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Copyright of Revista de la Asociacion Aragonesa de Criticos de Arte is the property of Asociacion Aragonesa de Criticos de Arte and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over the past few decades, Europe has witnessed the rise of secessionist movements driven by national minorities and other separatist groups. This phenomenon is currently capturing the world's attention and is perceived as a significant challenge to states, governments, and global politics. In the context of liberal political theory, none of the theories of secession has appeared to find a healthy balance of considerations between the anti-secessionists and the pro-secessionists, and the less permissive view and the more permissive view. They are also incompetent to formulate the specific conditions under which secession might be justified or legitimate practically. Moreover, as demonstrated in the cases of Catalonia and Scotland, all of the theories neglect the economic implications of secession, which have crucially fueled and driven contemporary secessionist movements. This paper seeks to develop a conceptual framework for secession as reflected by the cases of secessionist movements in Catalonia and Scotland. It proposes that Plebiscitary approaches require modification to safeguard a flawless state and suggests reconsidering the electoral procedure. The first-tier referendum is to be conducted within seceding territories and then the second-tier referendum is to be held statewide. Consequently, after a negotiation process over economic and other important concerns between the seceding groups and the national government has been concluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Separatist aspirations in Europe are now a captivating issue. Regions like Scotland and Catalonia deserve special attention. The aim of the article is to show differences in the perception of both cases, due to their frequent comparing in journalistic papers. The study consists of two parts that concern Scotland and Catalonia. In each of them the institutional and legal positions of the regions were taken into the consideration. In addition, the course of events in Scotland and Catalonia in 2014 and 2017 was considered in the context of the independence referendums carried out in these regions. The summary of this article consists of comparison of the factors which show that there are no grounds for adapting analogy between Scotland and Catalonia. Factors that have been taken into account are: the legal order and the regulations used to define the legal status of the regions, and also the relations between central and subnational (regional) levels in Scotland and Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a conceptual model with the capacity to substantially explain the boycott behavior. As a first step for the validation of the proposed model, an empirical study has been carried out, focusing on the boycott promoted towards the territory of Catalonia (Spain). Following the postulates of the theory of reasoned action, the effect that the intention to participate in the boycott will have on effective behavior is considered, but social influence, the importance given to brands and the perceived legitimacy of a boycott are also included. Concepts as the attitude towards boycotts as a measure of pressure to change actions and decisions, the perceived usefulness of the boycott and animosity towards the boycott object are included in the model as antecedents to the intention to participate in the boycott. Finally, it is postulated that the legitimacy given to boycott behavior and the ethical ideology based on idealism are explanatory factors for the attitude towards boycott behavior. The relevance of the study is established by the need to respond to boycotts in an appropriate way. This paper can be useful, by pointing out the main factors that cause an individual to take an active part in a boycott. [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]

Copyright of Manuscrits: Revista d'Historia Moderna is the property of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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]

Copyright of Educatio Siglo XXI is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ayer: Revista de Historia Contemporánea is the property of Asociacion de Historia Contemporanea and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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]

The lockdown measures in Spain due to COVID-19 social measures showed a wide decrease in the urban noise levels observed. This paper presents an analysis of the noise levels in Girona, a 100 000 citizen city in the North-East of Catalonia (Spain). We present the LAeq levels in four different locations from January 2020 to June 2020, including all the stages of the lockdown. Several comparisons are conducted with the monitoring data available from the previous years (2019, 2018, and 2017, when available). This analysis is part of the project "Sons al Balcó," which aims to draw the soundscape of Catalonia during the lockdown. The results of the analysis in Girona show drastic LAeq changes especially in nightlife areas of the city, moderate LAeq changes in commercial and restaurants areas, and low LAeq changes in dense traffic areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Erdkunde is the property of Universitaet Bonn, Geographisches Institut and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Medievalia is the property of Instituto de Investigaciones Filologicas - UNAM and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Acta Musei Brukenthal is the property of Brukenthal National Museum and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores the nationalist conflict in Catalonia and how it is lived and experienced by actors within it. It focuses on the people mobilised against independence who see themselves primarily as defenders of the Spanish Constitution and not of Spanish nationalism. Critics of civic nationalism in political theory and Nationalism Studies argue that anti‐nationalist rhetoric tends to be the expression of structural or hegemonic nationalism. Drawing on fieldwork carried out in Barcelona, I look at how the conflict has influenced discourse and language used in everyday life, how participants negotiate their identity, why people do (and do not) get involved in organisations that defend their political ideas, how they see themselves within the conflict and their perceptions of public space and its significance in relation to the constitution. An ethnographic approach explores these issues and discovers that although anti‐independence actors base their mobilisation in nationalism, civic nationalism cannot be reduced to just another form of nationalism. I aim to go beyond critics of civic nationalism to explore how my interlocutors act within and against nationalism, reproducing nationalist discourse in some aspect (boundaries of the nation) in order to challenge it in others (content and relevance of nationalism in everyday life). [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]

Studying grassroots initiatives which aim to respond to environmental and social crisis is of renewed importance nowadays, in the aftermath of the 2008-9 financial crisis in southern Europe. This paper studies people's motivations for becoming part of an eco-community in Catalonia, Spain, through interviews with 29 informants. The research is part of a larger study, based on ethnographic data collected between 2013 and 2015 in 27 eco-communities. The paper shows the extent to which people who joined an eco-community were driven by ideological reasons, adopting a livelihood strategy, or by a combination of both factors in the years following the crisis. We argue that the social and economic crisis has had an impact on the factors motivating people to join these communities, with an increase in the number of people driven by materialistic motives, relative to those who joined for ideological reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, forced marriage as a manifestation of violence against women has entered the public agenda in European Union countries. This is partly due to higher numbers of migrants from regions where it is a regular practice. This paper aims to show the different ways violence manifests itself in forced marriage, both symbolically and practically - in terms of experiences - based on a qualitative sample of women with a range of migration backgrounds residing in Catalonia. The intersectional gender approach of the analysis enables the interaction to be considered of various factors when it comes to understanding contexts of risk and violence, as well as exit strategies from forced marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Araucaria is the property of Araucaria-Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofia, Politica y Humanidades and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyzes the pragmatic intensification as an argumentative strategy in the discourse delivered by the King of Spain Felipe VI on October 3rd, 2017, two days after the illegal independence referendum held in Catalonia on October 1st. The analysis of the different intensifying mechanisms, governed by the expressive and appellative functions in illocutionary and perlocutionary speech acts, shows, in the global discursive strategy, the confrontation between the constitutionalist and the independence ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a modeling framework that intends to select the optimal robust wastewater reclamation program of measures (PoM) to achieve the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) objectives in the inner Catalonia watersheds. The integrative methodological tool developed incorporates a water quality model to simulate the effects of the PoM used to reduce pollution pressures on the hydrologic network. A Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA) helps to identify efficient trade-offs between PoM cost and water quality. Interactive Decisions Map (IDM)-a multi-criteria visualization-based decision support tool is used to provide a clear idea of the trade-off between water status and the cost to achieve such situation. Lastly, a stochastic simulation model to analyze the sensitivity under varied environmental uncertainties is run. Moreover, the tool is oriented to guide water managers in their decision-making processes. Additionally, this paper analyzes the results of the application of the management tool in the inner Catalan watershed in order to perform the European WFD. This tool has had a key role in the design of part of the PoM which shall be implemented to achieve objectives of the WFD in 2015 in all the Catalan catchments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Investigaciones Turisticas is the property of Investigaciones Turisticas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Journal of Political Philosophy / Las Torres de Lucca is the property of Revista Las Torres de Lucca. Facultad de Filosofia, Ciudad Universitaria and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper argues for the value of a comparison of the Métis national movement with the Catalan national movement. It pays special attention to the matter of federalism (especially the writings of Harry Daniels and the recent court rulings about Catalonia's status and bid for independence), of small communities that have been "carved out" (especially the Métis Settlements of Alberta and the microstate of Andorra) and the existence of communities that cross borders (especially the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota and the Catalan communities of France). [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]

Identity and democracy and, more particularly, national identity and deliberative democracy account for a controversial relationship. However, from a classical deliberative democratic point of view, the controversy over who is the 'we' that needs to stand together in contemporary complex societies settled with the constitution of modern states. In this sense, the main contribution of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, I rebut the analytical appropriateness and conceptual coherence of Habermas' discursive approach to democracy for the case of plurinational societies in contemporary constitutional democracies. A discussion of a test case – Catalonia – demonstrates that this inadequacy renders incoherent the deliberative model regarding one of its most fundamental premises: the equal weight of the principles of law and the principle of democracy. On the other hand, I sustain that the challenge is not about identity but democracy, and more particularly, about the role deliberative democracy is called to play when controversy challenges whether the people of a state do conform to a single people or not. More concretely, I explore the opportunities offered by the systemic turn to sustain a more realistic approach to deliberative democracy regarding its capacity to steer society towards integration in the context of the system of public deliberation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of the internationalisation of higher education, language matters have become increasingly prominent for universities across a wide variety of contexts. This has made the higher education domain an attractive site for applied linguists and sociolinguists to investigate in close detail. One relatively consolidated idea is that contexts in which English has made further incursions in universities are more internationalised than those settings where English has penetrated to a lesser extent. In line with that, a supposed north-south divide in European higher education has been conceived of, with universities in the north leading in terms of internationalisation efforts, while those in the south lag behind. In this article, I problematise this idea and suggest instead that a narrower and more focused contrastive analysis between language ecologies across different countries and contexts might be more useful. In doing that, we can thus avoid the dangers of binarism and lumping that can come associated to holding preconceived geographical borders. In particular, the comparative analysis proposed here allows us to highlight two key issues that seem to be highly pressing in present-day higher education domains: the language-ideological and the socio-economic. I build the argument in the paper by utilising empirical material from Estonia and Catalonia, two contexts that have been at the centre of my own work in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Palabra Clave is the property of Universidad de la Sabana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Española de Derecho Constitucional is the property of Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Española de Derecho Constitucional is the property of Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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]

An aging population, whose multi-morbidities and risk of frailty increase with age results in significant health and social care consumption. Increasing complexity amplifies fragmentation of care and results in sub optimal care outcomes. Ireland, in keeping with other jurisdictions seeks to implement integrated care for older persons as a policy response. There is growing evidence base supporting effective service responses for older persons. These typically include multidisciplinary, community based teams providing services in or near to the older person's home (the 'what'). However, examples of systemic implementation are confined to smaller regions notably in Catalonia (Spain), Scotland and Singapore. This reflects the fact that the implementation of integrated care is problematic at scale. The need to attend to methods that support high autonomy professionals tasked with local implementation (the 'who') is a neglected area. This is especially important in light of the fact managerial and clinical leaders already have operational and clinical imperatives to attend to. Whilst ideologically committed, the change management challenge presented by integrated care is daunting as they may lack the capacity (time, resources, structures) required to test a new care model. In addition, most change methodologies fail to recognise powerful social dynamics that reflect the characteristics of a complex adaptive system (the 'how'). This paper proposes a framework to implementing integrated care for older persons. In addition, it offers some initial empirical evidence that this approach has utility among managers and clinicians. In doing so seeks to bridge the implementation gap associated with systemic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the notion of modernism by relating it to three artistic movements - Modernisme, Noucentisme and the Avant-garde - which developed in Catalonia between the 1880s and the early 1920s. From a common commitment to modernity these three movements produced, nonetheless, widely different aesthetic proposals. Notwithstanding their differences, this paper identifies common features in their artistic practices in order to contribute to the ongoing critical review of modernism. Thus, rather than a self-referential, medium-specific quest with abstraction as a natural endpoint, modernism is presented here as an open, interrogative artistic practice engaged in a debate in pursuit of 'the modern'. This understanding of modernism is then tested against the case of Xavier Nogués, an artist associated with Noucentisme, and his contribution to the artistic debate of his time through the necessarily figurative language of caricature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to measure the effect that knowing the Catalan language has on individuals' comparative advantage to perform certain jobs in Catalonia (Spain), where Catalan and Spanish coexist. Design/methodology/approach – Using census data for 1991 and 1996, and for individuals born in Spain, the paper first estimates a Probit model for individuals' level of Catalan proficiency in order to correct for the possible endogeneity of Catalan knowledge, as it may be jointly determined with occupational selection or be a reflection of unobserved human capital or innate ability. Then, it estimates a bivariate Probit model for the probability of choosing a given occupation conditional on a given Catalan proficiency level. Findings – The paper finds that advanced proficiency in Catalan reinforces selection into being employed, being an entrepreneur, and into white-collar occupations and communication-intensive jobs. Being able to read and speak Catalan increases selection into white collar occupations by between 11 and 16 percentage points, while writing Catalan increases by 4 to 7 percentage points the probability of engaging in services, and government and educational activities. Practical implications – Because census data are cross-sectional panel effects on language selection cannot be analyzed. Nevertheless, the paper's results suggest that investing in learning the local language, at the firm and the government level, improves job matching and assimilation of workers to multilingual economies. The authors suggest a cost-benefit analysis to assess the effectiveness of language policies for further research. Originality/value – The results contribute to the scarce literature on the economic value of a language, i.e. on how much language knowledge as a form of human capital reinforces individuals' comparative advantage to perform certain tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of selective exposure maintains that individuals tend to choose news media outlets that are consistent with their beliefs. This paper examines selective exposure when there is public debate on the tensions between national identities, specifically, the debate between supporters of the independence of Catalonia and those opposed to it. The results showed that there was a strong correlation between position on independence and choice of television channel in Catalonia. Another determining factor was language. It was also noted that the degree of selective exposure intensified slightly at specific times when social polarisation increased throughout the period studied (2015-2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historia y Comunicación Social is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse in-depth collaboration as a process that emerges from interactions among individuals in order to develop entrepreneurial actions within established family firms. The research is contextualized in the metal sector in Catalonia (Spain), using institutional economics as a theoretical framework of reference. Design/methodology/approach - Methodologically, the paper adopt an exploratory perspective and employs a qualitative approach. In particular, a multiple case-study is used to gain deep insights into a contemporary and complex issue within its real-life context, and two case studies are purposefully selected in order to be able to conduct cross-case comparisons. Findings - In the early formation phase of collective entrepreneurship, there are similarities reflecting the networks status of both cases. In contrast, there are some variations concerning the development of collective entrepreneurship within the businesses which affect the type of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) activities developed by the firms. Research limitations/implications - By using a case study approach, it is hard to validate the theories for any more general applicability. Practical implications - Promoting trust in the organizational context, owner-managers may assume the role of intrapreneurs as network or human interaction builders within businesses, in order to promote CE through collective activities. Originality/value - The paper shows that CE activities may be understood from a collective action among employees and owner-managers. The paper also demonstrates that the phenomenon can be place into a broader theoretical context, taking into account the considerations included in institutional economics. [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]

Based on a SEIRD model (Susceptible, Exposed, Infective, Recovered and Deceased) for COVID-19 infection with a new parametrization using a high infection rate, and a low fatality, we define the model in System Dynamics, Python, and Specification and Description Language (SDL). The different implementations obtained can be improved depending on the capabilities of the approach and, more interestingly, can be used to improve the Validation and Verification processes. In this paper, we are focused on describing how this comparison with other models' validation processes allows us to find the parameters of the system dynamics model, hence the parameters of the pandemic. This is a crucial element, specifically in this case, because the data are not complete or validated for different reasons. We use using existing data from Korea and Spain and showing that the proposed method and the obtained parametrization for the model fit with the empirical evidence. We discuss some implications of the validation process and the model parametrization. We use this approach to implement a Decision support system that shows the current pandemic situation in Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Education Policy Analysis Archives / Archivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas / Arquivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas is the property of Educational Policy Analysis Archives & Education Review and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this paper is to analyze, over the period 1999 to 2014, the impact of acquisitions on firm growth for software firms located in Catalonia. We investigate firms that targeted, or are themselves the target of, an acquisition. Applying a matching procedure, we obtain a database of more than 800 firms. Estimates from a fixed effects quantile model show that the effects of acquisitions are heterogeneous—the acquired companies increase their productivity growth, while the acquiring companies significantly increase their sales growth. Among the high-growth firms, the acquiring firms have a 60.8% higher sales growth rate than the control group. The impact of acquisitions is greatest in the upper percentiles of the conditional growth distribution. [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]

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This paper's ambition is to explore how the material, social and symbolic legacy of conflicts that have taken place since the turn of the twentieth century may be made more resonant and comprehensible to visitors. We take the Spanish Civil War sites in Catalonia as emblematic of the issues and entrenchments which to date hinder their full potential as sites of reconciliation, awareness and identity-shaping for Europeans. After analysing their current situation and embedding in place strategies, which is remarkably different – one in a peripheral mountain location and one in the very core of Barcelona's touristscape –, our research examines the way in which historical memory is constructed, narrated and practiced in those spaces, underlining unsolved issues and contradictions. In retrospect, this research contributes to the critique of the very concept of historical memory, its patrimonialisation and the modes of social construction of heritage in the 'age of mobilities'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In bilingual settings language choice represents one of the main resources individuals have to construct their identities. According to Jaffe (2009), it is also a way in which individuals position themselves towards the languages of the sociolinguistic context. However, in the context of researching multilingual settings, very little attention has been paid to how the researcher's language choice(s) interact with the participants' language choices, and how the linguistic features that s/he activates contribute to the construction of the researcher's identity and her/his stance towards the languages of the sociolinguistic matrix within which the research is embedded. This paper is based in the context of Catalonia and explores how the researcher projects and is ascribed a stance as a consequence of her own linguistic practices. First, it shows that these practices lead to the construction of relationships of (dis)affiliation between the researcher and the participants, which ultimately influence the type of data collected. Second, it suggests that language choice is an essential lens through which to look at the researcher's positionality in multilingual settings and provide more transparent accounts of multilingual ethnographic research. [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]