JACOB BURCKHARDT, EL ESCEPTICISMO HISTÓRICO Y EL PESIMISMO POLÍTICO

El historiador suizo Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897) estudió en profundidad épocas muy diversas, como la Grecia antigua, el Imperio Romano y el Renacimiento. Pero además dedicó gran atención al estatuto científico de la historiografía y a los problemas teóricos y prácticos de la política. A continuación voy a proponer una interpretación de estos dos aspectos, a los que resumo mediante los títulos escepticismo histórico y pesimismo político

HISTORIA MAGISTRA POLITICES. NOTAS SOBRE LA CONEXIÓN ENTRE TEORÍA DE LA HISTORIA Y TEORÍA POLÍTICA EN RANKE

Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) no fue sólo uno de los historiadores europeos más importantes del siglo XIX, sino que además fue un pensador político de cierta relevancia. A continuación, voy a proponer una interpretación de la conexión que pueda haber entre los dos aspectos. Procedo en tres pasos. Primero, expongo algunos de los rasgos fundamentales de la teoría de la historia de Ranke. Después, explico qué consecuencias cree Ranke que tiene el trabajo del historiador para la política. Por último, presento las ideas políticas centrales de Ranke

On the Credibility of a Target Zone: Evidence from the EMS

We provide some new evidence on the credibility of the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the European Monetary System. To that end, we use of several credibility indicators, analysing the complete EMS history. We also compare the prediction qualities of the different indicators, and apply them to the experience of the new ERM linking the currencies of non-euro area Member States to the euro.Exchange rates, European Monetary System.

JACOB BURCKHARDT, EL ESCEPTICISMO HISTÓRICO Y EL PESIMISMO POLÍTICO

El historiador suizo Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897) estudió en profundidad épocas muy diversas, como la Grecia antigua, el Imperio Romano y el Renacimiento. Pero además dedicó gran atención al estatuto científico de la historiografía y a los problemas teóricos y prácticos de la política. A continuación voy a proponer una interpretación de estos dos aspectos, a los que resumo mediante los títulos escepticismo histórico y pesimismo político

HISTORIA MAGISTRA POLITICES. NOTAS SOBRE LA CONEXIÓN ENTRE TEORÍA DE LA HISTORIA Y TEORÍA POLÍTICA EN RANKE

Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) no fue sólo uno de los historiadores europeos más importantes del siglo XIX, sino que además fue un pensador político de cierta relevancia. A continuación, voy a proponer una interpretación de la conexión que pueda haber entre los dos aspectos. Procedo en tres pasos. Primero, expongo algunos de los rasgos fundamentales de la teoría de la historia de Ranke. Después, explico qué consecuencias cree Ranke que tiene el trabajo del historiador para la política. Por último, presento las ideas políticas centrales de Ranke

Characterization of wind-blown sediment transport with height in a highly mobile dune (SW Spain)

The Valdevaqueros dune is located at one of the windiest points of Europe, where the frequent occurrence of strong easterly winds has generated a highly mobile dune. Several rotating cup anemometers in vertical array and a self-designed vertical sand trap, were placed to retain the drift sands at different heights over the surface in order to determine theoretical and actual sand transport rates in the Valdevaqueros dune system. General results show that 90% of the wind-blown sand is transported within the first 20cm above the dune crest surface. Theoretical transport rates based on different empirical formulae were 0.33 to 0.78 times the in-situ sand transport rate detected, which was 2.08·10-2kgm-1s-1 under moderate wind power (mean speed ranging from 8.4 to 17.9ms-1). Analysis of different statistical grain-size parameters helped to understand sand transport distribution at different heights

Beach nourishment effects on sand porosity variability

Article history: Received 7 June 2013 Received in revised form 7 October 2013 Accepted 10 October 2013 Available online 14 November 2013A standard assumption in coastal engineering is that the porosity of natural beach sand (non-cohesive) is 40%. However, is this assumption correct for all beach sand? This paper proposes an accurate and simplified method to assess changes in sand porosity after beach nourishment bymeans of in-situ density surveys through a nuclear densimeter. This novel application has been applied to different beaches in the southwest of Spain according to the tidal range, grain size and beachmorphology in several terms. General results showthat sand porosities range from 25.6% to 43.4% after beach nourishment works. This research can be considered a support tool in coastal engineering to find shifting sand volumes as a result of sand porosity variability after beach nourishment and later marine influence

Mobility evolution of a highly active coastal dune (SW Spain) in several terms

Extreme wind conditions generated near the Strait of Gibraltar (SW Spain) have given rise to the transgressive Valdevaqueros dunefield (Tarifa). The dune advance has resulted in gradual invasion of the adjacent road and ecosystem. Despite restoration and control activities performed within the last decades, strong east winds have favoured dune destabilisation. The current work focuses on analyzing the dune profile evolution in the long term (years), medium term (months), short term (days) and very short term (hours) from topographic data, which were collected with a total station and a differential GPS from 1995 to 2009. Sand transport rates of 140 m3 m-1 year-1, 25.5–36.5 m3 m−1 month−1, 22.52 m3 m−1 day−1 and 0.93 m3 m−1 h−1 were measured for the long-term, medium-term, short-term and very short-term periods, respectively. During an eleven-year period, the average migration rate was found to be of 17.5 m year-1, although the very short term monitoring under a severe easterly sandstorm demonstrated that the dune brink was able to experience an advance of 1.75 m in only 24 h. These values were compared with the theoretical sand transport rate for Valdevaqueros dune, based on the classic Bagnold’s equation as well as other more recent formulae, to obtain a ratio between the real and the theoretical rates for each study period. These results together with the sand drift potential following the Fryberger’s method (up to 10,000 vector units) demonstrate that Valdevaqueros is a dunefield with one of the highest sand transport capacities in Europe