‘Nothing will ever be the same again’. Personal commitment and political subjectivation in the 20 February Movement in Morocco

Based on an analysis of the stories of engagement of young activists who took part in the 20 February Movement in Morocco, this contribution explores the process of individual transformation that occurred during the experience of activism. We use the concept of political subjectivation to discuss the succession of moments of rupture and re-semanticisation, the new ethical configurations generated by the experience of activism and their long-term consequences. This contribution is part of an ethnographic study that has accompanied the evolution of the protests from 2011, carried out by the two authors first independently and, from 2017, within the framework of the ‘Globally Sensitive: Revolt, Citizenship, and Expectations for the Future in North Africa’ project.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Reflexiones sobre los juegos de azar en la sociedad contemporánea : hacia una biografía del riesgo

Con este articulo proponemos una aproximación teórica de los estudios sobre los juegos de azar (Gambling studies), planteando una mirada cultural hacia un fenómeno que, hoy en día, ha adquirido un carácter masivo. Nuestro objetivo es, precisamente, desvincular el análisis de los aspectos patológicos inherentes al juego problemático -ludopatías- con el fin de captar los aspectos culturales que han determinado el crecimiento exponencial de la industria de los juegos de azar en las últimas dos décadas y que caracterizan las experiencias subjetivas de los jugadores/as no problemáticos en el contexto actual. En el contexto de una economía avanzada, proponemos una reflexión que sepa reconocer en el concepto de riesgo, definido por autores como Ulrich Beck y Antony Giddens, la fuerza motriz de esta enorme expansión del azar en la sociedad contemporánea.With this article we propose a theoretical review of Gambling studies, planning a cultural insight towards a phenomenon, nowadays, massively expanded. Our objective is, precisely, to decouple the analysis from the pathologic aspects inherent in problem gambling - gambling addiction - with the aim to capture the cultural aspects that determined the exponential growth of Gambling industries in the last two decades and characterize the subjective experiences of no problematic gamblers in the current context. In a context of advanced economy, we propose a reflection capable to recognize the concept of risk proposed by Ulrich Beck and Antony Giddens, as a powerful driver of this enormous expansion of Gambling in contemporary society

Multilevel networks and status attainment

Through Nan Lin's social resource theory, network studies have demonstrated the importance of personal contacts for status attainment. Achieving better occupations, wages, or social prestige depends not only on individual skills and personal resources, such as social class or human capital. Personal networks are also important structural factors because they provide access to social resources that are critical to careers, such as information and social support. Today, new research angles emerge from analyses of multilevel networks (AMN) on additional structural factors that are important for status attainment: the advantages of belonging to powerful and prestigious organizations and accessing through them complementary forms of social capital. From a series of AMN studies on one élite group of researchers, the importance of these structural aspects for professional careers emerge through concepts such as 'dual positioning' and ‘dual alters’, offering hypotheses that complement Nan Lin's theory in each of its postulates. Taking these hypotheses into account, the article formulates a model for the study of status attainment consisting of four arguments: (1) individuals' initial positions, (2) access to social capital, and the impact of its (3) mobilization on (4) socioeconomic returns. The article discusses the analytical strategies that emerge from this model, opening up new prospects for investigating the role played by social networks in status attainment

Brief on forestry biomass production

This brief on forestry biomass production is one out of a series of Bioeconomy Knowledge Centre briefs which intend to provide independent evidence for EU policy in this field. The following are the key results: 1. The land area covered by forests in the EU has been expanding at an average rate of 0.26% or 0.4 million hectares (Mha) per year from 2000 to 2015 (slowing down in 2010-2015). It reached 161 Mha (38% of the EU territory) in 2015. Of this area, 84% is potentially available for wood supply. 2. The total aboveground biomass stocked in EU forests reached 18 600 Mt in 2013. It has been increasing since 2000 at a rate of approximately 1.3% per year (see section 2), although the forest growth has been slowing down slightly, mostly due to ageing of forests. 3. The average annual harvest level – 281 Mt (of which 224 Mt are removed from the forest) – amounts to 63% of the growth rate (measured as net annual increment) of EU forests – 444 Mt per year. Since fellings are underreported, the actual harvest rate is likely to be higher, but still not exceeding the growth rate. 4. Detailed and harmonised quantitative data on forest management, and especially wood removals, present severe gaps and uncertainties at EU level, with marked differences between Member States. While significant progress has been made, efforts to improve the current assessments should be pursued. 5. Sustainable wood production implies reconciling the full range of ecosystem services which the forests provide.JRC.D.1-Bio-econom

Inequality beyond networking : personal networks and mobilization of contacts by young job seekers in Barcelona

How young job seekers mobilize their contacts in the labour market? We look at mobilization of personal networks of young adults in Barcelona. We consider the strength of ties and status homophily as mechanisms of personal networks as for the consolidation of social capital. Our qualitative analysis of 18 interviews with job seekers explores their personal networks and labour market trajectories. We applied Social Network Analysis (SNA). Our analysis of social capital indicates the existence of a relation between the cultural and economic capitals of job seekers and the compositional features of their networks. Results show how networks are similarly heterogeneous in terms of strength of ties, and mostly homophilous in educational levels. But these similarities in terms of social capital come with sharp inequalities in the patterns of mobilized contacts and their success in finding a job. These differences can be explained by the type and volume of capitals of job seekers. Those with better positions in the social structure and stable trajectories seem to mobilize fewer contacts more efficiently, getting better outcomes

Fragmented citizenship: contemporary infrastructures of mobility containment along two migratory routes

Several authors have contended recently that the rationality of contemporary migration control can be most adequately grasped by the notion of ‘containment’, conceived as the redirection of people’s autonomous movement into restricted and defined pathways. Following this idea, this article proceeds in three steps. First, it proposes an analysis of the ‘infrastructures’ through which containment is enforced, showing the plural dimensions (regulatory, humanitarian, commercial, social) of which they are composed. Second, analysing two cases of transnational mobility towards (and across) the EU, it shows the effect of containment on people’s spatial and existential trajectories. And third, through the analysis of such cases, it contends that the ultimate effect of containment is the fragmentation of citizenship into a variety of intermediate ‘latitudinal’ positions characterised by partial and conditional access to rights, which are functional to several forms of exploitation, including labour but also profit extraction through the operations of containment infrastructures themselves.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio