From National-Catholicism to Democratic Patriotism? Democratisation and reconstruction of national pride: The case of Spain (1981-2000)

Attachment to the nation is often seen as a stable attitude that provides a 'reservoir of diffuse support' for a country, beyond any specific institutional setting. However, I argue that certain, deep, social and political changes in a country may imply a reconstruction of nationhood, that should modify the social bases of support for the nation. I test this hypothesis in the Spanish case, by tracing the changes in the impact of ideology, religion and region of residence on the intensity of national pride during and after the transition from Francoism to democracy. Results show an evolution that is congruent with my theoretical expectations, even if the process seems to be incomplete and, for certain variables, highly mediated by political cycles

Intercultural Europe: Cultural Diversity in the EU and the Debate on a Common European Cultural Identity

The aim of the work is to approach the complex cultural system of the European Union through the analysis of cultural diversity within the EU and the existence of a possible common European cultural identity. This paper attempts to promote the debate on intercultural dialogue in the European Union and the actions undertaken by the European institutions to promote a common cultural identity based on plurality and diversity

Repertorios abiertos : el libre acceso a contenidos

New information and communication technologies are modifying the mechanisms used by distinct communities to communicate among themselves. In academic or scientific communities, currently one must speak of open-access archives or the open access movement. Based on the principle of open access to knowledge, scientists are aware that the current systems of publishing and communicating their studies is more and more elitist and, consequently, exclusive. Within this framework, the first initiatives to create open archives for specialized documents appeared at the beginning of the 1990s. The aim was to facilitate access to these documents, which had hitherto been available only to those who could pay. Since then, the principles governing this movement have evolved. Currently, it is the academic institutions themselves that support the creation of these archives with the aim of protecting rights over their activities at the same time as they facilitate knowledge transfer through the web. Although these systems do not yield to traditional methods of evaluating results, such as peer review, their use is becoming increasingly frequent, to such a degree that their contents are often more commonly cited, and therefore used, than those of traditional scientific journals. Far from substituting these journals, they are perceived as complementary to established mechanisms of validating science, providing more agile, accessible and less rigid environments

La confiança en les institucions estatals i europees, a prova

La confiança en les institucions estatals i europees, a provaUn estudio con participación desde la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona ha puesto a prueba la confianza que los ciudadanos depositan en los políticos que los representan, tanto a nivel estatal como europeo. Dentro de cada país, los ciudadanos que confían más en las instituciones estatales también confían en el Parlamento Europeo. Comparando entre países, en cambio, los ciudadanos que viven en lugares donde las instituciones estatales están menos valoradas, las instituciones europeas tienden disponer de más confianza entre los ciudadanos. Al revés ocurre cuando la confianza es buena respecto las instituciones estatales, se tiende a confiar menos en Europa