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Climate change leads to an increase in the frequency, duration and intensity of climate risks. Rising temperatures and heat waves constitute the climatic risk that causes the most deaths in Europe. More and more economic and natural implications are also being identified. Municipalities must guarantee a fair and equitable socio-ecological transition in urban centers through adaptation. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) can facilitate this and several European cities are already applying them. However, smaller municipalities may be left behind. The literature identifies different incentives and barriers during the phases of adaptation policy making. The research objective of this paper is to determine the perception that technical and political managers have of this climate risk, the level of adaptation through NbS of the municipalities and the incentives and barriers that may arise in the Costa Brava Region. To do this this, seven public officials from different municipalities of Cap de Creus (Alt Empordà, Catalonia) have been interviewed. The analysis has been carried out with a mixed triangulation methodology. The main results indicate that the risk studied is not perceived as being of great concern. NbS are adaptation measures that are little known by municipalities but relevant measures in the adaption process. New incentives and barriers not identified in the literature have also emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, forced marriage as a manifestation of violence against women has entered the public agenda in European Union countries. This is partly due to higher numbers of migrants from regions where it is a regular practice. This paper aims to show the different ways violence manifests itself in forced marriage, both symbolically and practically - in terms of experiences - based on a qualitative sample of women with a range of migration backgrounds residing in Catalonia. The intersectional gender approach of the analysis enables the interaction to be considered of various factors when it comes to understanding contexts of risk and violence, as well as exit strategies from forced marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the pragmatic intensification as an argumentative strategy in the discourse delivered by the King of Spain Felipe VI on October 3rd, 2017, two days after the illegal independence referendum held in Catalonia on October 1st. The analysis of the different intensifying mechanisms, governed by the expressive and appellative functions in illocutionary and perlocutionary speech acts, shows, in the global discursive strategy, the confrontation between the constitutionalist and the independence ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a panoramic and comparative analysis of the legislation passed by the Autonomous Communities to tackle climate change. The Paris Agreement gives them a leading role, together with other actors, as subnational entities to face and achieve the challenges posed by climate change mitigation and adaptation. At the time of writing, only three autonomous communities have approved legislative instruments to mitigate and adapt to climate change. These are Catalonia, Andalusia, and the Balearic Islands. However, other regions have approved strategies and policies for the same purpose, and some have begun the process of approving the relevant legislation. In this paper we study the objectives to mitigate and adapt to climate change set out in these laws, the legal instruments they prescribe to achieve them, and their effective implementation and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of Catalonian nationalism has historically been a highly controversial subject in Spanish politics. Although relevant and debated for decades, we can observe significant changes in its dynamics throughout the years. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 laid out the current territorial organization of Spain as a «State of Autonomies», initially supported by the Catalonian nationalism movement. However, this support has gradually decreased to a blatant opposition. More recently, the Catalonian nationalism has evolved to a completely secessionist movement. An evident example of this is the referendum held on 10-1-17, as well as the protests and controversies surrounding it. This change of paradigm was not a sudden drift, but rather a gradual transition of the societal perception of the State of Autonomies and how the Spanish territorial administration affects Catalonia. This paper explores how the Constitutional Court ruling 31/2010 influenced this societal and political change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to think about the causes that precipitated the birth in Catalonia of the PSA, whose political activity in this territory was especially remarkable during the democratic transition, and also to analyze the strategy developed until the general elections in 1977. For this goal, we will both deal with the situation in which the dense Andalusian immigrant population in that territory found itself, and with the political action that the PSA militants in Catalonia stood from the end of 1976 to mid-1977. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a legal and also political reflection on the social and political debate generated in Spain as a result of the independence process initiated by the Catalan authorities in 2017. This year some laws were approved for the disconnection from the Spanish State and the holding of an illegal referendum in Catalonia. Those responsible were convicted and subsequently pardoned by the Government. It is considered that the instrument of pardon is the greatest interference of the political power over the judiciary and it is proposed to face a reform of the Law regulating this institution of grace that dates from 1870 but that never before, had generated the legal debate on the urgency of a reform that emphasizes greater requirements for its concession. Considering, the abuse of the pardon damages a basic pillar of democracy which is the basic judicial independence in a State under the rule of law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse the profile of young people who enter and progress through vocational training after compulsory schooling. We have used data from the student records of the Department of Education of the Generalitat de Catalunya for the cohort born in 2001, between the academic years 2016-17 and 2019-20. We reconstructed the pathways of CFGM students using an adaptation of the Lexis diagram, and compared the profile of thesestudents with that of those who enter the academic track using a binomial logarithmic regression. The main finding is that there is still a very strong association between low performance or dropout and orientation towards vocational training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the notion of global justice has marked the work of cooperation, peace, and human rights organizations in Catalonia, which has led to the conceptualization of a proposal to promote 'Education for Global Justice' (EpJG) in alliance with educational institutions and social movements. However, the theoretical foundations of EpJG are under construction and weakly articulated with practice. Therefore, this paper develops a conceptual framework of education and global justice and presents a documentary analysis of the main reflective material arising from the practices and experiences of the entities. In this context, a proposal for emancipatory education is observed that aims to provide insight into global ecology and interdependence, analyze the factors and causes responsible for inequalities in the world, and support critical educational innovation and the balance of knowledge. However, the proposal has certain limitations and requires addressing emerging issues to continue moving forward in these processes of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the public-private mix in the Spanish National Health System (SNS) presenting six case studies dealing with both insurance and provision: 1. The special health insurance of civil servants.' 2. The construction of public hospitals with a PFI scheme; 3. The total healthcare concessions of the 'Alzira model' in the Valencian Community and Madrid, which subcontract public insurance; 4. The contract between a large private teaching hospital and the Madrid Health Service; 5. The provision of primary health care in Catalonia through cooperative-like companies of health professionals; 6. A Children s Dental Care Program using public and private dentists. The great complexity, opacity, cost overruns and difficulty of public control of the PFI contracts, the concessions as well as the activity-based contract for hospital services, point out to the outright rejection of theses systems. The comparative nature of the public-private debate in healthcare should emphasize that the problems of 'the public' in the SNS are not due to its public nature but stem from its governance and management arrangements, clearly in need of deep reforms, many of which are included in the Conclusion-Dictamen on health of the Reconstruction Commission of the Congress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School leaders are usually provided with administration-led, fully structured programs for professional development. Research in this field identifies some common attributes for leadership that such programs try to convey. Although this is, and will continue to be, an important part of school leaders’ professional development, digital open content and open courses available and the easy accessibility to specialized networks and virtual communities expand opportunities for self-learning and self-development. In this context, the learning ecologies analysis framework proves useful in extending knowledge on what school leaders do for professional development, what they consider the most useful means for continuous updating and what the components of their individual learning ecologies are. This paper presents the most common strategies for professional development that school leader’s use in Catalonia (Spain), their balance between organized professional development activities and self-development, and how they assess the role digital technologies play in their learning ecologies. A survey with 48 questions was conducted with the aim of gathering information on school leaders’ continuing professional development in Catalan schools. Two hundred twelve school leaders answered the survey. Results focus on learning ecologies, more specifically on strategies for informal learning, forms of privileged training, ICT use and participation in professional networks and communities. Results demonstrate that almost half of the participants hold self-learning their usual professional development strategy. Results also show that school leaders who stay up to date through self-learning strategies, prefer online learning (resources, activities, courses) and use technology more intensively. Learning ecologies proved to be a useful framework for the analysis of the professional development strategies of school leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with the increasing emergence of new methodological approaches in the field of social science that stretch the dominant academic paradigm, this paper sets out to present some key analytical/methodological points that arose from a piece of militant research. In this case cartographic practice gave way to the implementation of narrative forms such as situated narratives and narrated interviews. The text offers a contribution to the development of these forms on the basis of analysis of a cooperative experiment in the context of Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2010 and the present, a deep constitutional crisis has developed in Catalonia, culminating in the referendum of October 1, 2017, but which remains open. The thesis of the present paper is that the response of the central institutions of the State to the demands of a part of the Catalan society in relation to its political recognition have been articulated around a framework of defense of the Constitution. This interpretation of the situation responds to the structural hyper-rigidity of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, as well as to the progressive elimination of the ambiguity that allowed to fit very diverse positions regarding the construction of the national identity, that culminates with the Decision of the Constitutional Court 30/2010. This context explains a reaction based on the defense of the Constitution that, on the one hand, does not allow to find a deliberative and consistent solution to the crisis, and, on the other hand, entails remarkable costs from the point of view of axiological core elements of the Constitution itself, such as the rights of political participation or the division of powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Salvados TV show, from the spanish channel La Sexta and directed by Jordi Évole, broadcast on October 28, 2018, analyzed what happened one year earlier during the 1-O independence referendum in Catalonia with interviews with its main protagonists. This show generated a great controversy and activity in social networks. The objective of this paper is to analyze the reactions on Twitter since the announcement of the show, a few days before, until the day after it. For this purpose, a massive collection of data is used, with a total of 15.464 tweets through the hashtag #ElDilemaSalvados. These tweets were subsequently analyzed to develop a user network and text mining research using big data techniques. It is studied who are the main users that generate content, if there are organized groups of diffusion, what are the main speeches and the assignment of feelings and associated emotions. It is concluded that there are well-differentiated groups, with independent discourses facing each other without relation. In addition, a greater percentage of negative feelings is observed and that the main emotions generated by the publications are trust and fear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses architecture semantics at the end of the Middle Ages, starting mainly with Catalonian and Valencian examples. First of all, we examine terms such as mestre d’obres, mestre de cases, and imaginaire, which are often used as synonyms. On the other hand, the study of many other less common ones, such as architect and builder, can help us to clarify a rather complex building reality. The analysis of the documents allows us to strengthen our understanding of the versatility of the medieval master builders, the prestige that some of them acquired, and the relationships that they established with other related professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1981 and 1982 the government of Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo developed a policy aimed at harmonizing and homogenizing the nascent "state of autonomies". Once the Statutes of Catalonia and the Basque Country were approved, it was a question of setting up a new model of territorial organization of the Spanish State. To this end, he sought the support of the PSOE and was opposed by the Basque and Catalan nationalists. This paper addresses this crucial and understudied period of recent history from original documentation from the Calvo-Sotelo Archive. The sources show the internal debates by the UCD government and help to clarify what the decision-making process was on a matter of such historical significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Spanish liberal period in the city of Barcelona the emergency of a new style of culture which came as a result of a complex society with historical features that set it apart. This cultural style could be seen in industrial, urban and economic growth, but also in the arts, recreational activities and also in ideology and politics. Given these circumstances and with an eye on social change and advances in production, and European policies, in Barcelona the first hygienic gymnasiums began to appear. The localisation and study of these gymnasiums is the main objective of this paper, which provides a space to be able to better interpret the emergence of physical and sports practices and their systemic and ideological relationship with other historical events. A review of the historical press deposited in the Library of Catalonia offers the possibility of more in-depth analysis and links the hermeneutic discourse to the support of other background and contextual studies. It is therefore concluded that the appearance of these gymnasiums was never associated with nationalising and patriotic ends, but with the modern, urban development of a liberal and private social framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most undergraduate programs of study in Catalonia, Spain, especially in the health sciences and psychology, lack a gender perspective in teaching. To fill this gap, a series of training workshops were designed with a gender perspective in content and methodology. This article explores the important role that the introduction of feminist methodologies and pedagogies can have in enhancing the quality of teaching through an experience using collective narratives of teachers and participants. The narratives were constructed from five discussion groups with a total sample of 20 people selected according to criteria of variability and representativeness. The two narratives reveal the processes the participants experienced during the workshops and how the integration of feminist methodologies and pedagogical approaches transform the shared construction of knowledge. The main conclusion is that the introduction of feminist methodologies and epistemologies allow us to critically reflect on our practices as trainers and students in the reproduction of gender power relations in and outside the classroom to become active subjects of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the place of education for youth and adults and education in contexts of deprivation of liberty in the National Educational Law, in the orientation that this conception gave to the National Ministry of Education policies and in that what enabled for jurisdictions, especially in Córdoba. It results of the doctoral thesis “Adult secondary education in the present. A comparative study between Córdoba (Argentina) and Catalonia (Spain)”and the research Production of meaning and subjectivity in the prison space: access to rights and justice”. Based on the analysis of the regulations and the national and provincial policies that it inspired, it is argued that education as a public good and social right represented a substantial turn in the policies for permanent youth and adult education and in confinement contexts modalities, notwithstanding the insufficient aspects of some actions and the various obstacles to access to education that still persist. It ends with questions about the course of this law within the framework of a socio-political, economic and cultural context very different from the one that favored its emergence and the clues that the current educational policy offers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the Catalan tourism sector progress and trend since the first Strategic Plan of Tourism in Catalonia 2005-2010 until the second Strategic Plan of Tourism of Catalonia 2013-2016 with the aim of guiding and making proposals to be included in the next Tourism Strategic Plan. The results show that, despite the second plan has progressed in some aspects with respect to the first; there are several factors that have not been corrected. In this sense, the analysis that we carry out highlights some trends than should be included in future tourism plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 19th century Spanish was established in schools in Catalonia in a context in which the majority of Catalan students were unfamiliar with this language. For this reason, various didactical materials that focused on the teaching of Spanish specifically for Catalan-speaking students were published. The main aim of this paper is to analyse El auxiliar del maestro catalán, one of the textbooks that was published in 1869 by Salvador Genís i Bech, a teacher from Girona. For this purpose, the current study approaches biographical information about the author, the history of the textbook, the main ideas that are found in its forewords, its structure and a critique that was published in 1885 about this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper makes a review of the decisions that the Spanish Constitutional Court has taken in its judgement 31/2010 regarding the rules about the judiciary in the Catalonia Act of 2006. After a short reference to the situation before this judgement, the paper analyzes the different points of it, from the language problems to the proposed Justice Council of Catalonia, looking also at the questions about the public prosecutor, the Superior Court, etc. The conclusion is that the judgement is a complete revision of the rules of the Catalonia Act in these matters, a revision that, through the interpretation of some norms, and the annulment of others, proceeds to defuse the value of that rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study based on the analysis of processes of socialization in a group of descendents of migrant families from Senegal with residence in Cataluña, Spain. I describe the patterns of socialization in order to establish a frame of reference to understand their ways of life and the impact of the migratory process in the society of destination. The paper is focused on the family relationships, in their particularities as socio-cultural group and in the aspects of their migratory processes. It is underlined the subjective dimension that implicates the recovery, by means of the ethnography, the socialization processes of the descendents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper collects a set of methodological aspects taken from the doctoral research of the author, which focuses on the construction of social identity in immigrant children at the Catalan coastal region of El Maresme (Spain). The author intends to contribute to the overcoming of methodological restrictions when conducting participant observation among children, which is strongly conditioned by an adult-centric power structure that mediates child-adult relationships in our culture, and considers children as unfinished, future-oriented versions of adults, or adults-in-the-making. Drawing on the author's own experiences this paper discusses some strategic practices that became extremely useful for building the rapport necessary to access these children's cultures and to understand children as an active and creative social group developing their own, and unique, systems of relations and meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attempt of this paper is to contribute to the ethnology about Gypsies, and social anthropology in general for present and future of studies on Gypsies. The article makes an analysis of the social and familiar organization of the Catalan Gypsies (Calós) of Mataro and presents some clues of research and conceptual orientations. The flexible functioning of bilateral kinship networks, the categorizations in kinship terminology and anthroponymy, the forms of individual and family nomination, and the alliance systems provide critical knowledge regarding genuine principles and categories with explanatory power of anthropology in general. Thereby, I try to clarify some productive ambiguities in the ethnography about the social organization of the Gypsies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homonationalism is a conceptual framework that allows to understand how the struggle for LGTB rights is being assimilated by national exceptionalism in order to constitute a geopolitical colonial differentiation. It builds equivalences between homosexual and national subject positions that allows the differentiation of subject positions and populations within the country and between countries, justifying policies based on the differentiation of human rights development. This phenomenon has been applied to the US and its theoretical development is being spreading throughout the world. In light of recent developments both in terms of national identity and LGTB legal rights, Catalonia could be susceptible of an exceptionalism that could lead to homonationalist discourses. This paper explores the homonationalist discourse in Catalonia using narratives from LGTBI activists. Participants identify a homonationalist discourse and recognise the presence of homo-normativity questioned by the activist. Nevertheless, a homonationalist geopolitical hierarchy is not appreciated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss the discourses about the health privatization from the analysis of interviews and manifests of three Catalan movements: Centre d'Anàlisis i Programes Sanitaris (Caps), Grup de Defensa de Sanitat Pública (15MBCNSalut) and Plataforma Pel Dret a la Salut (PDS). The content analysis has been adopted as methodology. The analysis has evidenced a dichotomy between public and private systems as a duality that structures discourses favoring the public model and the great efforts made by the movements to guarantee that model. This has shaped the movements as a revolutionary force that defends the public system from private threats by assuming that it essentially represents the people's ideals. The debate between the traditional and the new in social action has been central to the analysis, as well as the problem of coexistence of different models of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adherence to treatment in intervention programs for male perpetrators of intimate partner violence is one of the most relevant factors of the effectiveness of prevention of intimate partner violence. Despite controversies arising from different studies on this subject, there is unanimity in highlighting the key role that participants' motivation plays in adherence to treatment and program completion. Techniques ensuring participants' motivation in therapeutic programs include proactive retention techniques. In this paper we analyze the effect of proactive retention techniques at the beginning and throughout the treatment sessions in an intervention program for male perpetrators of intimate partner violence. The results indicate that both proactive retention techniques and support influence adherence to treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The units or training centers (ICE IDES CQUID, ELC) of the eight public universities in Catalonia, constituted as Interuniversity Group on Teacher Education (GIFD), are currently undergoing a reformulation process concerning the training activities and plans being offered to university teachers, in order to facilitate the development of their teaching activity. The rethinking of their actions is born from a common interest linking the quality of university teachers' training with coherent approaches in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). This interest and concern has led the group to conduct a research study with the objective of establishing a set of standard teaching skills for the faculty staff to master, with the purpose of successfully undertaking the development of the new degree courses in line with the directives of the European Higher Education Area. This paper contains a thorough examination and analysis regarding the main features that activities and training programs aimed at teachers should include, in order to facilitate the performance of the teaching activity itself, by focusing at the work of training units or training centers, at the academic institutions where they belong, and at the related agencies, and by requesting them to update their educational tasks in order to meet the new requirements that the role of teachers demand. The aim of this work is to stimulate thought and to generate a debate on the direction that university teachers' training must follow, not only as a strategic element of the institution, but also contributing to achieve the quality objectives to which universities have committed themselves in the process of validating the new degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entry into Barcelona of the Nationalist troops in January 1939 and the taking over of official information in the city by the Director of the Servicio Nacional de Propaganda, the poet Dionisio Ridruejo , meant the end of the style of information dissemination established by the democratic government. Ridruejo replaced the journalist Jaume Miravitlles, who throughout the war headed the Comissariat de Propaganda, the official organ of the autonomous government of Catalonia. This paper attempts to reconstruct and analyse the final efforts of official republican propaganda in Catalonia, and contrasts them with the propaganda of occupied Barcelona, which, in nationalist terminology, had just been ‘liberated’. We will analyse how the end of the Civil War represents the replacement of propaganda carried out by professionals in persuasion by an alternative supervised, and, often dictated, by the military. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fruit and vegetable cooperatives are major players in Mediterranean agriculture and play an important role in its development in Catalonia. This paper aims to analyse the economic and financial situation of this kind of cooperative in the province of Tarragona from an empirical study based on the analysis of the annual accounts for the years 2005 to 2009. A study has been carried out on the composition of their assets and liabilities, the main items in their profit and loss accounts and the principal economic and financial ratios of these entities using a dynamic analysis and an analysis based on scatter diagrams using linear regression. In this study it will be shown that these cooperatives find themselves in an unfavourable economic and financial situation, aggravated by the economic crisis and that size is not a determining factor for the improvement of said situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the students' assessment practices employed by the university teacher in the European Higher Education Area context. The objectives are to describe the evaluation practices and to identify the preferred evaluation model and its implementation at three of the Catalan Universities. The methodology consists of an administration of a face-to-face questionnaire to a sample of university professors. The results demonstrate that the assessment practices are still focused on the learning aspects and just a few teachers are involved in assessment by competences strategies. The interpretation of the results leads to a better understanding of the present scenario and suggests changes to improve the adaptation of the competencies evaluation model in the ECTS context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze the legitimacy of hidden camera like a research method in journalism. This analysis is proposed from three different perspectives: legal, deontological and journalists' opinion on practical dilemmas. The conclusions obtained in each of these areas are complementary and provide more specific criteria to deal with hard case in which journalist is torn between the right to citizens" information and respect for the law and deontological codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of 2008, the Generalitat of Catalonia made to known the results of a new study. These data have re-opened the eternal debate about the linguistic competences of the Catalan students. Using this document, as a starting point, this paper pursues an analysis of the most outstanding information from the Study in relation to the stated linguistic abilities, emphasizing some of the most important challenges for the Educational System: to improve the levels of knowledge in Catalan, Spanish and foreign languages, and the need to look for a further equity among native and immigrant schoolchildren in the access to the languages of the school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the pattern of territorial organization established in the Spanish Constitution of 1978 creates non-statewide institutions with legislative powers, and regional elections are held in order to choose non-national deputies. Turnout in these contests is usually lower than the one registered in the national congressional elections. The paper argues that some special groups of voters are particularly prone to vote in national but not in regional elections. This phenomenon, that is called differential turnout, is studied in the 2005 Basque Country and 2006 Catalonia regional elections. Econometric models show a relationship between voters' judgements on the performance of the regional incumbent and the quality of non-national candidates, on one side, and the propensity of differential turnout, on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While significant attention has been put to the factors which influence both the adoption of electoral quotas and the effectiveness of quota reform processes, we still know very little about the potentially distinct characteristics of women elected with and without positive action measures. In addition, the predictions put forward by opponents to quotas affecting candidate selection processes and candidates' profiles have barely been tested. This paper will examine the Catalan parliament in the period 1980-2010 in order to explore quotas' effects on recruitment processes and to examine women's profiles prior and after quota adoption. When analyzing candidate selection processes, predictions on the formation of a glass ceiling for women and the insufficient number of women willing to become candidates are tested. The study of women's profiles evaluates whether predictions on inferior qualification and tokenism by 'quota women' are confirmed by empirical evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the Constitutional Court case on the Preamble of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia (STC 31/2010). For the Spanish Court, the Statute cannot be regarded as an original Constitution derived from a constituent power. On the contrary, the Statute is a law derived from the Spanish Constitution. From this point of view, we analyze the following issues: a) first, the possibility of a constitutional control of the preambles of the laws; b) secondly, the question about the meaning and scope of the effectiveness of the preamble regarding the terms of nation and national reality of Catalonia; c) thirdly, the reasoning of the Courts on historical law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of the Councils of Justice in the «second generation» Statutes of Autonomy responds to one of the most important demands that the Autonomous Communities are doing on matter of justice as a means to bring it to the decentralized structure of the State at its highest stage of evolution, because of the the inability of the system for constitutional reform and the absence of a response in the successive reforms of the organic law. The model embodied in the Catalonian and Andalusian Statutes was characterized by creating, with reference to the organic law, a state organ subordinate to the General Council of the Judiciary, as a decentralized body, also fulfilling articulation functions of the competencies of the Autonomous Community on «administration of the Administration of justice». This model has been very controversial in the literature as regards its compliance with the constitutional framework and, finally, declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court, with a decision that has serious contradictions, in the Judgement 31/2010 about the Statue of Catalonia. This paper analyzes the status quaestionis of this matter in an evolutionary perspective of the autonomous State and critically examines the doctrine established in this Judgement by the Constitutional Court, proposing as a possible solution to the created situation, the reform of the Organic Law of the Judicial Power in the same direction and size covered by the statutory reforms and the lines put in the deceased Draft Law amending the Organic Law 6 / 1985, July 1, of the the Judicial Power, on justice of proximity and Justice Councils, approved by the Council of Ministers on December 23, 2005. Such reform, combining the functions now fulfilled by the Boards of Governance of the Superior Courts of Justice with others related to the field of competences of the Autonomous Communities, would allow, in addition to a closer proximity to the social reality of justice, a higher degree of integration and coordination between the two levels of government in this area, thus highlighting the statehood of the government's judicial branch referred to an overall conception of the State and helping to strengthen the unity of the Judiciary in a state that possesses a federal logic and rationality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on the results of a research project with the aim of analyzing the content of four TV programs specifically addressed to infants, broadcast by a network of the autonomous community Cataluña. The analysis was aimed at correlating each TV program content with the cognitive competences and age required to watch it. The content analysis was realised using a semi-structured observational grid specifically designed to facilitate data acquisition and statistical analysis. Results show that each programme requires the watching child to have reached a specific cognitive development phase, which can be established by content analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a research project carried out by the «Centre de Recerca del Treball i la Vida Quotidiana» (QUIT) of the Universitad Autònoma de Barcelona on prison work in Catalonia. Our starting hypotheses were as follows: working and learning a trade contribute to reintegration into the labour market and thereby to the future social integration of inmates; and the more resources the penitentiary system in question provides, the better it will fulfill the duty that society entrusts to it. For the basis of our study we used a representative survey of inmates who work in the nine prisons of Catalonia. In addition, we conducted in-depth interviews with experts and people in charge of the penitentiary system, and visited various prison workshops to observe the inmates at work and conduct interviews with them. The result of the study has allowed us to confirm that prison work acquires several functions. Firstly, it provides inmates with earnings that enable them to meet personal or family needs. Working in prison allows them to make better use of their time and helps to avoid conflictive situations. It also provides working habits and improves social relationships. In spite of the fact that only a few of the jobs enable inmates to learn a trade, they appreciate the work they do inasmuch as it helps them to “normalize” everyday life in prison, while at the same time offering them prospects for future reintegration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the task carried out by professors of different subjects of Survey Engineering is shown within a teaching innovation project with financial help of the UPC (Technical University of Catalonia). The tool has been developed for helping the students to solve practical problems which involve several subjects, and consists of the following parts: a data base of realistic problems with virtual observations of topography or photogrammetric surveys, the necessary theory to find the solution together with the mathematical tools to make the matrix calculus, and finally, in order to check the learning progress and the degree of assimilation of the subjects, a set of self assessment tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rector Gabriel Ferraté Library (BRGF) at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) has recently launched an electronic books lending service. This paper describes the experience of evaluating the e-book readers in the current market, the content to be made available on these devices, and how well they actually work, as well as the results of 2 months of ongoing service. Finally, it points to short-term future actions with all four copies of iRex iLiad 2nd Edition available in the library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the processes of transition experienced by young men and women as a privileged field for identifying elements of permanence and change in relation to schooling processes, professional insertion models and the emergence of new varieties of family emancipation. Taking a biographical approach to transition as the point of departure, some results of previous studies made by the GRET are presented and compared with the results of the Catalonia 2002 Survey on Young People. This allows us a glimpse at dominant and emerging professional insertion models in relation to models that are recessive at the present time. One of the major changes detected in relation to insertion models refers to the increase in qualification levels among young women and the fact that they are working in more qualified jobs, in comparison with their male counterparts. However, these changes survive with the old forms of employment inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]