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Catalonia is experiencing a significant wave of innovation in its schools. After decades of little change, since 2015 there has been a systemic surge of innovation in education that includes hundreds of primary and secondary schools. Almost at the same time, in 2015, the Catalan government enacted a new inclusive school framework based on the Salamanca Statement and subsequent developments (Ainscow, Booth, Slee, Stainback or Pujolàs, among others). This position paper analyses exploratory what is occurring in schools regarding the intersectionality between innovation and inclusion. The preliminary results show that, inclusion often competes and clashes with innovation in concrete school perspectives and practices. Our appraisal is that some schools tend to prioritise innovative practices over inclusive ones and present them as a 'school brand' in order to compete for white middle-class families. At the same time, some (head) teachers avoid implementing inclusive practices because they feel they are related to having more Special Educational Needs (SEN) students and a more complex and less 'competitive' school. The paper concludes by critiquing the setback to inclusive practices due to intersectionality with innovation, and by outlining some recommendations to generate positive synergies between the movements of innovation and inclusion [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]

Historically, women have suffered from the effects of inequality in most social, economic, political and cultural spheres. In this paper, discrimination against women in sport is analysed on the basis of a set of empirical data on the inequal participation of men and women in sport. In particular, three Catalan sports regulations are analysed. To this end, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is taken as our frame of reference; more specifically, two instruments that are proposed therein to reduce women's inequality: the gender perspective and gender mainstreaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a theoretical contribution to discussions about the emancipatory potential of citizenship education across four sites (i.e. Catalonia, Colombia, England, and Pakistan). By reflecting on policy and empirical data from our four contexts of study, we discuss whether citizenship education manifests different conditions of emancipatory education (modern, postmodern, and posthumous). We argue that citizenship education offers possibilities for emancipation, but these are constrained by capitalist and Enlightenment barriers. We conclude that if an emancipatory form of citizenship education is to be possible, there is a need to make room for politics in school classrooms and further politicise epistemological and anthropological assumptions. We recommend a form of citizenship education that conceptualises emancipation as our ability to respond ethically to situated challenges by thinking by ourselves with others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on evidence from documents and semi-structured interviews with members of the Catalan system of higher education, this research explores how intermediary organizations (IOs) facilitate the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), conceived as a global policy framework, in local contexts. We observed that, despite the voluntary nature of SDGs-related policies, most Catalan public universities embraced the SDGs. Two contextual factors likely facilitated their effective engagement with this global initiative: first, the autonomy granted by regional and national governments to the higher education sector when it comes to social responsibility, and, second, the willingness and ability of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Catalonia to work with the SDGs. The key element added to these contextual factors was the collaboration stimulated by meso-level actors, namely Catalan intermediaries. The Catalan case exhibits a process whereby IOs effectively engage with HEIs, forging a platform for collaboration; in turn, this led the local government to delegate the task of promoting the SDGs to IOs. This paper contributes to the debate in global higher education policy-making as it discusses the policy implications of the involvement of intermediary actors in bringing global policy frameworks to local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the dynamics of political mobilization of two transnational organizations – Assemblea Nacional Catalana and Marea Granate – formed by Spanish/Catalan migrants in different European cities. By conducting cross-organization and cross-city research, we analyze why and how migrants' transnational networks perceive themselves to be stronger in some cities and weaker in others. This paper demonstrates that there is no one-size-fits-all mechanism that explains perceived organizational strength in all contexts. The same urban context might provide different opportunities and constraints depending on organizational characteristics of migrant movements. Our study shows the ways that organizations' political agenda and their preferred action forms affect the perception of positionality as they navigate in different urban contexts with diverging national/local political settings, political cultures, civil society networks, and migration trajectories. The empirical data in this research stem from a content analysis of the events organized by the organizations and semi-structured in-depth interviews with organizations' representatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical geopolitics conceives of the internal organization of the state as a relevant geopolitical subfield. In this context, this paper aims to develop a geopolitical interpretation of the covid-19 crisis management in Catalonia and Spain from March 2020 to mid-April 2020. The paper begins by providing an overview of internal geopolitics literature by Spanish geographers, focusing on the Catalonia/Spain conflict, followed by a thorough analysis of written and oral materials compiled for that purpose. Three discursive periods are identified: up until the declaration of the State of Alarm in mid-March 2020, the first two weeks with this in force, and the first half of April 2020. The paper evinces that the examined materials support contested visions about the distribution of territorial powers within Spain, while also unearthing some specificities that ultimately relate to the Catalan national question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides empirical evidence about the close relationship between two education systems' orientations and priorities and teacher identities. Based on the Dialogical-Self Theory (DST), it identifies different schoolteacher identities and shows that these teacher identities are non-uniformly distributed across two education systems. Forty Catalan and forty Peruvian schoolteachers (eighty in total) provided information about their positions and I-positions concerning teaching via a written survey. The data were analysed using qualitative and quantitative procedures. The findings show three types of teacher identities: an educator and a learning guide, an instructor teaching, and a collaborative innovator. The results further demonstrate that most of the Peruvian schoolteachers assumed the teacher identity as an instructor teaching. In contrast, the Catalan schoolteachers assumed two teacher identities: an educator and a learning guide, and a collaborative innovator. We conclude by suggesting some implications for educational policy, teacher education and school organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how documentary cinema in war contexts can challenge gender representations. To do so, we adopt a feminist and postcolonial approach to analyze the work of Catalan non-fiction filmmaker Alba Sotorra in Kurdistan, Afghanistan and Catalonia. In her films, Sotorra positions herself close to a series of subjects absorbed by wars and armed conflicts that (re)define their identities while acting beyond gender stereotypes. In particular, the paper analyzes the modes of production and representational strategies of two of Sotorra's latest feature films, Game Over and Commander Arian, documentaries with which the filmmaker aims at overcoming the visual exploitation of alterity. After an introduction to Sotorra, and a brief revision of the theory of postcolonial feminist cinema, our argument unfolds in four parts. Firstly, we reflect on cinematic representations of women and men at war; secondly, we introduce our methodology, based on in-depth interviews with the director to support our film analysis; thirdly, we contrast our hypotheses by means of close-readings of the films; lastly, we reflect on how the filmmaker aligns herself with intersectional feminism by using empathy and solidarity towards her subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the normative view that Quadruple Helix collaborations (with government, academia, industry and civil society) such as living labs are prescribed to enhance regional innovation performance, there is scarce knowledge of the sustainability of such collaborations from the perspective of the stakeholders who are supposed to engage in such initiatives. To address this gap, the purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the implementation of the Quadruple Helix for innovation from a stakeholder perspective, by understanding the expectations as well as the perceived benefits and challenges of the collaboration. Through a qualitative research design, this paper presents an in-depth case study of a living lab in the region of Catalonia. Our results challenge the normative view of Quadruple Helix approaches and of living labs; we also offer suggestions to manage future collaborations and to inform further evidence-based policy. On the whole, partnership leadership and coordination are critical to bridge the expectation-implementation gap towards stakeholder satisfaction and collaboration sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of dysfunctional personality traits and psychological mechanisms related to antisocial behavior is increasingly gaining importance. In this paper we focus on the so-called Dark Constellation of the personality, analyzing Machiavellian, narcissistic, sadistic and psychopathic traits, and their relationship with moral disengagement mechanisms and with emotional intelligence. We specifically focused on the psychopathic personality to examine which studied variables can explain this personality pattern. Participants were 63 prisoners (44 men and 19 women) from three different prisons in Catalonia, Spain. Overall, correlational results indicate that dark constellation personalities are positively associated with moral disengagement and inversely associated with emotional intelligence. Dehumanization is one of the mechanisms most closely related with dark personalities. The study variables explaining psychopathic personality are the sadistic personality pattern and conversely the socio-cognitive mechanism of diffusion of responsibility and the ability to perceive emotions. Finally, the variables that appear as discriminating in extreme cases of psychopathic personality are the sadistic personality trait, and the mechanisms of dehumanization and advantageous comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On October 1st, 2017 the Spanish government deployed the police in Catalonia to prevent people from voting in what the Spanish government considered an "illegal" referendum. The police actions resulted in 893 [1] reported unarmed citizens injured in an event described by some international media as a case of police brutality. This paper drags from Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) to analyze discourses of normalization embedded in journalist practices in El País, the most widely read paper in the Spanish language [2]. These discursive practices channel extreme positions such as beating and dissolving unarmed citizens who aim to express their opinions by voting into an agenda of acceptable socio-political norm; inevitable actions defined as a constitutional and democratic measure. In the months approaching the "referendum", El País constructed a case against Catalonia's independence discursively by (1) legitimizing views, ideologies and positions that consider the Catalan's proposal unacceptable, (2) excluding dialogue and (3) propagating anti-pluralist discourses favoring "us" above "them", which consequently (4) normalized police force as political intervention, justified with the application of the article 155 from the Spanish Constitution. [1] According to the Catalan government and the Catalan Health Department. Retrieve from [2] Retrieved from , and [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nature of intergovernmental relations (IGR) on immigrant integration in Spain, a relatively recent immigration country, with a focus on Catalonia. By means of qualitative document analysis and semi-structured interviews at both levels of government, the paper demonstrates that despite the formal existence of multilateral and institutionalized fora for intergovernmental relations, most intergovernmental relations on immigrant integration tend to be informal and bilateral. The paper also highlights that the conflictual nature of IGR on integration varies across sub-policy areas and over time. The paper contributes to strengthen existing hypotheses regarding institutional features (the distribution of competencies and the territorial organization of power) and party politics for explaining the patterns of IGR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses party competition during secession crises in advanced democracies. It focuses on Quebec, Scotland and Catalonia to show how a party or parties use secession as a competition issue, how other parties respond and what are the consequences for regional party systems. Using quantitative text analysis of parliamentary debates, this work finds that during secession crises, most parties are forced to talk about territorial integrity and that party systems polarize in the territorial dimension. However, parties can adopt different strategies to alter their salience and position on the issue. Most surprisingly, this paper shows that secessionists are not always the ones that emphasize secession most and that parties do not always position at the poles of the territorial dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing numbers of Chinese students are pursuing graduate degrees in Catalonia. Although highly proficient in both Castilian and English when they arrive, they find themselves in a bilingual society where Catalan, not Castilian, predominates both at universities and in the broader social context. Acquiring Catalan is hence important for both academic and social purposes. Using a longitudinal ethnographic study, this paper explores the factors motivating 25 Chinese students pursuing MA or Ph.D. programmes at Catalan universities to learn Catalan. Their motivation is examined over time using the L2 Motivational Self System, categorising it in ought-to L2 self, ideal L2 self, and learning experience. The results reveal that Chinese graduate students in Catalonia are initially motivated to learn Catalan mainly by the ideal L2 self. The desire to integrate themselves into the Catalonia society is the most reported factor, followed by ought-to L2 self, such as academic needs and future career considerations. Once the learning process begins, learning experience becomes another important (de)motivation for the learners. Even when the initial future image has faded over time, personal satisfaction obtained from learning can still motivate learners to continue the investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Spanish far-right Vox party ran for the first time as a candidate for the Catalan parliamentary elections in February 2021. This paper analyses the party's political discourse on Twitter during the Catalan parliamentary election campaign in order to assess whether the degree of dialectical confrontation of their messages can exceed the limits of democratic debate. The results reveal how this far-right party's inflammatory messages, which seek to insult its political opponents, ultimately foster an undemocratic environment that turns Vox's political rivals into its enemy, driving social polarisation and a discourse of hatred towards individuals defending other ideologies or parties. Ultimately, it is intended to add that political-ideological nuance for future research that surpasses traditional hate speech —such as those based on criteria such as race or sex— and the suitability of Twitter for the proliferation of the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines regional legislative initiatives in Spain, a mechanism of shared-rule regulated in article 87.2 of the Spanish Constitution. Through description and analysis of an original dataset covering all legislative terms from 1978 to 2021, it is shown how this specific mechanism has not accomplished its shared-rule objective. Moreover, the article identifies patterns that determine the strategic use, intensity and failure or success of the legislative initiatives. We find diverging trends across regions exemplified by Catalonia, the most active territory but with a very low approval rate. Overall, the analysis underlines how the state-wide scope initiatives seem to have a strategic rather than a legislative purpose while, on the other hand, regional scope initiatives are explained by minor self-rule objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various authors have challenged the traditional dichotomy of civic and ethnic nationalism. This paper presents the case study of Catalan nationalism in the Belle Époque. It argues for the usefulness of the lens of 'Inter-Nationalism' to highlight the fluctuating and labile character of nationalism and to move beyond the ascription of civic and ethnic types to certain regions by examining the exchanges between nationalist movements. It presents three areas in which Catalan nationalism in the Belle Époque moved between voluntarist-organic and inclusive-exclusive definitions and practices of nationalism: state organisation, gender and minority inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Spain, wind energy development has followed a centralized, extractivist model, with wind farms concentrated in peripheralized and impoverished rural territories. Wind developers benefit from these regions' low land value and lack of political power, thus reproducing patterns of geographical hierarchy and strengthening processes of uneven development. This paper examines these dynamics as they have unfolded in Southern Catalonia, a poor, rural area that concentrates a vast array of energy infrastructure. My ethnographic description focuses on what I call practices of devaluation: the variety of mechanisms through which wind energy companies erode both the economic value and the cultural worth of these regions, especially the land and the livelihoods it supports. Resistance to wind energy development in Southern Catalonia thus emerges as a reaction against these practices of devaluation, that is to say, as struggles to assert worth and preserve value. Overall, I argue that local experiences and cultural frameworks surrounding energy infrastructure reveal the inequities of existing processes of energy transition while foregrounding alternative logics to the dominant extractivist model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on manuscripts from early medieval Septimania and Catalonia has become quite sophisticated, but significant and detailed work remains to be done. The ongoing digitization of thousands of manuscript fragments, preserved especially in public, ecclesiastical, and private archives and libraries in Catalonia, will furnish a rich collection of unknown items that will allow for the reconstruction of lost testimonies of the region's religious culture from the ninth century onwards. This paper shows how modern fragmentology, based on systematic digitization and comparison of scattered pieces, enables us to rediscover and write the history of the Carolingian homiletic collections in the south-western periphery of the Carolingian empire formed by Septimania and Catalonia—both in general and in the specific case of the autochthonous Homiliary of Luculentius. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between the economic turmoil generated by the Great Recession and the increase of secessionism. Some authors have stressed that the Great Recession triggered changes in territorial preferences and, in the context of a conflict between the centre and the periphery, fuelled secessionism as a radical shift of the institutional setup. Nevertheless, other researchers have remarked that a recession may enhance the status quo bias and decrease the likelihood of changes. Our paper aims at contributing to this debate by analysing the case of Catalonia. We use an aggregate and an individual-level empirical design to explore the relationship between the deterioration of the economic situation and the increase of preferences for secession among the Catalan population. The findings from the analysis of our empirical models do not support the hypothesis that the effects of the Great Recession had any significant impact on political preferences in Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intermediate living arrangements, like shared flats, collective accommodation or double residence, have become increasingly common due to the individualization of life scripts, and because of economic and cultural shifts in western societies. However, they have been assumed to be negligible in Mediterranean Europe, where housing transitions are 'late but simple'. This paper challenges this assumption, using Catalonia (Spain) as a case study. Data coming from the 2017 Catalan Youth Survey offer some clear-cut results. First, shared flats and double residence are not uncommon among Catalans: respectively 15.7% and 8.1% of youngsters experience them sometime during their twenties. Second, multinomial regression models show that double residence implies economic reliance on parents, it is most common among university students, especially those with well-off parents, and among young people coming from rural areas. Conversely, shared flats appear to be linked to precarious economic situations, and they are common among young immigrants, and those living in the city of Barcelona. Both arrangements are transitory, being less frequent among older people. Some expected predictors of intermediate living turned out to predict double residence instead, so this semi-dependent practice could be the equivalent of 'living away from home' for youngsters in 'familistic' territories as Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent nationalist sentiments affect economic behavior is still an open question. In this paper a study of emerging and competing lottery markets in the same jurisdiction (Catalonia, a Spanish region) is conducted to explore the impact of such nationalistic feelings in the demand for gambling. The use of panel data allows controlling for changing economic and demographic conditions at the province level and their potential effect on the analyzed lottery markets. The results from a difference-in-difference regression analysis indicate that a statistically significant but limited impact of the introduction of the new lottery exists, suggesting that the observed shift in the existing market demand may respond, beyond mere economic determinants, to behavioral biases (e.g. identification feeling with the new lottery). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will evaluate the political stance of sport analysing the case of FC Barcelona (Barça) during the sovereignty process of Catalonia. The main objective is to clarify Barça's commitment with the sporting values between the 2012 Diada and the unilateral declaration of independence of October 2017, and to do that, we perform a critical discourse analysis through the methodological triangulation. We analyse the official statements, public declarations and interviews of the club members to comprehend the involvement of Barça in the political events that occurred in Catalonia. The theoretical framework rejects the use of politicization as a valid concept to understand the political implications of sports institutions, since it is an oversimplification of the complex relationship between sport and politics. The conclusion is that Barça has defended the political values of sport – dialogue, mutual respect and democracy – looking for a peaceful solution to the political conflict in Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main hypothesis of this paper states that the frontier does not constitute a structural feature of the Iberian societies in the twelfth century. Conversely, it results from a time-limited process, and thereby traditional ideas according to which the frontier was a physical and social space where a particular society was created and long-term cultural exchanges took place are wrong and based on a historiographical assumption rather than verified evidence. This work develops the argument that growing feudal states could not tolerate fluid and extended borders in social and temporal terms. This was the case in the Ebro Valley and its Iberian edges. Between 1080 and 1130, the conquest destroys the foundations of the taifa sultanates, and disrupts the Andalusian society. Thereupon, between 1150 and 1190, the Catalan-aragonese sovereigns impose in border territories, and their aristocratic competitors miss the opportunity to begin the thirteenth century consolidating big autonomous or semi-autonomous domains, with the relative exception of Albarracin. This paper studies the way in which this entrenchment of the Catalan-aragonese state took place and impeded the consolidation of a "border society". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of Catalan industrial engineers in the making of a stateless nation (within Spain) in the interwar period. After the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939), a home rule for Catalonia was established. In this context, the members of the Barcelona Association of Industrial Engineers developed a techno-nationalist program with the double goal of both making technology Catalan and making Catalonia technological. As an alleged 'third class' between the working and ruling classes, industrial engineers sought to use their expertise in scientifically managing the workshop to organize the whole nation. They participated in professional initiatives and official institutions from which they spread the 'factory ideals' beyond the factory, such as efficiency, rationalization and statistical monitoring. This paper focuses on the nationalist and technocratic engagement of two leading (and politically diverging) industrial engineers: socialist Estanislau Ruiz-Ponsetí and liberal Josep M. Tallada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CAMACHO-CABISCOL J.-M. (2003) Job flows in Catalonia, Reg. Studies 37, 491-503. This paper examines the magnitude and patterns of job creation, job destruction and job reallocation among Catalan industrial plants in 1996. Gross job creation and destruction rates are estimated to be 6·1% and 3·4%, respectively, which gives a gross job reallocation rate of 9·5%. Separate results by industry, plant-size, juridical form of the firm and wage classes are also reported. The results are compared with other national and international studies. Finally, the paper investigates the main drivers of plant-level heterogeneity and test empirically, in a multivariate context, some of the hypothesis highlighted by the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) has been proved to be an advanced Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technique used to measure and monitor terrain deformation. Two of the critical problems with InSAR have been the effect of the refractive atmosphere and decorrelation on the interferometric phases due to long spatial-temporal baseline. The low density of persistent scatterers (PS) in non-urban areas affected by spatial-temporal decoherence more seriously has inspired the development of alternative approaches. Sentinel-1 (S1) has improved the data acquisition throughout, and compared to previous sensors, increased considerably the differential interferometric SAR (DInSAR) and PSI deformation monitoring potential. This paper describes an innovative methodology to process S1 SAR data. Different with PSI, its most original part includes two key processing stages: high and low frequency splitting from wrapped phases, prior to atmospheric filtering, and final direct integration to generate the complete deformation with time series containing linear and nonlinear components. The proposed method has two fundamental advantages compared with traditional PSI approach: the final monitoring results with excellent coverage of coherent points and the generation of active maps even for the areas with serious deformation in short term to break through the inherent limitation of PSI. The effectiveness of the proposed tools is illustrated using a case study located in Catalonia (Spain). This methodology has supposed a definitive step towards the implementation of DInSAR based techniques to support decision makers against geohazards. In this work, the deformation procedures happened in three different areas of the Catalonia (Spain) are presented and analysed. The maximum accumulated subsidence of over – 60 cm induced by mining activity can be detected by proposed methodology with nice coverage from January 2017 to January 2019. These reported cases illustrate how DInSAR based techniques can provide detailed terrain deformation for geohazard activity with complex topographical conditions. The active deformation areas map can be generated in fast aimed at geohazard risk early warning and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relationship between the COVID-19 crisis and multinationalism in Spain from two complementary angles. First, it provides an overview on how the multinational and decentralized character of Spanish territorial politics shapes the response to the crisis. We find that the management of the crisis reflects and exacerbates the main features of the Spanish territorial model as a case of incomplete federalism with severe intergovernmental deficits. Second, we analyze the effects of the pandemic on Catalan self-determination demands through a brief description of parties, public opinion and governmental reactions. We argue that Catalan secessionism faces several new impediments as a result of the pandemic, but we also find that the COVID-19 crisis provides a window of opportunity for this movement regarding grievance-building and regional governmental performance and salience. We conclude with a general reflection on the ambivalent impact of COVID-19 crisis on Spanish regionalism and territorial politics. Overall, the COVID-19 crisis does not seem to mean an improvement but a potential setback for the accommodation of national diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to reconstruct the meaning of the concept of political corruption in late medieval Catalonia. It discusses a hypothesis that views the period between 1350 and the end of the fifteenth century as the critical stage for the development of political ideas in the Principality of Catalonia. In order to do so, the paper uses a methodology based on two overriding premises: reconstructing the social history of concepts, and conducting a critical analysis of a variety of written primary sources to overcome the tendency of some intellectual history studies that relied too much on the works of a few canonical authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was aimed at reviewing recent studies related with the impact on environment and human health of metals and PCDD/Fs near cement plants. It has been particularly focused on the impact of cement plants located in Catalonia, Spain, which have been monitored by our research for more than ten years. Environmental monitoring studies were performed under different cement plant conditions. While some of our studies examined temporal trends of the levels of the above indicated pollutants, the main goal of other surveys was to assess the impact of implementing alternative fuels in the facilities. Even one of the studies was performed before and after the cement plant temporally ceased its industrial activity. The impact of cement plants burning alternative fuels on the emissions of metals and PCDD/Fs elsewhere was also reviewed. Regarding the cement plants in Catalonia, no significant differences were found, neither in the long-term follow-up studies, nor when alternative fuels are used, nor when a cement plant temporally stopped its activity. These results are in agreement with those reported for several stack emissions of other cement plants working under different conditions. We conclude that emissions of metals and PCDD/Fs by cement plants working with the best available techniques (BAT), should not cause a significant negative impact neither on the surrounding environment, nor on the human health of the population living in the neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the widespread conflation in Europe between populism and nationalism, the Catalan independence movement has commonly been approached as merely a case of nationalism but has been rarely studied by scholars in the field of populism. Drawing on discourse theory, this paper will explore the discursive sequences through which the actors forming the Catalan independence movement organized social relations and constituted their common identity. The objective is to disclose the nature of the discursive dynamics that led to the 2017 independence bid: whether populist, nationalist or both populist and nationalist. Firstly, I will establish a theoretical framework concerning populism, nationalism, and the conditions for the articulation among the two; secondly, I will examine the development of the political discourses within the main Catalan secessionist actors between 2006 and 2017. This study will defend that the Catalan independence movement, as an encompassing hegemonic project, emerged only after the dominant Catalan nationalist discourse shifted towards an articulation of populism with the previous nationalism around the year 2012, with the populist discourse taking predominance until the year 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the 2019 local, regional, European and April general elections in Spain. The constitutional crisis in Catalonia in 2017, the motion of no-confidence leading to the new Socialist government and the emergence of a radical right-wing party, VOX, all led to Spanish politics becoming more polarised. This paper also discusses polarisation from both the left-right and the territorial perspectives, intimately linked in Spain both for historical reasons but also because of agency decisions during the period analysed. Finally, the article shows the electoral results, government formation processes and political implications of polarisation in a non-institutionalised party system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers the first scholarly account of the earliest recorded attempt at setting up a Spanish national tour in 1913, only ten years after the creation of the Tour de France. The paper demonstrates that the initiative for this failed project came from Catalonia, not Madrid, and that one man is to be singled out as its promoter: the pioneer sports journalist and enthusiast Narcis Masferrer Sala. Masferrer, a key figure in the configuration and the diffusion of modern sport in Spain, used his prominent positions as editor of the most influential sports daily of its times, Barcelona's El Mundo Deportivo, and as leader of the Spanish cycling governing body, to launch a campaign aimed at imitating the French tour. The first ever stage race held in Spain, the Volta a Tarragona (1908), and the first two editions of the still running Volta a Catalunya (1911 and 1912) were actually promoted by Masferrer as rehearsals of the projected Vuelta a Espana. Therefore, despite the contemporary rise of Catalan nationalism, they need not be understood as Catalanist initiatives, but rather the opposite: as just another failed example of the Catalan bourgeoisie's attempt at steering the modernization of Spain from its industrial and commercial capital, Barcelona. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like other migrant groups in Catalonia, Moroccans can solicit financial and technical assistance to help better conditions in their localities of origin within the framework of co-development policies. This policy environment reflects international trends of integrating migration and development, including a strengthening of the participatory role of the migrants themselves. Drawing on a qualitative study of Moroccan migrant transnationalism in Catalonia, I analyse the interplay between Catalan actors' support for migrant civic transnationalism and the perception of and participation in projects of co-development among Moroccan migrants. One of the key aims is to explore to what extent timing, that is, the combination of recent patterns of Moroccan migration and the relatively intense debate on migration and development, influences the balance between top-down implementation of the migration development agenda and bottom-up initiatives from the Moroccan migrants. The paper shows how participation in co-development projects varies among Moroccan associations and outlines the main explanations for both involvement and non-involvement. Thus, the paper engages with the growing literature on the relationship of migrants' transnational practices with local and transnational power hierarchies, highlighting the role of receiving-country political actors, policy discourses and initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around the year 1000, judges from the ecclesiastical province of Narbonne (southern France and Catalonia) crafted judicial strategies that reinforced the region's Visigothic Code with the power of saints – conceived as gatekeepers to God's heavenly courtroom – to validate the oaths of witnesses. This practice merged liturgically grounded ideas about supernatural forces and space with a law code that prioritised secular authority. To forestall opposition to rulings, officials sometimes held proceedings in churches. This paper examines two unusual cases illustrating the challenges such strategies faced, given the perception that saints were not omnipresent. These disputes raise questions about the nature of saints, the degree of agency humans attributed to them and the utility of sacred spaces for legal ritual. In the province, saints were powerful, but constrained by their inability to act beyond the walls of consecrated sanctuaries housing their relics. This relegated saints to supplementary roles in law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of secessionist movements in multinational states in general and in Catalonia in particular has put into question the ability of regional autonomy to accommodate secession. This is largely because the literature on federalism and territorial politics overwhelmingly focuses on a one-sided perspective of self-rule and autonomy when analysing the territorial distribution of power and neglects the other equally crucial aspect of shared rule. This paper questions the validity of this one-sided perspective, conceptualises different types of shared rule and their causes and consequences, and illustrates the difference that shared rule can make in dealing with the secessionist movement in Catalonia. It is suggested that shared rule can be regarded as an integrative mechanism for the accommodation of Catalan aspirations for secession. Autonomy cannot be guaranteed and cannot stunt self-determination impulses without shared rule. Creating a well-functioning intergovernmental system will be a serious challenge, but without such a system, it will be difficult to accommodate Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the attitudes of secondary-school head teachers towards religious diversity, intercultural and interreligious dialogue and the role of education in fostering intercultural and interreligious dialogue. A sample comprising 275 head teachers in Catalan secondary schools answered an online questionnaire. The results revealed attitudes which were moderately favourable towards cultural and religious diversity, more strongly favourable towards interreligious dialogue, and less favourable towards education playing a major role in managing religious and cultural diversity and in fostering interreligious dialogue. We found significant differences in head teachers' attitudes in line with the specific features of the schools where they worked. Amongst these differences, it was noticeable that heads of religious and private–public schools had more positive attitudes towards managing religious and cultural diversity and towards education playing a leading role in promoting dialogue. Also, we identified three groups of head teachers who showed differing degrees of positivity according to the perceived religious diversity of their schools. The more diverse the school, the less favourable the attitude, and vice-versa; the most moderate favourability was also associated with the most moderate diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides evidence on the effectiveness in the implementation of an educational program which offered public schools in Catalonia (Spain) the opportunity to improve the quality of educational provision. We employ a difference-in-differences approach on rich balanced panel data of public schools. The results confirm that the program did effectively improve students' achievement and reduce absenteeism, albeit not for all modules and school types or across all years. Our results highlight that it is important to condition the delivery of resources upon specific academic goals depending on the characteristics of the treated population. Additionally, program results suggest the need to enhance educational program design in order to get better evaluation feedback. Abbreviations: DoE: Department of Education; EU: European Union; PMQCE: Projecte per a la Millora de la Qualitat dels Centres Educatius; DiD: Differences-in-Differences; SFDC: Schools Facing Disadvantaged Conditions; OECD: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development; REA: Regional Educational Authority [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the parliamentary simulation project that arose from the joint efforts of the University and the Parliament of Catalonia. We analyse the advantages of using this method in motivating the students to learn parliamentary constitutional law, and the impact it has on improving the links between the legal education system and the political institutions. Parliament is one of the basic institutions of our political and democratic system, and also one of the topics in the subject of constitutional law. Therefore, a theoretical knowledge of parliamentary proceedings is traditionally acquired within the classroom. However, the parliamentary system has evolved and it has progressively become more technically complex. This means that students perceive both the institution and its peculiar rules, the parliamentary proceedings, as distant, obsolete, excessively rigid or even absurd; to sum up, they are alien to the students' everyday world. Furthermore, a comprehensive learning scheme also requires student to participate actively, so that they can develop such skills as teamwork, the immediate analysis of actual conflicts, the ability to react, to argue and to make a coherent speech, etc. In this context, parliamentary simulation is an excellent instrument for drawing students closer to the highest representative institution in our country, for it allows them to act like real MPs for a week. Not only do they use the same juridical tools and the same skills as the politicians do, they also use them in the same real scenario, that is, in the Parliament Buildings of the Catalan Assembly. Consequently, the students experience how Parliament works and understand the need for the rules governing its functioning and the reason behind the proceedings. In this way they acquire a comprehensive vision of the Catalan political panorama and parliamentary dynamics, and are prepared to become better citizens. Our paper focuses first on the programme of activities organized during the academic year and the goals of each one: these activities include guided visits to both regional and national parliamentary institutions; meetings with MPs, in which students share the political agenda of the chosen MPs for one day; and the assistance and participation in radio talk shows and interviews. Second, the paper describes the actual simulation, which took place in building of the Catalan Parliament, during the first week of July. Finally it ends with some conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to identify the factors with the greatest influence on the changeover process and to quantify how company policy and traits have informed currency adoption. Special attention is given to the role of the public sector in facilitating the currency changeover process. With this aim, we estimate different logit models using micro data from three data surveys, from 1999, 2000, and 2001, taken from a representative sample of eurozone firms located in Catalonia, Spain. The findings of the paper clearly underline the role of the public sector in the success of the changeover process and provide policy advice for countries in the process of acceding to the European Union and, subsequently, to the eurozone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commuting exists because an important fraction of workers in developed countries do not live close to their workplaces, but at long distances from them, so that they must travel to their jobs and then back home daily. This paper studies commuting in Catalonia (a Spanish region) for the 1986-91 period. We introduce the main facts of commuting in Catalonia by a descriptive analysis using several statistical methods, first on its sectoral side (de-composing the Catalonian economy into 24 sectors), then on its territorial side (dividing Catalonia in 16 homogeneous territorial units called regions) and an analysis of the professional categories. Then, we comment briefly on the theory of residential location, which provides us with the theoretical framework needed for the study of commuting. The last part of the paper consists of an estimation of commuting using a logit model with individual data from the 1991 Spanish Population Census, in order to select the most relevant variables and estimate their effect on commuting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research in first (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition has provided evidence that linguistic confidence is a key construct that can explain linguistic behaviour. In this paper, we apply previous research in the socio-contextual model of L2 learning to data from Catalonia. More specifically, the paper investigates linguistic confidence towards Catalan and Spanish by students in Catalonia for a period of 5 years, that is, from their last year of primary education to their last year of secondary education. The methodology for the longitudinal study was based on a survey on linguistic confidence in Catalan and Spanish and other sociolinguistic and demographic information by students in five different locations in Catalonia. The results of the study show evidence that (a) linguistic confidence is very high for Catalan and Spanish; (b) there is a relationship between confidence in Spanish and Catalan and the students’ L1; and (c) over time linguistic confidence in both languages increases. These results are discussed in light of current discussions on the stable or dynamic nature of linguistic confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the well-known educational possibilities afforded byRhythm And Poetry(RAP) for the development of musical, lyrical and critical skills [Morrell, E., & Duncan-Andrade, J. M. R. (2002). Promoting Academic Literacy with Urban Youth through Engaging Hip-hop Culture.The English Journal, 91(6), 88–92. Retrieved fromhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/821822; Hill, M. L. (2009).Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity. New York, NY: Teachers College Press; Low, B. E. (2011).Slam School: Learning Through Conflict in the Hip-Hop and Spoken Word Classroom. Chicago, IL: Stanford University Press], it remains a lyrical genre often excluded from Catalan secondary education. This paper focuses on a four-day series of rap workshops given in 2012 by a famous local Catalan rap artist in a multicultural and multilingual state school in Catalonia. It analyses the impact that the workshops had, above all in terms of classroom engagement, linguistic empowerment and textual ‘agency’ [Moje, E. B., & Lewis, C. (2007). Examining Opportunities to Learn Literacy: The role of critical sociocultural literacy research. In E. B. Moje, C. Lewis, & P. Enciso (Eds.),Reframing sociocultural research on literacy: identity, agency and power(pp. 15–48). Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum], on a range of students with varying degrees of command of the Catalan language and with different degrees of experience with rap music. Through the classroom activity described herein, we show the pedagogical opportunities that rap music offers as a hybrid text in-between oral and written codes that makes it a powerful vehicle for self-expression, whilst enabling the acknowledgement of real uses of languages and genres related to the cultural practices of urban students, in the classroom. In particular, we argue that bridging Catalan rap culture to the goals of the school curriculum, especially in highly multilingual and multicultural school contexts, helps to promote the socialisation of the Catalan language in and beyond the school. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The topic of the internationalisation of academia has recently attracted attention from sociolinguists and language-policy scholars. In this paper, we compare two different universities from two contrasting contexts in Europe in order to find out more about their projected stance [Jaffe, A. (2009). Stance in a Corsican School: Institutional and Ideological Orders and the production of Bilingual Subjects. In A. Jaffe (Ed.),Stance: Sociolinguistic perspectives(pp. 119–145). New York, NY: Oxford University Press] and attitudes towards the different languages present in their immediate contexts. In particular, we compare the University of Tartu (Estonia) with the University of Lleida (Catalonia, Spain), analysing several key parameters. The purpose of the comparison is to contrast, from a sociolinguistic point of view, the higher education setting of two medium-sized language contexts in Europe [Vila, F. X., & Bretxa, V. (Eds.). (2015).Language policy in higher education. The case of medium-sized languages. Bristol: Multilingual Matters] with different demolinguistic and language political features. The results show that both institutions adopt a similar stance in connection to their respective national language (a protectionist attitude), but they take different approaches towards the other societal language and English. We read these differences in light of the broader historical and socio-political backgrounds, which we suggest are reflected in the microcosm of the universities here analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Are secessionisms from and within the EU comparable? What motivates them and to what extent do they pose similar challenges to EU territorial governance? This article addresses these questions by comparing the framing of the British Leave campaign and the Catalan independence movement. Drawing on the FraTerr database and method, the analysis suggests that secessionism from the EU and secessionism within the EU are different political phenomena despite sharing an emphasis on sovereignty and the common goal of breaking-up from an existing polity. Secessionism from the EU is primarily a call for the recovery of lost sovereignty and of classical functions of the state such as border control. Secessionism within the EU invokes sovereignty as the right to external self-determination and adds narratives around a better future and greater democratic quality and social justice. These two types of secessionism pose different challenges to EU territorial governance because the first entails a full rejection of the European project while the latter calls for a review of European multi-level governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable, integrated, and representative management of water is one of the main challenges faced by governments worldwide, especially where water resources are not abundant, such as the Ebro River basin in Spain. The Spanish state has granted powers in matters related to water that has adhered river basins. The main objective of this study is to examine the specific case of water management in Catalonia, a region within the Ebro basin, through literature review and interviews conducted with key informants in water organizations operating in Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Catalonia, fervour for Football Club Barcelona (Barça) goes well beyond sporting success as the team supports the demands of the stateless nation. Much 'more than a club', Barça is a platform for the expansion of a Catalan national consciousness. At a time when Catalonia is at a critical point in its relations with the Spanish state, claiming the right to national self-determination and presenting the possibility of secession, this paper examines how Barça boosts the strength of Catalan nationalist feelings through dynamics characteristic of the football sphere, such as rituals of group belonging, fandom performances of loyalty, the dramatization of rivalries, the elevation of those achieving sporting success to national icons or the strength of feeling provided by the sports ground. Looking at the period 2003-2014, it concludes that Barça is key in advancing claims that Catalonia is a sovereign nation with the right to decide its political future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a Persistent Scatterer Interferometry procedure to process Sentinel-1 SAR data. Its most original part includes a set of tools to perform two key processing stages: a first 2 + 1D phase unwrapping, prior to atmospheric filtering, and a second 2 + 1D phase unwrapping, to generate the deformation time series. These tools address two fundamental aspects of a Persistent Scatterer Interferometry processing chain: the quality control of the intermediate and final results, and the generation of quality indices to characterise such results. The effectiveness of the proposed tools is illustrated using a case study located in Catalonia (Northern Iberian Peninsula). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse how the Dalcroze method was introduced to Spain and became known there, more specifically in the Catalonia of theNoucentismemovement, and why it made the greatest impact and was more widely disseminated in this particular region of Spain. Following a summary of Dalcroze’s contributions to music education, an outline is given of how the Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios or Committee for Extended Studies (the JAE, in Spanish) became a springboard for the method’s introduction in Catalonia through a grant awarded to Catalan musician and teacher Joan Llongueras Badía, even though the JAE had not shown much interest in its diffusion. It goes on to explain how the method’s use spread in Catalonia, partly thanks to the efforts of Joan Llongueras and his Institute for Rhythmic Gymnastics and partly as a result of the support that these efforts received in the political, philosophical, moral and aesthetic context of theNoucentismemovement – which, the paper argues, explains why the method’s impact was much greater in Catalonia than in the rest of Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]