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This paper challenges the idea - rooted in classic assimilation theory - that intermarriage clearly erodes social and ethno-racial boundaries and negative attitudes between groups. Drawing on narratives from 58 immigrants of seven different origin countries residing in Catalonia, Spain, who are in romantic partnerships with Spanish-born people, we focus on preferences and prejudices related to mixing. We find that the members of exogamous couples both suffer social discrimination regarding the crossing of ethnocultural borders, particularly from their respective family members - a rejection that is based on negative stereotypes and preconceptions linked to the partner's origin, phenotype or ethnocultural characteristics, such as religion, in intersection with gender. More significantly, we also find that ethno-racial prejudices (particularly when referring to marriage preferences for the respondents and their children) and discriminatory attitudes (towards one's own and other immigrant minority groups) also exist among intermarried couples themselves. In sum, we question the role of mixed unions as a diluter of differences and an accelerator of integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1998, opposition to mosques has occurred in 47 different Spanish cities. While such opposition is not uncommon in the post-September 11th world, the level of regional variation within Spain is striking. In most regions with large Muslim populations, opposition to mosques is virtually absent, whereas in Catalonia opposition has taken place in 27 different cities. This paper explains why mosque opposition has been more frequent in Catalonia than in other Spanish regions. Drawing on the work of Sewell, a multi-causal argument is advanced that considers conjunctural circumstances, structural preconditions, and strategic interactions. It is argued that while terrorist attacks and rapid immigration have raised concerns across the country, opposition has tended to occur only in locales where there is a predisposition among certain collectives to opposing mosques. In Catalonia, these locales are generally characterized by dense civic ties and a high proportion of internal migrants. By analyzing regional variation and popular mobilization, this study helps to fill major gaps in the literature on Islam in the "West," which has tended to view national contexts as monolithic and to focus exclusively on elite-driven policies and discourses. It also sheds light on intergroup relations more generally and the conditions under which they are likely to become contentious. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some authors, most of them from the United States, have stated that university students born after 1982 have been profoundly influenced by the advent of digital technologies, showing different characteristics when compared to previous generations. These students, called the Net Generation, are supposed to have some particular characteristics related to the use of ICT. However, are those students at the UOC born after the 80s really more familiar with ICT tools than those born in previous generations? Do they show different study habits and learning paths? Different research lines highlight that scientific data or statistics are rarely used when discussing this generation's characteristics. The international research project, Digital Learners in Higher Education seeks to develop a sophisticated and evidence-based understanding of university learners in different institutional contexts and the perception of cultures in their use of technology in a social and educational context. This research project is led by the British Columbia Institute of Technology and includes the University of Regina and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). The cases consist of three distinct postsecondary institutional contexts: a Canadian polytechnic teaching institution (BCIT), a Canadian research-intensive university (University of Regina) and a European fully online university (Open University of Catalonia). In the first phase of the research, BCIT partners designed a survey. Later, the UOC partners adapted the survey to the characteristics of their all-in-programs "ICT Competences" course. In this paper, the 1,036 student responses to the survey are deeply analysed in order to demonstrate that there is no statistically significant relationship between our student's age and the Net Generation's characteristics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blogs have lately become one of the most known Web 2.0 tools and a common form of expression for the users of the Internet. Conscious of this fact, teachers are currently using blogs as learning and teaching tools. The Bologna process has signified an important change in the education paradigm. Competency-based design and assessment is just one of the aspects that has changed and is perhaps one of the most critical ones. However, are our students aware of its competencies acquisition? Do it actually have a bearing on their own learning process? For all these reasons, a research group led by the University of Barcelona proposes to carry out a project called "Formative competency-based assessment through blogs". This project consists in the design, implementation and evaluation of a blog-based model for student assessment based on competencies. We have implemented the model in six universities and in different faculty degrees: pedagogy, social education, engineering, communication and Catalan literature. We will study one of these experiences in-depth and which was carried out in the "ICT Competences" course of the Catalan literature program degree at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). In this course, the blog is used as a platform to reflect about the learning process and about competencies' acquisition. This paper presents the results based on students' questionnaires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the political legitimization of anarchosyndicalism in Catalonia, Spain, during 1904-1908. The author argues over the decisive role of antirepression campaigns in shaping Catalan political history and also discusses the usefulness of their examination in understanding the legitimization and success of the radical anarchist movement in the region. The author has challenged political-cultural arguments attributing anarchism's success in Catalonia to the presence of Catalanism using an analysis of the campaign against the proposed Law for the Repression of Terrorism of 1908.

Immigration from poor countries has significantly increased in southern Europe since 1996, just as it had done previously in northern Europe and the United States. Therefore, there is a growing need to evaluate the integration of students into high schools, as their first step to integrating in Catalan and Spanish society. The study focuses on first-generation students in different multicultural classrooms. It aims to evaluate the relationships between students of different ethnicities and races, and to focus on intercultural education in Catalan high schools in order to achieve future social cohesion. The study analyzes not only possible racist attitudes and conflicts among pupils but also antiracist and multicultural education, and teachers' practices in sheltered Catalan immersion classrooms (aules d'acollida) and mainstream classrooms. It also tries to highlight those features of the immersion system that contrast with the bilingual model and their main consequences. Student relations are very much determined by ethnicity and drop-out rates are high among some communities (e.g. the Moroccans). Although some quantitative data has been used, the study is mainly based on qualitative research carried out in six different Catalan high schools and one from Massachusetts (United States) during the academic year 2007/08. Methodologically, the study is based on classroom observations and interviews with teachers and other education professionals (staff, mediators, politicians), and uses a grounded perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]