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For over five centuries the Gitanos/Calé of Spain have shown a marked preference for marrying within their ethnocultural community. In the last decades, however, various Gitano groups have experienced a rise in intermarriage that is transforming their families, their identities and their interactions with mainstream society. This paper analyzes this historical transformation in an area of Andalusia that shows some of the highest concentrations of Romani people in Western Europe. Ethnographic and historical-demographic research allowed the reconstitution of 3,336 Gitano families formed from 1900 to 2006. Of these 421 (12,6%) were mixed. This rate increased to over 25% in the 2000s, and in some localities about half of the recent Gitano marriages were mixed. Three major findings emerge from this case study. Firstly, the local environment plays a key role in intermarriage. Local history generated different intercultural environments and relationships in adjacent municipalities, leading to diverse levels of intermarriage. Secondly, more Gitanas are marrying non-Gitano men than vice versa. Since 1990 Gitanas made 60% of all mixed unions. Thirdly, Gitanas in mixed marriages tend to marry later and to have fewer children than those in endogamous unions. Thus, these women may have been trailblazers in the fertility transitions of Gitano women. The paper hypothesizes that the incorporation of the Gitano/Calé people into the institutions of the Welfare State has favored interactions across ethnic boundaries, reduced social distance, and facilitated intermarriage. The upward mobility of some Gitano families may be turning socioeconomic and educational homogamy against ethnic endogamy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we problematise the relationship between racism and immigrant integration policies. First, we approach racism from its geopolitical/institutional/governmental logic and contextualise the emergence of integration policies across the European Union. Then, we put into dialogue the fieldwork materials of our research projects, analysing intersections between the EU and Spanish integration policy frameworks. Despite the inclusive and proactive rhetoric often expressed by integration policies, we illustrate the existence of an 'elective affinity' between racism and integration by focusing on: (1) the construction of migrants as a problematic 'object' of governmental intervention; (2) the reduction of racism to an individual pathology and the underestimation of its institutional/structural dimensions; (3) the reproduction of epistemic racism through the discourse on European (and national) values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze the logic of economic incentive from the perspective of the teaching staff working within the Andalusian (Spain) state education system. We start from the interpretive paradigm in order to understand how neoliberalisation processes and the New Public Management (NPM) are perceived within the context of state education in Spain. Drawing on thirty interviews, conducted with secondary school teachers, we offer a content analysis and their assembly with the grounded theory. Our main focus is on how economic incentives are perceived in terms of their either acceptance, or rejection, by the teaching staff. The NPM is spreading throughout the field of education, as is teacher resistance and opposition to these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial accessibility as a way of ensuring financial inclusion has received increasing attention. However, most of studies have drawn attention to the likelihood of becoming branchless and not on the differential characteristics of branchless municipalities. The aim this paper is to assess financial accessibility in branchless municipalities of the most populated region of Spain, Andalusia, and to examine their distribution across space. To that end, we identify the nearest bank branch for each branchless municipality. In addition, we incorporate socio-economic characteristics of each municipality in order to identify different groups of branchless municipalities. The results obtained suggest that there are substantial differences across branchless municipalities. In particular, we identify two degrees of financial accessibility: moderate and poor. Population dynamics are revealed as a key factor in explaining financial accessibility although this can be ameliorated by a higher per capita income and a greater industrial specialization. From a territorial point of view, we find a high concentration of branchless municipalities across space. Some initiatives should be taken in order to avoid that people become financially excluded. In this sense, local action groups responsible for rural development policies could identify the main negative effects and propose the most suitable alternative services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The education of social workers in the Spanish university is structured around the professional competencies that will subsequently be applied in the labour market. As social work is a profession focused on the provision of social welfare and the prevention of social exclusion, it is expected of social workers that they become analytical, thoughtful professionals within their environment and that they play an active role in preventing social exclusion and inequality. However, there are important splits and contradictions between the official recognition of such competencies by universities and their effective implementation in the labour market. In this paper we analyse the main constraints and contradictions involved in the acquisition of the professional skills of social workers in their transition to the labour market. To do this, we focus on the specific case competencies in professional field of the third sector in Andalusia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moroccan and Spanish cultures have lived side by side in Andalusia for over five centuries, from the time of Al-Andalus. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the recent waves of migration brought on by globalisation, a new encounter is taking place in Andalusia between these two cultures from opposite shores of the Mediterranean. In this context, Moroccan families who have settled in Andalusia need to construct their personal identity within very different cultural scenarios from their own. This paper presents a qualitative analysis based on four case study families of Moroccan origin who have taken up residence in Andalusia. This multiple case study seeks to gain an insight into the upbringing practices and values used by parents. It also describes conflicts, expectations and strategies used by Moroccan adolescents, who participated in this study, in the constructing their identity in Andalusia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present paper is to study the influence of air temperature on the start of Quercus pollination in Córdoba (Andalusia, Spain). Sixteen years of pollen counts were used. The start date of the pollen season in this period varied between 26[sup th] February and 7[sup th] April. Chilling requirements and heat accumulation were taken into account although no significant correlation between chilling hours and the start date was observed. Five different predictive methods based on heat accumulation were compared in this paper: 1) Number of days over a threshold; 2) Heat Units (accumulated daily mean temperature after deducting a base temperature); 3) Growing Degrees Days (Snyder 1988), as a measure of physiological growing time; 4) Accumulated maximum temperatures; and 5) Mean maximum temperature. Results indicated that the optimum base temperature for heat accumulation was 11 C[sup o]. This threshold was used in the first three methods mentioned above. Good statistical results were obtained with the five methods, yielding high levels of explanation (p~99%). Nevertheless, the most accurate method appeared to be the Growing Degree Days (GDD[sup o]) method, which indicated that a mean of 127.3 GDD[sup o] must be accumulated from the end of the chilling period up to the beginning of the Quercus pollen season in Córdoba (South West Spain). Results were tested for predicting start dates in 1999 and 2000. The predicted dates were only one day after the actual dates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses technical performance in the water industry in the Southern European region of Andalusia, while accounting for sustainability in the management of water. This allows the opportunity cost of producing sustainability to be evaluated. Given the low cost of raw water in Spain in relation to the estimated opportunity cost of saving this natural resource, wasting water becomes a profitable strategy for utility managers from a private perspective. However, this managerial strategy has a huge social cost in an area of Europe where the sustainable management of water is a pressing need. The conclusion is that environmental policy aimed at discouraging this wasteful behaviour is urgently needed. For this reason, a suitable mix of environmental taxes on water abstraction and institutional reforms is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the emergence of collaborative interaction among early secondary learners in bilingual sections at state schools in Andalusia. These sections are organised in line with a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach. By transcribing and then analysing data from oral interviews conducted with randomly selected pairs of CLIL learners and mainstream (MS) peers, the article compares and discusses the quantity and quality of collaboration evidenced in turn-taking patterns. In doing so it also proposes a pragmatic, participant-based approach to the initial classification of turns, prior to more functionally aligned analysis. Four initial turn types are identified in the data but while all four obviously contribute to the overall ongoing talk, only two are deemed inherently collaborative. These are embedded turns, where one speaker contributes to another speaker's main turn, and cooperative turns, where two or more speakers jointly construct the message. Once identified, each of these turn types was examined for patterns of functional use. The research finds that the CLIL learners are participating both more frequently and more effectively in collaborative turns than their MS counterparts. In closing we briefly discuss some of the implications of this finding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyses tourist experience, studying the existing differences among geographical zones within a broader tourist destination with provincial character. Planning and management of tourist destinations must pay special attention to the maintenance and conservation of natural and artificial resources in tourist supply, attempting to improve their competitive position. Hence, this study compares several Andalusian coastal municipalities through different components of tourist supply. Among other obtained results, findings indicate the existence of significant differences in urban environments among the municipalities of Almeria, in beach quality among the municipalities of Cadiz and in accommodation among the municipalities of Malaga. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]