The Breakdown of the Spanish Urban Growth Model: Social and Territorial Effects on the Global Crisis

The present global crisis has manifested itself in Spain with special force, but what is happening today has its roots in the recent economic and urban growth model. Whereas much has been written on the economic weakness of a model heavily based on the construction industry, little attention has been given to the internal regulations, policies, social and cultural factors in which the Spanish urban growth model was embedded. The question insufficiently addressed by current debates is therefore: to what extent is Spain's current crisis the result of its urban economic and social growth model? In this essay I argue that the crisis in the Spanish urban growth model reveals a particular interaction of globalizing forces with national and local processes, characterized both by specific structures of economic incentives and path-dependent cultural traits. The combination of these factors goes some way towards an explanation of the housing bubble. This specific combination of factors, however, makes the outlook for the aftermath of the housing bubble in Spain different from that experienced in the United States

Marc Pares, Sonia M. Ospina and Joan Subirats 2017: Social Innovation and Democratic Leadership: Communities and Social Change from Below. Cheltenham and Northampton: Edward Elgar

Ressenya de: Marc Pares, Sonia M. Ospina and Joan Subirats 2017: Social Innovation and Democratic Leadership: Communities and Social Change from Below. Cheltenham and Northampton: Edward Elga

Social Innovation and Democratic Leadership. Communities and Social Change from Below.

Social Innovation, a concept that can be traced back to the nineteenth century, has been increasingly used since the 1980s within urban and regional development scholarship to challenge the one side emphasis on technological or managerial change. There is an accumulated body of theoretical and empirical research with emphasis on the social element as well as on the political potential of social innovation ..

Los ciclos formativos de Grado Medio: una opción para salir del laberinto personal y académico.

Este artículo aporta los principales resultados de una investigación desarrollada desde un enfoque interpretativo, cuyo propósito ha sido conocer las trayectorias académicas previas de alumnos y alumnas que cursan en la actualidad ciclos formativos de grado medio (CFGM), así como explorar cuál es su situación actual. Los datos cualitativos -recogidos mediante entrevistas semiestructuradas a diez jóvenes- revelan que las experiencias negativas vividas durante la educación secundaria obligatoria y/o el bachillerato, a nivel personal y académico, les han conducido hacia la formación profesional. Tales dificultades son diversas: baja autoestima, desinterés por los contenidos curriculares, cambio de centro educativo, nuevas amistades y actividades de ocio, etc. Sin embargo, el estudio muestra que esta situación es reversible. Así, los ciclos formativos han supuesto para ellos y ellas una alternativa válida para reconducir sus vidas, hasta el punto de ser calificados ahora por su profesorado como estudiantes de éxito escolar. Cursar un CFGM se ha erigido como una alternativa válida a nivel formativo, asumida desde la madurez y el compromiso personal.This paper shows the main findings of a research developed from an interpretative approach. Its principal goals have been the description of the previous formative paths of some vocational and training education (VET) students and the knowledge of their current situations. The qualitative data collected by half-structured interviews to ten students show that the negative experiences they lived in a personal and academic level along the comprehensive and/or higher education courses led them to vocational and training education. These students have deal with many problems such as low self-esteem, no interests in curriculum contents, a new school, new friends and leisure activities, etc. However, the study shows that this situation can be reversible. The VET program they followed has been a good choice for them to redirect their lives. Their teachers said that now they are successful students. The VET program has become a good choice from an academic point of view, adopted with maturity as a personal commitment

The “openers”, an opportunity to get consciousness and to be ready to learn

La innovación docente que se expone hace referencia a cómo iniciar las sesiones de clase. La propuesta consiste en dedicar unos minutos a compartir una información concreta en formato visual, auditivo o audiovisual, relacionada con alguna noticia relevante en esos días (a escala local, nacional o internacional) o bien relacionada con alguna parcela de los contenidos objeto de estudio, difundida principalmente mediante algún medio de comunicación (TV o prensa). Se emplean fotografías, audiciones de música, vídeos, lecturas en voz alta, textos… El propósito final es conseguir captar la atención de las y los estudiantes, conectar con el mundo exterior a las aulas, conocer enfoques menos académicos sobre ciertas cuestiones, así como conseguir calma y ralentizar el ritmo de la jornada para mejorar la predisposición a la clase que se inicia. En definitiva, los “aperitivos” actúan como pasarelas hacia la presencia y la consciencia para ponerse en disposición hacia el aprendizaje y el disfrute.The way I start lessons is the focus of the teaching innovation I present in this meeting. The proposal is about spending some minutes sharing specific information presented by a video, audio or audiovisual format. An information related to any current and important news (local, national or international) transmitted by a usual mass media (TV or newspapers) or an information connected with the curriculum we are learning about in our classes. We use photographs, music, videos, aloud reading, texts… The main goals are to get to catch students’ attention, to connect life at the faculty with life outside, to learn about less academic approaches to some issues, to be calm and to slow processes to get a better way of being in the classrooms when lessons are to start. So that, “openers” act as gangways to be present and to get consciousness to be ready to learn and enjoy learnin

The company: a challenge for the professionals of the pedagogy

Desde sus orígenes, se puede afirmar que la profesión del pedagogo ha estado ligada casi en exclusividad con la enseñanza, especialmente la formación universitaria. Sin embargo, recientemente un estudio de inserción laboral realizado por la Aneca, muestra un amplio porcentaje de pedagogos/as que acceden a la empresa privada, Administración Pública y en un porcentaje menor a las Organizaciones no gubernamentales. Ello pone de manifiesto la necesidad de incorporar en la enseñanza universitaria, formación e información sobre la diversidad de salidas profesionales que tiene la titulación en Pedagogía, entre dichas salidas resulta necesario dedicar especial atención al técnico en formación, profesional muy demandado últimamente entre las empresas, debido a la creciente necesidad de estar en continua formación, por el bien de la empresa y por el bien de los propios trabajadores, ya que aumenta sus posibilidades de empleabilidad en un futuro.From his origins, it is possible to affirm that the profession of the pedagogue has been flirted almost in exclusivity with the education, specially the universitary education. Nevertheless, recently a study of labor insertion realized by the Aneca, he proves to be a wide percentage of pedagogues / aces who accede to the private company, Administración Pública and in a minor percentage to the not governmental Organizations. It reveals the need to incorporate in the university education, formation and information about the diversity of professional exits that has the qualifications in Pedagogy, between the above mentioned exits it turns out necessary to dedicate special attention to the technician in formation, professionally very demanded lately between the companies, due to the increasing need to be in continuous formation, for the good of the company and for the good of the own workers, since it increases his possibilities of empleabilidad in a future

Research on Initial Professional Qualification Programs' students. The base line for the Basic Professional Training program?

Los Programas de Cualificación Profesional Inicial han sido objeto de investigaciones que abordan algunas de sus particularidades, siendo aún escasa su visibilidad en el ámbito académico. El propósito de este artículo es recopilar y hacer explícitas las aportaciones más relevantes que la investigación ha generado sobre el alumnado que cursa estos programas. La amplia revisión bibliográfica realizada evidencia la multiplicidad y complejidad de los motivos que han conducido a estos chicos y chicas al fracaso escolar en la Educación Secundaria. Se alude asimismo a factores que no son de responsabilidad exclusiva del alumnado; aflora una crítica al sistema educativo español y a los continuos cambios legislativos, al tiempo que se evidencian las virtudes de estos programas. Consideramos que este conocimiento es vital para afrontar tanto las labores de formación como las de orientación de estos jóvenes.The Spanish educational system designed, about a decade ago, a special program for, mainly, those students who failed in compulsory Secondary Education, the program was called Initial Professional Qualification Programs. The aim of this paper is gathering the most significant research results and information about the program. That knowledge could improve a better design for this vocational and educational program. The theoretical review developed has shown that there are multiple and complex reasons to explain school failure. Some of them are not only responsibility of the students; Spanish educational system is criticized as the frequent changes on its policy. On the other hand, some advantages are all also acknowledged. Considering a necessity to improve the program, this dissertation tries to make a contribution in that sense