La contribución de Ramón Otero Pedrayo a la Historia Agraria

This article surveys the contribution of the writer Ramon Otero Pedrayo to the geography and history of the Galician rural world. Very prolific, he produced an extensive piece of work as a rural geographer and historian, publishing essays together with novels and short tales. As a geographer, he focused on landscape diversity and small villages as the fundamental parameters of rural population. His approach to landscape was essential for the determination of the Galician national identity

Collaborative workshop: sustainable civil engineering proposals for real settings

The objective is to familiarize students with real civil engineering problems as posed by social agents (e.g. a city council, a neighbourhood association, etc.) and to foster social responsibility, active and cooperative learning, teamwork and sustainability. A multidisciplinary team accompanies students in finding solutions to problems affecting a region, with the goal of training them in how to sensitively deal with complex urban realities and understand the possible impacts and conflicts of their projects for their region and society. Methodologically, this training strategy is based on active teamwork and cooperation applied to a real case. It is also influenced by service learning in that local stakeholders explain their problems to the students and ask for solutions. This initiative is not part of any study plan but is a complementary teaching activity organized by the Civil Engineering School of Barcelona and worth 3 ECTS for participating students. In 2016-2017, the workshop —covering problems related to harbour design, water quality, pedestrian bridges and retaining walls— as conducted in Marina d’Empuriabrava on the Costa Brava, proving to be a very satisfactory experience for students, teachers and local stakeholders in terms of learning and proposals. In 2017-2018 the workshop has been held in El Vendrell (Tarragona). In the next, editions, it is planned to make ongoing improvements in terms of time organization and teamwork evaluation.Postprint (published version

Beach users’ perceptions of coastal regeneration projects as an adaptation strategy in the western Mediterranean

Some coastal environments facing climate change risks are starting to be managed with nature-based solutions (NBS). Strategies based on the rehabilitation of green infrastructures in coastal municipalities, such as renaturalization of seafronts, are considered adaptive to the effects of climate change but may cause misconceptions that could lead to social conflicts between the tourist sector and the society. A survey was carried out to study user perceptions on the effects of climate change, preferences for adaptation strategies, and the assessment of projects of dune reconstruction. We find that while beach users recognize the benefits of NBS for environmental conservation and storm protection, they show little concern about possible effects of climate change on recreational activity and have limited understanding about the protective capacity of NBS. Thus, a greater effort must be made to better explain the effects of climate change and the potential benefits of NBS in coastal risk management.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The role of language policy documents in the internationalisation of multilingual higher education: an exploratory corpus-based study

Using corpus methods, this study explores the role of Language Policy (LP) documents in the internationalisation process of Spanish universities. It aims at understanding how non-Anglophone universities integrate English and local languages in the functions of education, research, and administration. Content analysis was used for the identification of key themes, and discourse analysis examined how those themes were textually expressed. Consistent with previous literature, this study shows that relevant strategic areas of LP deal with training, regulation, accreditation, and support measures. Results also highlight the role played by institutions in LP and the presence of language hierarchies between English and local languages. The discussion of these findings leads to further inquiry of mismatches between top-down institutional expectations and bottom-up realities regarding the design and implementation of institutional policies