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The apps for drawing are present in our children's life. Nevertheless, little is known about the impact of mobile technology on the freehand drawing educational activity. There are few works which are contextualised within short periods of time, with teachers who are not theirs and, in some cases, outside the children's classroom. In this paper, we are focussed on the use of technology on freehand drawing activity. Thus, we have compared the graphics produced by 4- and 5-year-old children with paper&crayon in comparison with those with tablet-finger. Children made the drawings during a planned free-drawing activity, in their ordinary classrooms, with their teachers and during five sessions. Assessment of drawings has evidenced tablet feasibility for making graphics. Nevertheless, with the passing of time, quality of graphics (tablet-finger vs paper&crayons), are nearly matched, demonstrating the low impact level technology has on this activity. In addition, if drawings are analysed specifically according to ages, results have shown that both groups have to develop adaptation strategies of visual perceptual skills and fine motor skills for the touch screen in order to obtain the same quality in the drawings made on both support types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing policies have become increasingly regionalised but studies at sub-state levels are scarce and most research still focuses on the nation-state as the unit of analysis. This paper aims to address this gap by examining the development of regional housing policies in Spain. From an initial analysis of regional housing laws, three sub-state housing policy models were identified. Then, six case studies were examined to determine influencing factors and the relevance of regional political party positioning along centre-periphery and left-right cleavages. This research adds new information to the literature on the regionalisation of housing policies and provides insight about the role of subnational governments in generating alternatives to neoliberal housing policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses attitudes around the projection of the EU among Latin American elites, namely the determinants of support for a Free Trade Agreement between the two regions and the trustworthiness of the EU government. We take as data elite surveys conducted in 15 Latin American countries (2014–2019) and consider sociodemographics, ideology, support for democracy, views of foreign powers, exports to the EU, and electoral democracy. Results show that ideology and support for democracy are key determinants of support for an interregional FTA, and that the trustworthiness of governments in the US, China, and Spain covary with attitudes toward the EU. The latter (trust in the government in Spain) proves to be the main driver and, furthermore, its impact is conditional on the economic strength (observed as exports) of the EU: wherever the EU is not a strong economic actor in Latin America, trust in the Spanish government does nothing but improve the image of the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Spanish Constitutional Court has occupied a central position in the Spanish political system since the Transition. Its decisions have completed, and still complete, the articles of the 1978 Constitution. Nevertheless, despite its intense activity in civil and administrative issues, this institution has progressively lost support among public opinion. To a large extent, the Court is now considered a politicized organization serving the interests of Conservative political forces. The growing intrusion of the judiciary in Spanish politics has increased this feeling. How to explain this biased viewpoint? In this paper, we argue that there are two reasons for this declining trust. On the one hand, the Court is the collateral victim of party politics which forced it to take sides. The Court is subject to a process of polarization affecting the whole Spanish political system. On the other hand, the Court has interfered regularly in the political debate by imposing its view, up to blocking parliamentary debates in late 2022. This double process is analysed from a new institutional perspective. We identified four critical junctures involving the Court and political parties, namely the delaying of decisions, the veto on governmental policy, the recusing of justices, and the blockade of appointments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural tourism is one of the most sustainable and fastest-growing types of tourism, and so has been widely studied. Despite countless works analyzing the possible factors that can condition the choice of the tourist destination, few have addressed how they may differ by sex and within cultural tourism, and they contradict. This paper analyzes this phenomenon through the dimensions of cultural offerings, services and motivations in the city of Málaga, a very tourist city in Spain, which is the fourth country out of 167 with the most world heritage sites—UNESCO. Partial least squares—structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and importance-performance map analysis (IPMA) were performed for a database of 415 cultural tourists survey responses. The results showed differences between constructs depending on the sex of the tourists. For men, the factor that most affects the choice of destination is tourist motivation—namely, the reason for their visit—followed by services. Conversely, services are first for women, followed by cultural offerings and motivations. The results of this study can be valuable when designing more specific tourism strategies adapted to the profile of tourists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how the localization of firms in clusters enhances their resilience in the face of external shocks, using the COVID-19-related disruptions of global value chains (GVCs) as a case study. Our qualitative study of the Alcoi-Ontinyent textile cluster in Spain's Valencian Region shows that the cluster's institutional infrastructure facilitated the reorganization of the cluster's cognitive structure, enabling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to cope with the shock. Local collective actors aided in leveraging cluster enabling factors to enhance firms' resource position and their reconfiguration, thus supporting firms' dynamic capabilities, and ultimately their resilience. Our study contributes to the literature on clusters and firm resilience by showing that clusters can play a crucial role in SMEs' ability to respond to external shocks and offering insights into how firms can leverage their location in clusters. We also shed light on the importance of institutions, collective actors, and collective actions in creating a competitive advantage for clustered SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, 'place-based' interventions have become influential in shaping economic development policy, especially at the European level. From the 2007 to 2013 programming period onwards, EU Cohesion policy, adopted a 'place-based' approach to encourage the competitiveness of all regions. Rather than spatially-blind interventions, the focus is on tackling territorial inequalities via a more sophisticated spatially-sensitive approach to stimulate economic change, at the local level. The challenge is that place-based policies are complex, risky and the performance indicators used to capture the achievements from EU Cohesion policy focus on direct results rather than expected policy change, making it hard to prove effectiveness and value for money. This paper contributes to ongoing academic and policy debates about how to capture the achievements of EU Cohesion policy, through an in-depth case study of 'place-based' interventions made via Interreg funding, to encourage cross-border cooperation between Spain and Portugal. The evidence illustrates that there is a need for novel approaches, which are conceptually informed and spatially sensitive to be able to capture not only the quantitative but also the qualitative achievements generated through EU 'place-based' interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The city of Barcelona has become a nodal point of the transnational social space of the Pakistani diaspora. Despite being quite invisible, Pakistanis stand out for their entrepreneurial activities, especially in the food and telecommunication sectors. This paper aims to shed light on the transnational dimension of Pakistani ethnic businesses of Barcelona through the lens of 'transnational mixed embeddedness' and a multi-level approach that combines analytical levels (macro, meso and micro) and territorial levels (local/national and transnational). This is within the theoretical debate around globalization from below, immigrant entrepreneurship and transnational entrepreneurship, and by using a mixed-methods design. The results show how migrant entrepreneurs can be placed in a 'continuum of transnational embeddedness', depending on the interrelation of agency and micro-sociological processes entailing in-group differences with meso-market and macro-structural factors from a dynamic point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational ageing processes are usually studied by focusing on the various cross-border practices and mobilities of different categories of ageing migrants. This paper introduces a retirement mobilities approach as an analytical framework that draws on both transnational studies and the new mobilities paradigm to widen the theoretical and empirical debates. It argues that both migrant and non-migrant populations, as well as human and non-human cross-border circulations, have to be taken into account when studying transnational ageing. Based on a mixed-methods study combining original data from a quantitative survey conducted in Switzerland with residents 55+ and semi-structured interviews held in Spain and Switzerland with older adults receiving a Swiss pension, we demonstrate the heuristic value of this approach. Indeed, empirical findings indicate that older adults with and without a migration background represent an internationally mobile population with similar mobility aspirations and transnational lifestyles. However, the motivations driving these two groups' transnational mobility differ significantly. Moreover, transnational circulations of financial resources, and in particular retirement pensions, are interlinked with mobility in old age. To conclude, a retirement mobilities approach sets a new research agenda, inviting scholars to examine transnational ageing beyond the ageing-migration nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of political marketing's theoretical tenets is the translation of commercial advertising techniques to politics. This paper focuses on celebrity endorsement as a commercial technique which is translated into political campaigning. Celebrity endorsement relates directly to celebrity politics, that is, the result of celebrity culture getting in touch with politics, as a way of revitalizing the offering of parties and candidates. In this context, our study analyzes the representation and use of celebrity politicians in Spain by the conservative Popular Party (PP) during the April 2019 national election. In order to shed light on the way celebrities were used in the PP's social media campaign, we content-analyze 1,117 Twitter messages taken from the party's profile, as well as conservative presidential candidate Pablo Casado's profile. Analytical variables include frequency of mentions, the strategic axis (rational/emotional) with which celebrities were depicted, the features which were highlighted, and the type of endorsement performed by the celebrities. Message topics and functions were also added to the analysis. Results indicate a weak and flawed strategic use of celebrities, who were scarcely mentioned, and depicted in a non-innovative, traditional fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issue: For students in the preclinical years of medical school, it is easy to overlook the narrative component of medicine and become occupied with learning the vast sea of information about the human body. There are limited, if any, options to learn about historical figures in medicine and how they can inform our future in clinical medicine. Evidence: There is an apparent lack of education offered on pivotal figures in medicine across many institutions. The few instances that medical history has been incorporated into the curriculum are further discussed. Implications: In order to incorporate cultural competency in our delivery of care, it is important to consider the diversity of the population we will be serving and how we can prepare to help patients feel heard in their unique issues. In this paper, we propose learning about the true history of certain medical practices, rather than the "colonial" version often utilized in textbooks and lectures, as a means of diversifying students' perspectives of the origins of these practices as well as giving credit where it is due. The time period during which many of these medical practices were cultivated is referred to as the Islamic Golden Age, but scholars who made contributions belonged to many different faiths and cultural backgrounds. El-Zahrawi was a Muslim physician whose principal work, Kitab-at-Tasrif, contains topics on medicine, surgery, midwifery, pharmacology, therapeutics, diet, psychotherapy, and medical chemistry. He pioneered numerous techniques in surgery and invented surgical devices that are still used to this day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on something not previously addressed by the literature, labour inspection in Spain in the first decades of the Franco dictatorship. Despite the Franco dictatorship's fascist-style approach of regulatory interventionism, this research shows a relapse into an abstentionist conception of labour inspection that led to worker vulnerability. The study has not only found, as was already known, normative similarities with the contemporaneous Italian and German dictatorships, but also similar (although more severe) limitations to the functioning of the inspection service. The slight improvement registered from 1947 onwards and the effort to achieve a limited equivalence with Western democracies also failed to notably improve working conditions, occupational safety and worker protection. The Labour Inspectorate suffered from understaffing and a lack of resources up to the very end of the dictatorship, something which the incipient democracy then inherited. These human and material resource shortages continue to be a problem and are currently debated in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International large-scale assessments have gained much attention since the beginning of the twenty-first century, influencing education legislation in many countries. This includes Spain, where they have been used by successive governments to justify education policy change. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the PISA 2018 reading scores for this country, meaning the OECD refused to initially release the results. Therefore, in this paper we attempt to estimate the likely PISA 2018 reading scores for Spain, and for each region within. The figure finally published by the OECD for Spain – in terms of reading scores – was 476.5 points, which is between the lower and upper bound of the interval we find (475 to 483 test points in 2018). Additionally, we report some robustness checks for the OCED countries participating in PISA 2018, which show that the difference between the actual scores and the ones we found with the imputation methods are quite close. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a critical assessment of equality policies from a theoretical standpoint. As an analytical proposal, this idea is exemplified within the educational context of Vocational Education and Training in Spain, specifically in the Region of Valencia. We have analysed Order 85/2016, insofar as it establishes mechanisms that seek to encourage access by women to professional fields which have been historically and culturally masculinised. Our analysis is based on two key questions: Does this policy succeed in increasing the number of women who undertake studies in masculinised professional fields? Is providing access to training sufficient to drive changes in gender relations? To approach these questions, we have reviewed the theoretical framework that gives rise to public policy and performed a comparative analysis of the number of enrolments registered since these mechanisms came into force. Our findings have led us to conclude that not only does this policy fail to fulfil its goal of encouraging women to enrol in certain studies, but its theoretical implications have paradoxically been found to heighten the gender divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how climate change and the environment have been incorporated into Spain's security documents and policymaking. We have examined forty-plus documents issued by Spain's National Security Department to identify the evolution of the climate and environmental discourse. A keyword filter helped to single out the eleven most environmentally relevant documents, which have been qualitatively analysed to better understand the context in which environmental language is used. In our work we identify how both common practices of security analysts and policy-makers different level policies have been strongly influenced by environmental knowledge, and, therefore, incorporated new considerations into security policies as well as. Our findings suggest that climate is not the only challenge incorporated into security documents. Other environmental issues such as desertification, access to water, energy transition or loss of biodiversity are also included, which implies that they are part of a broader concept of national security more in line with the new challenges of the twentity-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labour exploitation has long been considered from two opposing perspectives, either as an omnipresent feature in the employment market or as an extreme occurrence in labour relationships. Recent studies, however, claim that exploitation can be better understood as a continuum of heterogeneous practices. Our paper contributes to this debate by focusing on the case of migrant workers in Spain. The main objective is to access and bring to the surface the 'hidden voices' of migrant workers employed in four sectors: agriculture, construction, domestic service and hospitality. Using in-depth interviews and focus groups has allowed us to go beyond the dominant narratives on the phenomenon by embracing the privileged perspective of migrant workers on labour exploitation. This paper shows that labour exploitation cannot be fully understood without considering the relation that exists between two factors: the first operates at the structural level and relates to the extent to which discrimination, harm and exploitation of specific groups are intrinsic in the legitimate legal-economic system; whilst, the second factor revolves around migrant workers' wilful agentive capacity for being recruited into exploitative situations and simultaneously their capacity for coping with exploitative practices and for working towards solutions aimed at improving their quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the course of the Spanish Civil War, Francoists set up special teams to seize documents from organizations which had backed the Popular Front government. In the immediate wake of occupation, these squads would frequently enter towns and cities and appropriate lorry loads of paperwork which they ferried to Salamanca. Nationalist officials trawled through their copious bounty in order to scout out the names of opponents who could be punished for their activities in favour of the Republic. For good reason historians have viewed the Salamanca Papers as a stark example of state directed plunder. By focusing on the role of volunteers in willingly providing information to the authorities, this article seeks to complement the focus on the role of the state. The article also shows that the authorities exploited the information they gleaned to pick out and reward supporters as well as identify and punish enemies. The article further discusses some of the efforts made by Salamanca officials to return documents to Francoists. By examining the Salamanca Papers from these perspectives, the article seeks to throw light upon the close ideological and emotional identification between Francoist state officials and some of their eager supporters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The emerging debate on transnational populism has thus far mainly focused on cases, which have remained relatively inconsequential due to the weak institutionalisation of the political transnationalism arena. By bringing in a better-structured arena of migrant transnationalism, this paper introduces populist political parties mobilising transnational migrants to the debate and explores the resulting phenomenon of homeland populism. The paper investigates three populist parties that operate transnationally – Ecuadorian APAIS in Spain, Turkish AKP in Germany and Estonian EKRE in Finland. The analysis demonstrates that the phenomenon of homeland populism shares several distinct features despite the ideological, geographic, cultural and migratory differences between the three cases. The cases also sport differences: while the construction of 'the people' depends on migratory context, the construction of 'the antagonist' is more related to the ideational variations of populism. The study also suggests that the key target group of homeland populism are economic migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the innovative intensity (iMID effect) in the local production systems (LPSs) using dynamic territorial units that modifies their geographical boundaries and specialization over time. The paper is based on the idea that the local communities are the real unit of generation of innovation and that they are constantly changing, behaving like a 'living innovation machine'. To explore this dynamic relationship, the paper applies the Marshallian industrial district (MID) as an approach to industrial change. Then, it focuses on the Marshallian industrial districts (MIDs) as a type of LPS and asks how the innovation effect changes in MIDs and other types of LPSs when dynamic territorial units are used. The differences in innovation intensity between the different types of LPSs are explained for Spain in the period 1991–2014 using new methods of analysis that combine causal analysis, a variable and adaptive geometry of territorial units and industrial specialization, and machine learning methods. The results show that the transformation of an LPS into another type of LPS does not automatically imply a change in innovative capacity, and the type of LPS of origin continues to be relevant in explaining current innovation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between the articulation of the 15-M movement in Spain and the expansion of Feminist Economics (FE) at the feminist base of this movement, in particular, in Feminism Committees (FC-15 M). We assert that this expansion was due to FE's capacity to explain the 2008 crisis beyond its economic-financial dimensions and to analyse the effects of the political-economic austerity measures on the sustainability of life. We claim that a differentiating feature of FE in Spain is its permeability to dialogue with social movements. Therefore, it has become more politicized and critical than other academic fields. This influence has also been reflected in the structure and contents of the most recent FE national conferences, which from 2013 on included not only the classic academic strand but also training and political action strands. In order to explore this development, our methodology includes interviews with key informants; document analysis of material generated in the conferences and the Feminism Committees of 15-M; questionnaires to activists, academics, and practitioners of FE; and informal observation as direct participants of the described processes and events. The paper begins with an introduction to FE thought and its connections with so-called 'Feminism for the 99%' and continues with a methodological section. The twofold results section analyzes the dialogues between FE and FC-15 M. It concludes with a summary of the key ideas presented and some final remarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Iberian Peninsula is a climate change hotspot, where the temperature is increasing faster than the global annual mean surface temperature, with the largest reduction of precipitation. Consequently, freshwater availability is expected to decrease substantially. In this context, freshwater systems are especially vulnerable in terms of meeting the water demands and ecosystem requirements we know today. In this paper, we present an extension of the eco-engineering decision scaling (EEDS) method to explore trade-offs in agricultural and ecologic metrics at the catchment scale across a range of unknown future hydrological and climate states. The extended EEDS method evaluates current water resource management rules focusing on agricultural and ecologic objectives, identifies climate hazards that make the system fail and assesses climate risk in three time horizons for the design of adaptation measures. The case study is the Serpis River basin, Spain, where 72% of available water is used for agricultural purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social changes tied to late modernity and an increasingly precarious labor market have facilitated the emergence of fortune as a potentially significant element for understanding contemporary society. This article approaches this contingent, individualized, secularized, and uncertain panorama from the perspective of the young adults tasked with navigating these societal transformations and the effects of a prolonged economic crisis. Based on a discourse analysis of 20 in-depth interviews and three focus groups with young adults in Spain, it examines how chance/luck is employed by these individuals. A typology is presented and discussed, consisting of four different relationships with fortune. In the participants' narratives this paper finds a meritocratic approach, which involves an understanding that good luck is attained through individual initiative, but also relationships less concerned with human agentic power where it can be conceived as an explanatory or meaning making device, as a threat or as an element tied to hope. Consequently, the article seeks to address a gap in sociological research, which has tended to overlook the analytical relevance of fortune, arguing that it constitutes a central element to the symbolic frameworks of these vulnerable young adults as they make their way through a changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental drama film Cenizas del cielo (2008), set in a polluted area of the otherwise idyllic North-western region of Asturias, was internationally saluted as Spain’s first explicitly ecologist film. While most studies have focused on its environmentalist theme, the film presents additional thematic complexities, such as the progressive depopulation of fast-aging rural Spain, the challenges of growing old as a lonesome man in a traditional, patriarchal community, and generational frictions between older peasants and younger environmental activists. In Cenizas del cielo, Galician-born actor Celso Bugallo embodies the complex intersections between aging, masculinity, and ecology. He plays the combative character of Federico, a local farmer in his sixties who lost his wife to the pollutants of a nearby power plant. In his determination to see the plant closed, this rebellious character clashes with numerous opponents, such as workers of the power plant, local authorities and even some of his own small-village neighbors. A living metaphor of an aging but defiant España vaciada, Bugallo’s character is studied in this paper as the site of multiple insurgencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses Texas Examinations of Educator Standards Program Languages Other Than English – Spanish exam (TExES LOTE – Spanish) and its potential bias, particularly against teacher candidates with Spanish as a heritage language (HL) background. In Texas, most teacher candidates, or college students of Spanish preparing for secondary teacher certification, are heritage speakers of Spanish. However, while they are competent Spanish speakers, many fail their TExES LOTE – Spanish exam. In light of recent demographic trends and a growing body of research on HL learners, Spanish teaching in higher education and, to a lesser extent, in secondary schools has begun to move away from teaching so-called prestigious varieties of Spanish (e.g., Spain) toward inclusion of other varieties of Spanish, especially those spoken in the U.S. and those that reflect students' heritage. Despite this pedagogical shift, we posit that TExES LOTE – Spanish exam does not reflect current Spanish curricular content, which negatively affects these students' performance. We provide examples and available exam statistics to support our claim. Through this conversation about the mismatch between student background and TExES LOTE – Spanish content, we hope to start a dialogue about a much-needed revision of this exam in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probabilistic pavement models, with Markov chains as the most widely used type, are considered to capture an accurate representation of the in situ pavement performance. Homogeneous Markov chain models present the same transition probability matrix (TPM) for all the transitions of the period and require data from multiple duty cycles of one or two years. The aim of this paper is to explore the feasibility of developing homogeneous Markov chain models with variations of the duty cycle (in increments of either one or two years). Without considering maintenance and rehabilitation works, this research found that TPMs for a one-year duty cycle can be calculated from the two-year duty cycle, without a noticeable effect on accuracy using International Roughness Index (IRI) values from the Spanish State Road Network. However, for developing coherent TPMs, two primary assumptions were made: (1) heavy vehicle traffic volumes determine the traffic category (TC), and (2) only roads from the same climatic region were modelled. The satisfactory results verified the validity of the methodology and overcame the disadvantages of homogeneous Markov models. Furthermore, the results suggest that pavement sections are adequately designed in Spain for each TC because of the similar deterioration patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to present empirical evidence on the use of parental leave by fathers under the Mediterranean Welfare State, as a Spanish tribute to the legacy of Dr Rush in politics of fatherhood in a comparative perspective. We will focus on the Spanish case to analyze the use of paternity leave by fathers for the period 2001–2017. We consider the family unit – as a setting for bargaining and socialization – from a longitudinal perspective. The paper presents a very valuable and in-depth analysis of socio-demographic factors influencing the family decision to take parental leave by fathers (age, education, employment status, socio-economics). Based on the literature reviewed, we consider that these factors have a greater impact on how parental leave is used differently and how it has evolved over time. The case of Spain is interesting for the research because it represents a political and social model that combines a recent institutional commitment to the work/life balance through the extension of paternity leave for fathers with a male breadwinner family model still in transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of Spain's transition to democracy in the late 1970s, cultural policy has gone from virtually zero to a policy priority, especially in the country's regional and local governments. Spain's will to achieve a great socio-political transformation and to converge with Western Europe have been two of the drivers behind this trend. However, since the 2000s, three factors have undermined these policies: austerity; regional tensions; the crisis of the model. Thus, cultural politics are threatened by a detachment from High Culture, as well as by cultural populism and the Far Right. This is why our paper analyses support for cultural spending as reflected in CIS (Spanish government agency of sociological research) surveys, which show overwhelming support for such expenditure. However, the factors explaining this support are diverse and are linked to generational, ideological and political factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children and young people who come into conflict with the law tend to be disengaged with education and learning. This paper reports on research from an EU Erasmus+ project in Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK. The research focused on the impact of Authentic Inquiry (AI) on learners in custodial or youth justice settings and the impact on educators and their pedagogy. Quantitative data (from 82 educators and 73 young people), demonstrated the young people could be re-engaged with education and learning as evidenced in the change in Learning Power profiles. Qualitative data (from 16 educators and 14 young people) showed the greatest impact to be on the emotional component of engagement. The AI had an impact xon educators as learners by improved Learning Power profiles and on their pedagogical approach. Ways to embed the approach into education in youth justice settings in the different country contexts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Game-based science learning (GBSL) provide an alternative route for learning genetics, but its effects on students' conceptual learning is contested. In this paper we assess the utility, in primary teacher education, of Recal: a game designed to promote participants' learning of key genetic concepts through acting as detectives investigating a case. The purpose of the study was to analyse and compare teacher students' learning of genetics through the game, and both their attitudes towards and experiences of it. Tests were conducted in Spanish and Swedish contexts to assess its potential utility in contrasting cultural and educational contexts to obtain indications of the potential breadth of its application. Participants included 120 pre-service teacher students from a university in north-eastern Spain and 51 from a university in western Sweden. The research involved an intervention, in which students played the game, and assessment of its efficacy by questionnaires designed to investigate students' knowledge of genetics before and after the game, their expectations and experience of it, and their satisfaction with it. The results were analysed statistically. The game appeared to enhance both Spanish and Swedish participants' knowledge of genetics, and they reportedly found it both educationally beneficial and engaging. It was also assessed in terms of the following characteristics of GBSL, based on experiential data: contextualisation, authenticity, collaboration, problem-solving, guided paths and competition. The results clearly indicate that the game has utility in different countries and educational contexts. The article discusses how the six characteristics of GBSL facilitate or hinder learning, and implications (for educational professionals and researchers) of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within what is known as the post-truth era, politicians strategically trade in alternative interpretations of data, make bold populist claims and on occasions be completely dishonest for party political gains. Such practices coincide with ever-declining trust in politicians and the democratic system, a phenomenon common to both Spain and the UK. We enquire whether public mistrust is deserved exploring the extent party leaders employ misinformation as part of their strategic communication. The paper analyses falsehoods made by political leaders as determined by major fact-checking sites EFE Verifica and Newtral in Spain, and the UK's BBC Reality Check and Full Fact. We categorise falsehoods as misinformation, alternative facts, bullshit or lies. Results show right-wing parties most responsible for all forms of falsehoods, or they are most likely to face analysis from factcheckers. Falsehoods are used by governments defending their policies, but also by oppositions to attack the government; especially alternative facts. The overwhelming majority of policy attacks based on false information are from opposition parties, particularly Spanish parties on the right. The flagrant use of bullshit and lies, while simultaneously calling out their more mainstream opponents for similar practices, poisons the notion of democratic pluralism and makes low public trust seem perfectly justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the potential of educational materials to forge and shape the collective memory, this article analyses the representations of the Francoist Hunger Years (1939–1952) in recent history textbooks for secondary schools by a wide range of publishers. The main thesis of the paper is that while there are textbooks that provide a complex narrative of the hunger experiences, others – even some of the most recent ones – depict the period in an oversimplified and historiographically outdated way and fail to address various social perspectives. This article also argues that it is possible to detect the persistence of the official Francoist discourse on the years of hunger in some textbooks that continue to implicitly perpetuate the distortion and oblivion the Franco dictatorship tried to impose on the famine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the impact of uncertainty on income and wealth inequality in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. For that purpose, mixed-frequency SVAR models are used. The results show that uncertainty shocks lead to heterogeneous responses across countries. A positive uncertainty shock increases income inequality in Spain, but reduces it in Germany and France. In the case of wealth, the response is statistically significant only in Spain and Italy, where an increase in inequality is experienced. Overall, these results highlight the important role of macroeconomic stabilisation policies in situations of high uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic ballet is one of the iconic manifestations of High Culture. In Nineteenth-century Spain, it failed to take root in the form of stable companies, schools, and venues. There were various social, political, and cultural reasons for this, even though conditions at the time seemed propitious. Those reasons and conditions form the subject of this paper. The methodological approach employs Bourdieu's sociological Field Theory, and neo-institutionalist theories to explain why Spain failed to consolidate a national academic ballet school. Drawing on the current situation of ballet in Spain in terms of the cultural and educational policy of dance, the present analysis seeks to both broaden and enrich the historiographic interpretation of the Spanish dance scene and education. Considering the effects of path dependence, this analysis tries to explain the antecedents of the configuration of the didactic programs of public dance conservatories, the development of private academies and the late articulation of an official ballet company in Spain, devoid of signs of identity due to the eclecticism of the training of Spanish dancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) of projects and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of policies, plans and programmes allow environmental aspects to be incorporated into decision-making. The literature and regulations sometimes present SEA and EIA as isolated silos, but in practice there are intermediate approaches. This paper discusses a number of case studies where the application of EIA and SEA is conceptually unclear, although legally appropriate. The application of SEA or EIA depends in practice on the name of the planning document used, rather than its strategic character, with non-strategic SEAs and strategic EIAs due to a mismatch between planning and EA. The gradual transition between SEA and EIA makes it advisable to establish similar administrative procedures, as well as a common screening stage to determine not only whether or not the proposal should be subject to EA, but also the most appropriate approach. More than one EA process may be necessary throughout the planning cycle, requiring effective tiering. The regulations should define what is considered strategic, and regulate the tiering between SEA and EIA processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between economic development and inequality has been closely examined by researchers. From the seminal work of Kuznets to the more recent work of Piketty, market forces in boom cycles, on the one hand, and institutional action, on the other, have been featured as the main drivers of change in income distribution towards more egalitarian societies. In the Spanish case, previous research has described varied processes with regard to the period of growth that followed the approval of the Stabilisation Plan during the Franco dictatorship (1959–1973). Thus, Alcaide reportedly detected a limited capacity of the developmentalist growth model to reduce inequality, which he attributed to institutional limitations. In contrast, later studies have highlighted the decline in inequality during the same period. This paper aims to investigate the effects of this growth cycle by examining the behaviour of wages in the most dynamic sector of the Spanish economy, industry. Specifically, by using the wage survey compiled by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, the paper nuances previous research and shows how despite explosive growth, the developmentalist model and the peculiar institutional framework built within the Franco dictatorship contributed to increasing wage dispersion and income inequality in most industrial sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse the social and economic implementation of the reform of industrial vocational training during Primo de Rivera's dictatorship in Spain (1923–1930), based on the Industrial Education Statute of 1924 and the Vocational Training Statute of 1928. Framed within an international context affected by the consequences of the First World War, the project formed part of an authoritative corporate structure within the ideological paradigm of "reactionary modernism": a combination of social tradition and the modernity of industrialisation, exemplified in the vocational training of industrial workers and technicians in the work schools. In particular, the objective is to identify the effects of the implementation of this reform on a local level from a training, socio-professional, political, and economic perspective. To do this, the legislative and newspaper sources of the reform have been analysed, together with annual reports and reviews of the educational centres and the statistical yearbooks of enrolment. The results indicate that, in spite of the institutional re-launch of the reform, the ideological basis of the project clashed with the specific interests of the local reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies on the benefits of late life civic engagement have focused exclusively on formal volunteering. Older adults' political participation is much more overlooked. The current paper explores the benefits of long-term participation in political organizations as described by actively engaged Spanish older people. We used an adaptation of McAdams' life-story interview with 40 participants from three types of political organizations who occupy a responsible position within the organization. We identified three main themes in participants' answers: personal benefits, relational benefits, and community benefits. Overall, our results showed that the benefits arising from long-term political participation go far beyond the well-studied individual benefits that research on late-life volunteering has typically identified, and spread to relational and community areas. Social work practitioners should consider these benefits when they implement plans and programmes to promote healthy, active ways of aging, fostering age-friendly communities or reducing old-age social exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing cultural diversity remains a challenge in secondary schools in Spain. In this paper, we approach cultural diversity from the standpoint of school counsellors, who are key professionals attending to immigrant pupils. Through the use of qualitative research techniques (semi-structured interviews and discussion groups), the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are identified by counsellors. The findings show the need to implement pupil-focused responses sensitive to their cultural identity and based on the collaboration of all agents involved. Likewise, the school is defined as a privileged setting in which to celebrate cultural diversity and the pivotal role that counsellors play in this process is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of municipal solid waste (MSW) in cities is one of the most complex tasks facing local administrations. For this reason, waste management performance measurement structures are increasingly implemented at local and national levels. These performance structures usually contain strategic objectives and associated action plans, as well as key performance indicators (KPIs) for organizations investing their resources in action plans. This study presents the results of applying a methodology to find a quantitative-based prioritization of MSW action plans for the City Council of Castelló de la Plana in Spain. In doing so, cause-effect relationships between the KPIs have been identified by applying the principal component analysis technique, and from these relationships it was possible to identify those action plans which should be addressed first to manage public services more efficiently. This study can be useful as a tool for local administrations when addressing the actions included in their local waste plans as it can lead to financial savings. Implications: This paper introduces and implements a methodology that uses principal component analysis to analyze real data from waste management KPIs and provide municipal solid waste managers with a decision-making tool for prioritizing action plans. The methodology saves financial resources and time, as well as reinforcing the probability of reaching the meta values of the main performance system KPIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings together the literature on far right parties, medievalism and opinion leadership in order to more closely interrogate the memory politics of the far right. We address two broad questions: what does the mobilization of distant-past events do in far right discourse? And how do these memories circulate online? We unpack one specific case study: the mobilization of the topic 'La Reconquista' (The Reconquest) among the computer-mediated networks of one Europe's newest national-populist parties: Spain's VOX. First, we show three strategies through which the Reconquest trope reproduced a conservative historiography that creates a transhistorical, exclusionary and Catholic Spanish nation: the creation of memory sites, the glorification of heroes and a specifically antagonistic memory. Second, we show that the one-word nature of the historical narrative, through its Twitter circulation, gave it a crucial ability to mobilize in the context of an election. Finally, drawing from opinion leader theory we show how these Reconquest narratives were put forward by traditional elite actors such as political parties and newspapers, but relied on the role of ordinary citizens to spread and circulate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What happens to race when racial vocabulary disappears? This paper leverages a sudden change in the Spanish social science curriculum in the 1990s to empirically trace how the removal of the language of race, and the negation of biological race, changes the ways the books portray human differences. Through the analysis of 82 textbooks from 1975 to 2017, I find that a racial classification system is replaced by one based on cultural categories. Yet, far from moving away from polygenistic beliefs about human nature, culture continues to reproduce the same social hierarchies previously associated with a phenotype. Because the books present culture as a scientifically valid classification system, the use of culture legitimizes and entrenches those same beliefs in racial differences. The findings have implications for our understanding of colourblind ideologies, and for the study of race relations in European contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The General Education Law was approved half a century ago. It was designed by Francoism to reform the educational system, adjusting itself to the liberal-developmental approach that Franco's regime followed in its last few decades. The oppression that the so-called "vernacular languages" were subject to during the former years of Francoism made their learning recognition stand out amidst the rest of the changes and developments that this law provided. The aim of this paper is to review the concepts and measures that structured Francoist educational politics in regard to languages. Special attention will be paid to the causes, foreseen in the Libro Blanco (Spanish for "White Book"), that fostered the change established in the 1970 Law. The idea will be presented that the incorporation of regional languages in the new policies happened to fulfil the idiomatic regulations requested by UNESCO and the Catholic Church, and to meet the need to cope with the popular currents of linguistic demand emerging in the scenario of socio-labour conflict that characterised the final years of the dictatorship. This moment was determined by the tensions generated within a system reluctant to change its traditional values, although it was forced to resolve the external and internal pressures that urged it to recognise the multilingual reality of the Spanish State in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vast majority of work on language and landscape in Geography focuses on the linguistic landscape, which studies the presence or absence of certain languages or dialects on the landscape. This paper goes beyond linguistic landscape to explore language as representation of landscape imaginary. Landscape acts as a powerful symbol, and can work to strengthen territorial identities, solidifying nations as separate entities, intimately connected to the land that they inhabit. This is true of the nation of Galicia, an historic community in the northwest of Spain, where the national landscape and language have come to be inextricably linked in the Galician imagination. In conducting interviews with Galician educators about the nature of their language and its meaning to them personally, an unprovoked link emerged between the language and the landscape, painting the two as essential foundations of Galician identity. Language and landscape are seen as linked foundational symbols in a display of difference between Galicia and Spain. This paper uses themes that emerged from these interviews to elaborate how the Galician language can be seen as a representation of a landscape imaginary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is the construction of computerized 3D visualization of geological structures. Several Python applications have been used to adapt the paper map-based geological classical information to numerical geological maps represented in HTML files. The models include a map with the stratigraphic and structural contacts and symbols, five serial vertical sections, and a geological block diagram, all with real topography. This block diagram made with 2D figures allows a 3D visualization. Palomeque area (Murcia region, southeastern Spain) has been used as a key-case. This area consists of a deformed Upper Cretaceous to Oligocene succession belonging to the Internal Zone Malaguide Complex. The main structure consists of two thrust-fold sheets forming an imbricate system, also affected by a set of strike-slip faults with a sinistral regime. The constructed maps show a good agreement with the published classical geological maps and cross-sections demonstrating the benefits of using these Python applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the origin, development and fall of the 'school voucher' system in Spain. It was called the Ley de Financiación de la Enseñanza Obligatoria (Compulsory Education Financing Law) (LFEO), and this reform represented the first attempt at an international level to establish a school voucher model for a whole country. This article attempts to explain the importance of the new ideas that emerged from the Economics of Education and International Organisation to understand the origin of the proposed LFEO. It also focuses on its development and the parliamentary debate of the law. Finally, it explains how other foreign ideas began to compete to establish models of equal opportunities in education different from the one proposed. The paper provides a valuable insight into how educational transfers take place, and the importance of the role that local actors can play in the development and, in this case, the failure of such transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In relation to the dynamic behavior of soils, the damping (D) and the dynamic shear modulus (G) has always acquired special relevance, since its evaluation has allowed the application of simplified models of dynamic soil behavior. They depend on many factors, being necessary to include the combination of monotonic (τo) and cyclical shear stress (τc) that are inevitably present under any structure. As part of an extensive testing programme, the objective of the present paper, besides the identification and classification tests, was to perform 139 simple cyclic shear tests with different levels of static stresses (τo) before the cyclic phase. This paper refers to the influence that the combination of monotonic (τo) and cyclic shear (τc) stresses has on the damping of a soft cohesive soil susceptible to sudden failure. Laboratory tests were carried out on undisturbed samples from the Port of Barcelona, in Spain. The samples were obtained at depths between 29 m and 52 m, that correspond to an effective vertical stress of (σ′ov) between 277 kPa and 413 kPa, respectively. In general, the results indicate that: a) the combination of τo and τc controls the damping ratio (D), b) in the combined monotonic and cyclic case, it is possible to establish empirical functions of the type D = D(N, γc), D = D(N, G/σ′ov) and D = D(N, u/σ′ov), for different (τo/σ′ov) ratios and c) it is possible propose a chart to evaluate the damping ratio as a function of N, G/σ′ov and u/σ′ov, for different (τo/σ′ov) ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spanish legislation obliges the public administration to ensure equal opportunities and support for access to higher education for people with disabilities. This work has one central goal: to analyse and understand the causes for the potential inequality for people with disabilities in accessing higher education in Spain and the barriers they encounter during their academic life. This paper focuses on the differences in inclusive education between people with disabilities and people without disabilities by sex, age, and type of university. A mixed research design is used: qualitative research of two focus groups and fourteen interviews to sixteen students with disabilities; and statistical analysis of the Social Integration and Health Survey 2012, using two-way and multi-way cross-tables. There are significant differences between presence of disability and learning variables. Controlling by sex and age, almost every age-group is significant. Using sex as independent variable, and controlling by disability, there is no relationship with the variables relating to barriers to accessing education; therefore, the larger differences by sex are in the group of people without disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an analysis of the Holocaust memory that is emerging in Spain, focusing on the graphic novel El fotógrafo de Mauthausen by Rubio, Colombo and Landa and the film of the same name directed by Targarona. In terms of form, the two works invest the Holocaust with an American aesthetic, while, at the same time, displaying strong local overtones. The result is controversial because it diminishes the particularity of the traumatic event by broadening its meaning beyond world Jewry. Yet, the visibilizing function is sharpened: the two works zoom in on the largely unnoticed destiny of Spanish Republicans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multifamily groups (MFG) have shown to reduce the risk of relapse of psychotic symptoms in first episodes of psychosis (FEPs) but are not frequently implemented in treatment programs. This paper describes the implementation of the interfamily therapy-model in a FEP early intervention program within a Mental Health Centre in Spain. The aims were to examine (a) relapses (measured as re-hospitalization), (b) duration of re-hospitalizations and (c) voluntary versus involuntary re-hospitalizations during participation in MFG compared with the previous year. Twenty-one subjects participated in a MFG over 12 months, 11 participants with a diagnosis of psychosis and 10 family members. Patients and their relatives participated in around 50% of treatment sessions and manifested satisfactory experience during treatment. Among the patients who participated in MFG, a lower relapse rate was observed: a lower number of psychiatric admissions (7 versus 3) and of shorter duration [23.57 (SD 18.5) days pretreatment versus 19.33 (SD 10.2) days during treatment] although it was not statistically significant (p > 0.05), probably due to small sample size. Multifamily therapy has been well accepted by both patients and their families, with a high degree of participation. Our impression is that the simultaneous participation in different therapeutic activities (individual, group and multifamily) improves the experience of the therapeutic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]