Societal education and the education divide in European identity, 1992-2015

The fact that highly educated individuals are significantly more likely to self-identify as Europeans than those with lower levels of educational attainment is one of the most robust findings in the scholarship on individual Europeanization. Previous work also shows that this cleavage in supranational identification varies cross-nationally and over time. We contribute to the existing literature by examining the country-level, socio-structural conditions that influence the education cleavage. Focusing on how the educational environment influences identity formation, we test two divergent predictions of how societal education—i.e. the average national level of educational attainment—shapes the cleavage between individuals of differing education levels with respect to their self-identification as European. According to Welzel’s (2013) ‘cross-fertilization approach’, societal education should widen the education divide. By contrast, our alternative ‘cross-attenuating approach’ posits that societal education should instead help to close it. Using a cross-national time-series dataset that includes 28 EU member states and 28 Eurobarometers covering 1992–2015, as well as between–within multilevel models, we find a significantly narrower education cleavage in countries where societal education increased the most during the period of our study. This result provides strong support for the cross-attenuating approach presented here. We theorize that societal education helps to narrow the individual-level education cleavage through a discursive and a network mechanism

Beyond strong and weak: rethinking postdictatorship civil societies

What is the impact of dictatorships on postdictatorial civil societies? Bottom-up theories suggest that totalitarian dictatorships destroy civil society while authoritarian ones allow for its development. Top-down theories of civil society suggest that totalitarianism can create civil societies while authoritarianism is unlikely to. This article argues that both these perspectives suffer from a one-dimensional understanding of civil society that conflates strength and autonomy. Accordingly we distinguish these two dimensions and argue that totalitarian dictatorships tend to create organizationally strong but heteronomous civil societies, while authoritarian ones tend to create relatively autonomous but organizationally weak civil societies. We then test this conceptualization by closely examining the historical connection between dictatorship and civil society development in Italy (a posttotalitarian case) and Spain da postauthoritarian one). Our article concludes by reflecting on the implications of our argument for democratic theory, civil society theory, and theories of regime variation

Higher-order exponential integrators for quasi-linear parabolic problems. Part II: Convergence

In this work, the convergence analysis of explicit exponential time integrators based on general linear methods for quasi-linear parabolic initial boundary value problems is pursued. Compared to other types of exponential integrators encountering rather severe order reductions, in general, the considered class of exponential general linear methods provides the possibility of constructing schemes that retain higher-order accuracy in time when applied to quasi-linear parabolic problems. In view of practical applications, the case of variable time step sizes is incorporated. The convergence analysis is based upon two fundamental ingredients. The needed stability bounds, obtained under mild restrictions on the ratios of subsequent time step sizes, have been deduced in the recent work [C. González and M. Thalhammer, SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 53 (2015), pp. 701--719]. The core of the present work is devoted to the derivation of suitable local and global error representations. In conjunction with the stability bounds, a convergence result is established.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, proyecto MTM2013-46553-C3-1-P y Austrian Science Fund (FWF), projects P21620-N13 and P28645-N35

Proyecto de Investigación: La formación de los paisajes agrarios del Noroeste peninsular durante la Edad Media (siglos V al XII)

Presentamos los objetivos y los primeros resultados del proyecto de investigación La formación de los paisajes del Noroeste Peninsular durante la Edad Media (siglos V al XII). Exponemos los presupuestos teóricos y metodológicos de la arqueología agraria y nos acercamos a los resultados preliminares obtenidos en los tres casos de estudio abordados en nuestra investigación. [ABSTRACT] The paper introduces the aims and the preliminary outcomes of the research project entitled ‘The formation of agricultural landscapes in north western Iberia during the Middle Ages (V – XII centuries)’. Also, the text sets out the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of agrarian archaeology. Finally, the paper presents and explains the results achieved hitherto in the three archaeological case studies under investigation

La política fiscal aplicada en la Unión Económica Monetaria (1999-2007). Un análisis desde la perspectiva de la recesión actual.

La cesión de la soberanía de la política monetaria y de tipo de cambio asociada a la creación de la Unión Económica Monetaria (UEM) da a la política fiscal y presupuestaria un papel más relevante como política de estabilización, aún más necesario si cabe ante la crisis financiera y económica actual. El artículo realiza un análisis de las finanzas públicas en el seno de la UEM durante el periodo 1999-2007. Se estudian los procesos de consolidación de las cuentas públicas europeas en los últimos años, el margen fiscal de maniobra con el que cuentan los distintos gobiernos para hacer frente a la crisis, el signo de la política fiscal y su relación con el ciclo económico, la aplicación del Pacto de Estabilidad y Crecimiento y la influencia que la crisis actual va a tener previsiblemente en las finanzas públicas europeas en los próximos años.The transfer of sovereignty in monetary policy and exchange rate associated with the creation of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) provides fiscal and budgetary policy with a more important role as a stabilization policy, and even more taking into account the current financial and economic crisis. The article makes an analysis of public finances within the EMU during the period 1999-2007. It examines the processes of consolidation of public accounts in Europe during the last years, the fiscal margin, with which the various governments have to face the crisis, the sign of this fiscal policy and its relation to the economic cycle, the implementation of the Stability and Growth Pact and the expected influence that the current crisis will have on European public finances in the coming years

Pluralism in crisis: Transformations of the spanish DTT market in the context of the recession

[Abstract]: This article discusses the most significant aspects of DTT’s evolution in Spain since the analogue switch-off in April 2010. It underscores the severe cutbacks affecting public-service television broadcasters and their impact, as well as a return to government control over the Spanish Broadcasting Corporation (RTVE) in particular. It also emphasises the major tendency towards concentration in the national private DTT market and the inviability of most regional and local broadcasters. All of these issues are analysed from the perspective of their worrying impact on pluralism.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; CSO2010-1789

Digital terrestrial television roll-out policies in Spain and the changing television scene in the context of analogue switch-off

[Abstract]: This article describes and analyses the digital terrestrial television roll-out polices developed and applied in Spain by conservative and socialist governments (Partido Popular [1996–2004] and Partido Socialista Obrero Español [2004–2010], respectively) from the end of the 1990s until the analogue switch-off in April 2010. It also considers, from national, regional and local perspectives, the implications of this digitalization process for the terrestrial television scene in Spain. Finally, it points to a number of pending public policy issues and potential market trends. As a result of this process, Spain has become one of the first large Western European countries with a predominantly terrestrial television model to switch off analogue broadcasts

Survival in a Nazi concentration camp: the Spanish prisoners of Mauthausen

Analysis of the extent to which higher social class (along with other demographic variables) was an advantage for Spanish prisoners at the Mauthausen concentration camp advances the study of the determinants of survival in contexts of indiscriminate violence. Use of Cox event-history models, based on detailed information collected by well-placed Spaniards at the camp, reveals that individuals from higher social classes who filled administrative positions at Mauthausen were prominent in support networks and had a good command of the German language were more likely to survive. The risk of death was highest among unskilled agricultural workers, followed by unskilled non-agricultural workers