renewed team each year An effective administrative team

Already there 15 years ago !

Some recipes for our longevity An annual challenge for a small centre A scientific priority A collective and friendly work of organisation, with a renewed team each year An effective administrative team A regular financial support from the University and the FNRS And… icing on the cake: the great satisfaction of the participants

In conclusion No excessive complacency, but an overall positive experience « Une entreprise unique au monde » ! « Un rendez-vous de l’automne à ne point manquer si possible » « Un savoir-faire acquis indéniable, à conserver précieusement » « L’équipe des démographes de Louvain tient solidement la barre et le renouvellement par les jeunes est assuré » « Un événement important des démographes francophones » « Une institution pour les démographes et un événement scientifique attendu d’une année sur l’autre…Ne changez rien ! »

Thank you, and welcome to the 40th cocktail