The recent elections may have only postponed Greece’s default and Eurozone exit

Last Sunday’s elections in Greece saw the pro-bailout New Democracy party gain the largest share of the vote, reassuring many commentators who had been fearing a default by Greece or even its ejection from the Eurozone. Daphne Halikiopoulou and Sofia Vasilopoulou argue, however, that anti-bailout parties in Greece received widespread support – there is still a deep division in Greek politics. This cannot be solved until the underlying problems of corruption, nepotism and clientelism in Greece are addressed

Jumping performance in the highly aquatic frog, Xenopus tropicalis : sex-specific relationships between morphology and performance

Frogs are characterized by a morphology that has been suggested to be related to their unique jumping specialization. Yet, the functional demands associated with jumping and swimming may not be that different as suggested by studies with semi-aquatic frogs. Here, we explore whether features previously identified as indicative of good burst swimming performance also predict jumping performance in a highly aquatic frog, Xenopus tropicalis. Moreover, we test whether the morphological determinants of jumping performance are similar in the two sexes and whether jumping performance differs in the two sexes. Finally we test whether jumping capacity is positively associated with burst swimming and terrestrial endurance capacity in both sexes. Our results show sex-specific differences in jumping performance when correcting for differences in body size. Moreover, the features determining jumping performance are different in the two sexes. Finally, the relationships between different performance traits are sex-dependent as well with females, but not males, showing a trade-off between peak jumping force and the time jumped to exhaustion. This suggests that different selective pressures operate on the two sexes, with females being subjected to constraints on locomotion due to their greater body mass and investment in reproductive capacity. In contrast, males appear to invest more in locomotor capacity giving them higher performance for a given body size compared to females

Evolution in terms of theoretical conceptualization of translanguaging in applied linguisitics: the example of greek and french language schools

Translanguaging, known for its pedagogical use in bilingual classrooms, has been during the last few years, the center of researches associated to Linguistics, Applied Linguistics and more lately Neurolinguistics. The term has been used to refer to a bilingual strategy or mechanism. After summarizing some of the most important definitions of the concept of translanguaging, we focus on its characteristics and associate them with the current conditions that affect school populations and more specifically Greek and French language classrooms. Finally, we define Translanguaging taking into consideration all these factors that contribute to its conceptualization at a modern school context

Building Linguistic and Translinguistic Bridges to help refugees integrate into Greek education system

Forced migration or displacement could be one of the most significant problems that modern history is confronted with. Nevertheless, it is a fact that people have been forced to leave their countries several times in the past. Refugees flee poverty or war and most of times never return to their country of birth. Nowadays, refugee crisis inevitably leads to a rethinking of ethnic and European policies as far as full refugee access to health and education services are concerned. Greece, a country with high percentages of refugee arrivals during the last two years but also of immigrants for more than twenty years, could be characterized as a super diverse country where different languages and cultures cross and meet one another in many dynamic interactive contexts. As far as school context is concerned, building «Bridges» refers to a. an education policy design, and b. integration of special linguistic and cultural strategies during learning procedure so as to help refugees gain access to education systems across Europe

« Les approches plurielles en classe de langue : vers le développement d'une ''compétence translangagière''»

L’éducation est particulièrement touchée par les phénomènes de mobilité des populations migrantes partout dans le monde. Ceci est particulièrement vrai en classe de langue où la diversité fait son apparition à travers le mélange des langues et des cultures. Cette réalité conduit à la nécessité d’une mise en place des approches plurielles en classe. D’après M. Candelier, « on appellera approche plurielle toute approche mettant en œuvre des activités impliquant à la fois plusieurs variétés linguistiques et culturelles. » Ainsi, lors de cet atelier, les enseignants seront introduits au concept des approches plurielles. Plus précisément, ils seront appelés à : - reconnaître la variété linguistique et culturelle de leurs apprenants - se familiariser avec des outils pédagogiques qui mettent en valeur les langues maternelles des apprenants - construire des ponts à travers des activités de passage d’une langue aux autres ainsi que d’une culture aux autres pour enseigner la langue française. Pour cela, ils se serviront des écrits et imagiers plurilingues, ainsi que des formes brèves d’écriture, comme les « tweets ». Enfin, cet atelier a pour but de faire découvrir aux enseignants des pratiques innovantes qui peuvent être utilisées pour atténuer ou faire disparaître le sens de la hiérarchie entre les langues et les cultures diverses de la classe

Euroscepticism and the radical right: domestic strategies and party system dynamics

The thesis analyses the phenomenon of party-based Euroscepticism with specific reference to radical right parties. It provides a bridge between the literatures on party behaviour, radical right parties and the study of Euroscepticism. Challenging the notion that parties belonging to the same party family display similar positions on European integration, it argues that radical right parties do not adopt a uniform EU stance. By putting forward a typology of radical right Euroscepticism, the thesis establishes that radical right European positions differ in terms of content, strength and motivation. In explaining this divergence, the thesis adopts a framework of party strategic behaviour and argues that party positions on Europe are related to the endogeneity of the party system and the dynamics of inter party competition. In particular, the thesis shows that a radical right party’s position on European integration as well as the way in which it accommodates the European issue in its discourse is a function of the party’s wider agenda in the national party system. The latter is developed with reference to (1) party type and (2) its predominant aims and objectives at the domestic level. The thesis demonstrates that the European issue is integral to the radical right’s discursive toolkit but the ways in which the party chooses to debate the issue and/or politicise it largely depend on the national context. This thesis employs a nested research design as a mixed methods strategy joining the study of the wider universe of European radical right parties with intensive case study qualitative analysis. It commences with an overview of the general patterns and dynamics of radical right Euroscepticism both across Europe and within the political arenas where the three party case studies operate. It proceeds by providing an in depth study of three radical right parties during the period 1999-2009, including the French National Front, the Greek Popular Orthodox Rally and the Italian National Alliance

Syriza won with a radical left programme, but keeping the middle class on side may be key to retaining power

Syriza won power in the Greek elections on 25 January, however the new Greek government faces significant challenges both in terms of the country’s domestic situation and negotiations with its European partners. Daphne Halikiopoulou and Sofia Vasilopoulou write on the key policies that are likely to be pursued in the aftermath of the elections. They note that while much will depend on reaching a deal over the repayment of Greek debt, retaining the support of the middle class voters who backed Syriza in the election will also be critical at the domestic level