Haciendo negocios en países islámicos: una visión panorámica

The access of Western companies -in particular the Spanish ones- to countries and markets where strong presence of Islam religion is consistent and significant. The relevance of this business target and model is growing, due to the combination of several factors: the relative higher growth of this religion and the prevalence of the religious practices in the economies and cultures,  the more accelerated (on average) economic development despite the specific crisis and oil price turmoil,   the international expansion of partnerships and foreign investments that many of these countries are addressing, the consolidation of a synergic “Islamic economy and business practice” usually restrained and limited to similar Islamic countries but nowadays more tolerant to non-Islamic ones, and the progressing opening of these countries and economies to global rules of commerce, intellectual property, business ownership and international operations.  There is kind of a global consensus on the positive forecast of these trends, that will make the key direction of development of most of these countries in the next years.  El acceso occidental – en particular español- a los mercados en países de fuerte penetración de la religión islámica es consistente y potente. La relevancia de este modelo de negocio está creciendo, por la combinación del mayor crecimiento relativo del Islam, del desarrollo más acelerado de estos países, de la expansión internacional que muchos de estos países están abordando y en muchos casos bajo el modelo sinérgico de “economía islámica” altamente cerrado, y de la propia apertura de estas economías a reglas globales comerciales, de propiedad, de acceso y de operación. Existe consenso generalizado en que estas tendencias van a definir la dirección principal de desarrollo de las economías mundiales en los próximos año

The Consequences of the Social Contract in Income Inequality: A comparison study of Germany and Brazil

[eng] Reputable international organisations, such as OECD and ECLAC have revealed that although the tools actually do exist to tackle inequality, policy-makers have not been able to undertake effective policies to face this phenomenon (ECLAC, 2012) (OECD, 2011). Also a new team of researchers, led by Dani Rodrik, have created a network named Economics for Inclusive Prosperity (ECONFIP). In their introductory brief, they claim that the economy is not only the foundation of the market, but it should serve for the inclusive prosperity of all, not only for the top 1% (Rodrik, Naidu & Zucman; 2019). This ECONFIP group take some of their institutional approaches from Karl Polanyi, namely the double movement and embeddedness: “crucial markets (e.g. the “fictitious commodities” of labour, land, and capital) must be embedded in non-market institutions, the “rules of the game” supplied by government” (Rodrik, Naidu & Zucman; 2019: 6). Also, Kate Raworth (2018: 171) takes a multidimensional approach by delving into the correlation of income inequality with health - life expectancy – as well as education levels. Two very different approaches of welfare state policies from Brazil and Germany are taken to study their impact on income inequality from 1990 to 2016. On the one hand the (a) Corporatist-welfare model, represented by Germany, and on the other hand; the (b) hybrid between a Residual and Universal model according to the Esping-Ansersen (1990) classification, as undertaken by Brazil. Both have been proven to possess advantages and drawbacks regarding their impact on income inequality. This study goes in line with the literature that describe the welfare state models in emerging countries and more specifically, Latin American countries. The most known welfare state classifications from Titmuss (1974) to Esping Andersen (1990) are mainly focused on European countries. However, Latin American countries have not been the object of welfare state classifications until recently when Julianna Martinez (2007) has undertaken one of the most comprehensive study regarding Latin American welfare state classifications (Ubasart-González & Minteguiaga, 2017). On the one hand, for the quantitative study, Germany and Brazil represent the cases of this longitudinal comparative study, which are analysed from 1990 to 2016, or the latest data available depending on the source of the database. The dependency relation between the explanatory variables together with the control is tested through a multiple linear regression. This statistical model is commonly used to test the relationship between two or more explanatory variables and a response variable by fitting a linear equation to observed data. On the other hand, the descriptive study attempts to give an explanation for the results of the empirical study by analysing the following elements: the direction of social expenditure (how to spend the social budget) and the finance of this social budget (who contributes to the welfare state). Social expenditure allocations are divided and analysed through a longitudinal study from the early 1990s to the mid-2010s to understand the modifications in the social expenditure function in both countries. Afterwards, the different components of the social budget are classified from a sociological perspective following the so-called welfare classification of Esping-Andersen (1990). This descriptive analysis frames the results of this study within the current debates about the different outcomes of a welfare model in one and another socioeconomic context, especially within the discussions between less developed and OECD countries. The conclusions of the thesis show that social contract plays an important role in reducing income inequality. In developing countries (Brazil) the focus on social assistance policies may help at first to bring people from the informal to the formal social contract. However, once most of the population work in formality conditions, welfare states policies become more complex and its power its more limited due to the existence of stronger forces that affect the strength of the formal labour market (dualization in the case of Germany)

Maternidades libres

Màster en Estudis de la Diferència SexualMàster, Universitat de Barcelona. DUODA, Centre de recerca de dones, curs: 2008-2009, Tutora: María Milagros Rivera Garreta

NEGOCIOS EN LOS PAÍSES ISLÁMICOS

The so called “Islamic world”, no doubts about, is a general interest topic, and of special relevance for Spain; from a single economic perspective, as an example, the ten years after the 2008 crisis have seen a significant positive contribution coming out from the duplication of exports to this environment, exports that account nowadays to 10% of the total volume of Spanish companies. This achievement, a relevant one, tops off centuries of privileged relations.El llamado "mundo islámico", sin dudas, es un tema de interés general y de especial relevancia para España; Desde una perspectiva económica única, como ejemplo, los diez años posteriores a la crisis de 2008 han visto una contribución positiva significativa proveniente de la duplicación de las exportaciones a este entorno, exportaciones que representan actualmente el 10% del volumen total de las empresas españolas. Este logro, relevante, completa siglos de relaciones privilegiadas

Predictors of excessive internet use among adolescents in Spain: The relevance of the relationship between parents and their children

Since the introduction of the concept in the late nineties, Internet addiction has been a growing phenomenon becoming a public health issue that cannot be ignored nowadays. Focusing on adolescents, previous research has analyzed the prevalence of excessive Internet use and determined several predictors such as socio-demographic characteristics, personality traits or emotions. To move on this topic, this paper draws attention to the relationship between parents and their children. Using a nationally representative sample of 37, 486 students aged 14–18 years old in Spain, an under researched European country, this study finds that care received from parents [B = -0.141, SE = -0.033] and parents'' knowledge about where [B = -0.065, SE = -0.032] and with whom [B = -0.232, SE = -0.032] the adolescent is while he/she goes out at night are associated with lower levels of excessive Internet use. In turn, fixing clear rules does not help reduce excessive Internet use. These results, together with the influence of other control variables, offer important insights and implications to prevent adolescents from excessive Internet use

Are estimated peer effects on smoking robust? Evidence from adolescent students in Spain

Adolescent smoking is one of the most pressing public health problems. The objective of this paper is to analyse the influence of peer pressure on adolescent cigarette consumption. More concretely, we explore the significance and robustness of the peer effects using several estimation methods employed in the existing literature. On the basis of the data provided by the 2004 Spanish survey on drug use in the school population, we estimate the probability of being a smoker by two-stage models. The results reveal that when we use standard errors used in the literature the class peer variable appears to be significant. However, the class peer variable is not significant when we calculate more exigent standard errors, a result that is robust across all specifications. The paper suggests the need for a more cautious interpretation of the peer effects found previously in the literature until a deeper analysis confirms the robustness of the peer effects

A proposal for 4th year e.s.o students to explore the cultural journey of learning: around the world in 6 days.

The main purpose of the present dissertation is to analyze the benefits of gamification, cooperation and cultural knowledge in the teaching of EFL in Secondary Education. These three pivotal tenets were considered in the design of the Lesson Plan as they were coherent with the results obtained from classroom observation and reflection and from two different surveys done among students. Consequently, the Unit, entitled Around the World in 6 Days, consists of a learning path of six lessons around five different countries focused on their main cultural descriptors with the aim of expanding students' intercultural identity and strengthening values such as tolerance and respect for diversity. Having in mind both CLT and curriculum framework, the proposal was also conceived to boost various motivational levels and meant to develop Students’ academic and personal growth to promote a lifelong learning. Furthermore, the use of ICTs, authentic materials, creative and interactional tasks and the development of the seven keys competences was emphasized while the cognitive processes were worked from the less complex to the more complex, being efficiency in communication the ultimate goal

Introducing co-teaching in a PBLL learning unit: “Redesigning public transport in your city”

After observing and implementing a learning unit during the Master’s degree placement period, there was a clear need that could be addressed and improved significantly by introducing this paper’s topic: co-teaching. There are two main advantages that co-teaching provides: in the first place, better attention to differentiation and, in the second place, more time to develop resources and teaching styles in order to focus on both production skills: speaking and writing. Aiming at the emphasis that the Aragonese curriculum for EFL lays on the communicative purpose of a foreign language, co-teaching will enhance and create more possibilities for the practice of communicative skills. By means of interactive, original and well-grounded activities and tasks, students will feel engaged toward creating a meaningful product, i.e. a digital poster, which will contain several measures to improve the public transport system in the city of Zaragoza. Thus, the proposed learning unit is a combination of four pedagogical approaches: co-teaching, Communicative Language Teaching, Project-Based Language Learning and Task-Based Language Teaching. It is precisely by the ambitious combination of all four methodologies that students will be achieving mastery in the communicative competence as a whole, while they work on a topic that is relevant to their personal lives. Hopefully, co-teaching becomes a reality sooner than later and both parties involved, students and teachers, can start benefitting from all its advantages. All in all, the proposed learning activities within the unit are meant to be lifelong practice of Foreign Languages.<br /

Technical criteria for the desing of foundation slabs and perimetral wall in difficult terrain in Madrid. Spain

This paper explains a procedure for the choice of ballast modules used for the design of direct continuous foundation in karst terrain. The presence of dangerous cavities is introduced in this procedure thereby evaluating risk failure. It also provides pertinent guidelines to direct the geotechnical survey of the terrain