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Since 2000, urban regeneration programmes in Spain have progressively involved greater integration and complexity. As a result, the management of the regeneration process has taken on greater significance. One of the determining factors has been rehabilitation companies. The paper examines the impact of their characteristics on the implementation of the programmes. A comparison of the 22 companies in operation in the Basque Country of Spain shows that more integrated approaches are considerably greater in those municipalities in which the companies are operating. Supra-municipal organizations are more effective than municipal ones in small-scale poly-nuclear urban systems such as the Basque Country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the study of the role of public policies in the origins and evolution of clusters. Building on the existing literature, we set up a taxonomy of nine public policies that may have an impact on the emergence and evolution of clusters. Based on in-depth case studies of six clusters of the Basque Country, particularly representative of the industrial history of the region, we analyse the relevance of the different types of policies both in the emergence and evolution of clusters over time. In agreement with cluster literature, the paper concludes that public policies seem to have played only an indirect role across clusters and over their life cycles. Moreover, it points to the necessity of taking history and context into account, as most of the important policy measures highlighted by cluster literature today do not fit well with the previous policy and economic context. Finally, it also concludes that for cluster policies to be effective, the stages of the life cycle should be taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In late 2011, the Spanish terrorist organization ETA announced the end of armed violence after more than forty years of illegal activity. While the existing literature has already established the negative impact of terrorist actions on international tourism in a particular region, this paper aims to determine whether ETA’s final ceasefire and definitive dissolution had a positive impact on domestic tourism in Basque Country. To that end, a directed gravity model is estimated over a panel data-set of 699 domestic tourist flows between the Spanish regions from 2008 to 2013. Results suggest that the negative impact on visitor flows was localized in the Basque Country. Also, regardless of a permanent ceasefire announced in 2010, only the 2011 ‘definitive cessation of violence’ had an immediate significant impact on the number of visitors to the Basque Country. These results complement the scarce literature on post-conflict tourism analysis and may have implications for regional authorities in affected regions in their efforts to rebuild their destination brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines issues related to the important impact of language policy in the Basque Country in recent decades. Basque, a minority language that was not allowed in the public space until the late 1970s, is an official language along with Spanish in the Basque Autonomous Community. The development of Basque has been most significant in education where it is not only a school subject but also the main language of instruction for most children. The paper briefly summarises this development and then moves to a focus on the use of Basque at the university level. The legal and organisational bases supporting the use of Basque are explained as well as the challenges faced by a minority language in higher education. The paper discusses the tension between internationalisation and the use of Basque for teaching and research in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the situation of Basque in education in the Basque Autonomous Community. First, it provides statistical information about four crucial aspects of bilingual education: (1) Parental choice regarding the linguistic model, that is, the use of Basque, Spanish or both Basque and Spanish as languages of instruction over the last 20 years; (2) teachers' proficiency in Basque and the special programmes for teachers to learn Basque; (3) teaching and learning materials including audiovisual and software materials; (4) promotion of the use of Basque at school including some special projects. The second part of the paper compares the situation and challenges Basque was facing in the 1970s before Basque became an official language and nowadays. This comparison shows that even though there have been important achievements regarding the use of Basque as the language of instruction and the number of Basque-speaking teachers at school, Basque continues to be a 'small' language. In the last part of the paper the possible ways to overcome current and future challenges are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an evaluation carried out from 1999 to 2003 in 55 schools in the Basque Autonomous Community involving more than 10,000 secondary school students. The variables measured include achievement in Spanish, metacognitive skills, learning strategies and variables related to the students' family environment. The measurements were made at three different times in the last year of primary, and second and fourth years of secondary school. The main aim of this research study is to conduct a longitudinal study of the students' achievement using a measuring unit which can be used for the three measurements for all the students. The data reported in this paper focus on proficiency in the Spanish language. Data were analysed using a hierarchical linear model (HLM) with three levels: (1) the three students' measures at three different points in time; (2) individual variables related to the students; and (3) the variables related to the schools. The paper presents a model of change in achievement in Spanish by examining the influence of background variables including socioeconomic status (SES) of the family and the school, gender, and type of school (private or public). The results indicate that there is a linear increase of scores in Spanish along the school grades. D model students with Basque as the language of instruction obtain lower results than the rest of the students. Other variables such as gender, SES (family and school) and metacognition also have a significant effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the concept of Smart Specialization was launched, an effort has been made to clarify and establish criteria for its implementation. Part of the difficulties in implementing Research and Innovation Smart Specialization Strategies (RIS3) is their emphasis on bottom-up approaches, which are required because there are public and private stakeholders that are better positioned than governments to find the domains in which the region is likely to excel. Regions must shift towards a new generation of industrial policy and the difficulties for advancing in this direction are already visible. Designing and implementing a smart specialisation strategy at regional level: Some open questions. The centrality of entrepreneurial discovery in building and implementing a smart specialisation strategy. Efforts to implement smart specialization in practice – leading unlike horses to the water. The paper is based on four cases related to governance and learning for smart specialization in the Basque Country (Spain) and presents three main lessons learnt. The first has to do with connections between regional and sub-regional governments in order to construct networks of territorial actors that can act as the senses of governments in the territory. The second is about the challenge of handling complexity and conflict and the third is about the integration of social researchers in RIS3 processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the creation of the schools called ikastolas throughout the Basque Country from the 1960s onwards. The name ikastola refers to a unique school model whose major characteristic is to teach the majority of subjects in the Basque language, or euskera. It outlines the reasons why some of these schools took a co-operative organisational form and describes their major characteristics. The first part analyses the opportunities created under the Francoist regime for this kind of school, despite the repressive character of the dictatorship in other fields. The second part of the paper examines the important influence of the Mondragón co-operative movement, especially through its financial institution, in the creation of these educational co-operatives. The third and last part emphasises the role played by social mobilisation in defence of the Basque language in the creation of these schools and how this factor tied in with a co-operative governance system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Congregation of the Brothers of Christian Schools (the De La Salle Brothers) has grown since its arrival in Spain in 1878, and today it is the second most important Congregation – in terms of the number of students and schools – in the private school sector in Spain. This article aims to present, first, the educational contributions of De La Salle, which are based upon discipline, Catholic schooling and popular education. This pedagogical approach became the foundation of traditional education, and was a success in their schools and a model for other institutions. Second, our study is focused on the situation of the De La Salle schools in the Basque Country during the Franco regime. The case of the Basque Country is very important, because it showed a significant increase in centres for vocational training and secondary education. The paper concludes that the De La Salle schools make up a Catholic school model adapted to the educational and social reality of the Basque Country and that, during the Franco regime, the model went through a period which balanced tradition and modernity regarding educational provision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

In this paper, we discuss a model for pseudo-panel data when some but not all of the individuals stay in the sample for more than one period. We use data on the labor market of the Basque Country from 1993 to 1999 treated through FORTRAN 77 programing. We construct economically reasonable age cohorts for active population and use gender, qualification and social status as explanatory variables in our model. Given the class of data we use, we analyze the properties of the random error and estimate the model through maximum likelihood, finding significant results from an applied point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we aim at evaluating the role of path-dependent and past-dependent forces in the historical trajectory of clusters. For that purpose, we study the life cycles of four of the main industrial clusters in the Basque Country (paper-making, electronics and information and communication technology, maritime industries and aeronautics) and analyse the factors that account for the origin, development, maturity and, if so, decline of those clusters, considering factors related to both cluster dynamics and the regional environment. Our analysis shows that the existence of a life cycle does not imply a straightforward growth path. Clusters follow multiple growth patterns in their development. The heterogeneity of growth patterns may be, in some cases, due to different initial conditions. However, despite similar initial conditions and/or resource endowments and opportunities for development, we can observe heterogeneous evolutionary patterns. Clusters react differently to the same external shocks (e.g. international demand, global competition and technological change) and evolve differently according to their capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines successful policy network (henceforth PN) practices in the Basque Country over an 18-year period, in relation to Cluster Associations, Quality Promotion and Local Agenda 21 Promotion. Basing our work on the Basque experience and on previous multi-disciplinary knowledge regarding learning processes, networking management and marketing, we contribute new insights that help to understand how PN management evolves. The need to analyse PN from an evolutionary perspective has been pinpointed by the various traditions of network research as one of the main gaps in the study of networking. Our research shows that expertise in PN management is generated through a long, performance-oriented dilemma-solving process that takes place in time and space. The first experiences provide initial knowledge and absorptive capacity, both of which improve through new and diverse experiences of increasing complexity. Step by step, a quantity of tacit and codified knowledge is created and shared, mainly through face-to-face contact, within the territory. Finally, the knowledge achieved is substantially similar to the normative knowledge that, though sparse, can be found in various networking literatures and needs to be brought together. But we also suggest that more emphasis on PN marketing is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies an “innovation gap” in the (in)efficient relation between innovation structures and production systems in SME-based economies and, by elucidating an implicit aspect of key theoretical contributions from Lundvall and Cooke, among others, sets the basis for a policy focus that may help reducing those margins of inefficiency. In this work, we identify three interdependent drivers of innovation: the “critical mass” of firms in a specific geographical location; the formation of “organizations” devoted to the creation and diffusion of knowledge and innovations; the ignition of “learning processes” within the production system that help catalyse significant innovations within the local economy. We suggest that the importance of processes of codified knowledge flows needs to be complemented by interactive flows of tacit knowledge that help overcoming the “innovation gap” that often exists between firms and knowledge institutions. Since this gap represents the inefficiency of the innovation structures, we suggest that it should be targeted by policy-makers and business associations as a central issue for innovation promotion through actions that intensify interactions and learning processes through bottom-up initiatives. These elements are analysed in a furniture cluster in the Basque Country and are highlighted on the basis of successful micro-territorial experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last 15 years, terrorist activity in the Basque Country has substantially decreased and strategies have changed. Whilst the type of killings has become more specialised (politicians, reporters, etc.), a new phenomenon based on urban guerrilla tactics, and called in Basque 'kale borroka' (street fighting), has emerged, creating an atmosphere of violence in the streets. The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, we create a daily measure of the level of violence in the area. Second, we examine if police action and the repressive policy measures adopted by the government since 2001 have been effective in reducing the intensity of violence. Third, we investigate whether the level of violence has had an effect on the stock market index in the Basque Country. The results, based on daily data from 1 July 2001 to 15 November 2005, suggest that the only effective measure to reduce violence was the banning of Herri Batasuna (HB), the radical party close to ETA supporters. Moreover, there was a decrease in the stock market index as a consequence of the violence in the area during the period under analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public policies (often at the regional level) favouring pre-competitive research and cooperative research and development have played a decisive role in the development of technology centres in Europe and all over the world. The technology offer model gave priority to the creation of technology transfer organizations and structures, but there is increasing evidence that this model did not attach enough attention to the needs of small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and in particular, to their capacity to take in knowledge. In this paper, based on qualitative research, we show in detail some of the main issues involved in the relationships between technology centres and SMEs in the Basque Country, a region that has developed intensive policies favouring technology transfer organizations over the years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistics for small areas within larger regions are recently required for many economic variables. However, when adding the estimates of the small areas within the larger regions, the results do not match up to those obtained with the appropriate estimator originally derived for the larger region. To avoid discrepancies between estimates benchmarking methods are commonly used in practice. In this paper, we discuss the suitability of using a restricted predictor versus a traditional direct calibrated estimator. The results are illustrated with the 2000 Business Survey of the Basque Country, Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spain took in more immigrants than any other European country in 2005, a fact which has had a clear impact on the education system. This paper examines the language attitudes held by 125 local or autochtonous (42.4%) and immigrant (57.6%) students in the Basque Country. The results showed that both groups of students held rather negative attitudes towards Basque,whereas their attitudes towards Spanish were very favourable. As for English, immigrant students' attitudes were far more positive than those of their local counterparts. Finally, the immigrant students' attitudes towards their own languages were the most positive in the battery. The participants' responses confirm the need to include a language awareness component in the Basque secondary education curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the experience of many years of teaching in two or three languages, the Basque speech community needs to know not merely how much students achieve in each language and what level of proficiency they attain but also which language they use, how often they use each language, and the relationship between language use and other variables. This paper reports on a study, the 'Arrue Programme' conducted during the 2005-2006 academic year on student language use in the school context and the factors affecting it. Participants were students between the ages of 10 and 11 who were in the sixth grade of primary education in 50 schools in different areas of the Basque Autonomous Community. The data include the observation of language use by 1325 students both in the playground and inside the classroom. In addition, data on other student variables were collected through questionnaires and written work. The two sets of data are used to suggest a model of the principal background and situational variables that determine the varieties of language use that we observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we will present the main principles behind language planning in the Ikastolas (Basque medium Schools), where a plurilingual school model has been developed as a way of promoting minority languages in a globalised world. We will start by contextualising the Ikastolas' language policy, briefly tracing their history from their beginnings as schools which ensured the right to education in the minority mother tongue (forbidden at that time), to the current Integrated Plurilingual School model, which involves the teaching and use of four languages. This model started as an Integrated Language Curriculum for language teaching, and it is now facing the challenge of creating a global framework - the School Language Project - which considers the various domains of language use within the school context (i.e. classroom management, break times, administration, school-family relations, etc) as active factors in the development of the communicative competence of the students, and therefore subject to a comprehensive school language planning policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on bilingual education in the Basque Country. The main achievements of the Basque educational system are to be found in the progressive expansion of more intensive linguistic models, the social acceptance of teaching through and in Basque, and the positive academic results of pupils. The main problems associated with bilingual education are: (1) the difficult situation of Basque in Navarre and the French Basque Country; (2) the contradictions involved in what we refer to as linguistic model A (Castilian) of the education system, as well as the need to completely reassess it; (3) the uncertain future of Basque language use at the secondary and tertiary school levels, especially in vocational training and at the Universities; (4) the large gap between schooling and competence in the Basque language (on the one hand) and its use in everyday life (on the other); (5) the existence of two comprehensive plans for the revitalisation of Basque, and the introduction of a plurilingual programme (Basque -- Spanish -- English), and the extent to which generalisation is suitable; and finally (6) the need to review all existing bilingual educational systems to transform them into genuine intercultural programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]