Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Education and state Spain'

The main cause of tax fraud in Spain is, in author’s opinion, the educational deficits as individuals. Taxes are not to be just an obligation, he points, but contributing to a morefair society, convinced that requires, as in other areas, a thorough reform of the educationsystem and the recovery of traditional values that our society is suffering a deep crisis. In thissense, the author thinks we must link the estate fraud to educational and cultural deficitsthat Spain suffers, since the crisis of values is what underlies most cases of tax or offenses, ifpreferred, to conduct contrary to law or, without more, antisocial. In this context, the authorindicates it is essential also internalize the culture of spending, since everything is funded by our taxes.
El autor sostiene que la causa principal del fraude fiscal en España es el déficit educativo de las personas. Los impuestos no han de ser tan solo una obligación, señala, sino la contribución a una sociedad más justa, convencimiento que requiere, como en otros ámbitos, una profunda reforma del sistema educativo y la recuperación de los valores tradicionales de los que nuestra sociedad padece una crisis profunda. En este sentido, el autor apunta que se debe vincular las raíces del fraude a los déficit educativos y culturales que España padece, pues esta crisis de valores es la que subyace en la mayoría de los casos de delitos fiscales o, si se prefiere, de las conductas contrarias a derecho o, sin más, antisociales. En ese contexto, indica, es imprescindible interiorizar también la cultura del gasto, ya que todo se financia con nuestros impuestos.

Content: 1. Introduction 2. Music in the curriculum of The Educación Obligatoria 2.1 Music in Educación Primaria - Listening and Comprehension - Music Making - Rational Analysis (Musical Notation) 2.2. Music in Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (E.S.O. Compulsory Secondary education) and Bachillerato (Pre-University Education) 3. Music in the Spanish Non-Compulsory Education 3.1. Elementary and Medium Levels 3.2. The “Title of Higher Music Education” 4. The new certificate of “Didactic Specialization” 5. Concluding remarks

At the beginning of the 1980s, when the process of democratisation was at best fragile or incomplete in Latin America and Southern and Eastern Europe, economic crisis provoked a debate about the relationship between economic and political transitions. Various questions were posed about the compatibility of democracy and economic development, the possibility of accomplishing political reform during a period of acute economic instability and the practicalities of co-ordinating structural changes in the productive and political systems. The thesis opens with an examination of the interrelationship between the political and economic transitions. This is followed by an account of structural change in Argentina and Spain in chapters I and II. Particular attention will be paid to events of the last decade but these will be placed in the context of the historical evolution of the international economy from the 1930s to the 1990s. Thereafter, the analysis will focus on changes in the social and productive systems. Chapters III and IV describe and appraise the process of transition. Emphasis is placed on differences between Spanish and Argentine economic nationalism. In part, the distinct chronology of liberalisation manifest in the two case-studies may be attributed to the specifics of nationalism. This will be illustrated by an examination of the attempts to implement adjustment plans, to reform the state, to stabilise the financial sector, to implement tax reforms and the management of social conflicts. It will be shown that a gradualist approach is more effective than "shock therapy" and that in managing a transition from interventionism to liberalism the key question confronting the state is which sectors to protect -and how. It will also be shown that, notwithstanding policy rethoric, the process of deregulation has been patchy. Both the Argentine an Spanish governments have been highly selective in targeting sectors to be liberalised. Chapters V and VI analyze the new productive structures that emerged from de-regulation. The following topics are considered: industrial policy; programmes of industrial restructuring; new levels of integration into the international economy; the process of policy-making; relations between industry and finance; the increasing role of the tertiary and informal sectors. Throughout, contrasts and comparisons will be made between Spain and Argentina and their evolving interaction with the world economy.

Convivencia, or conviviality/coexistence, represents a pivotal node in Spanish ideologies of multiculturalism. Long touted as the legacy of interreligious harmony in Al- Andalus (A.D. 711-1492), contemporary pedagogical convivencia involves a complex of innovative policies, curricula, and activities which idealize distinct ways of communicating and enacting egalitarianism across myriad differences. This dissertation establishes this idealization as an artifact of Spain’s historic struggles with democracy and newfound struggles with cultural pluralism from immigration. I approach education as a focal sphere in which to examine the daily construction and maintenance of this ideal. Specifically, I draw on twelve months’ fieldwork at three secondary schools in the municipality of El Ejido (Almería) to argue that the universalist bent of contemporary convivencia pedagogies tends to obscure and invalidate minority student perspectives. My primary concern lies with the experiences of Moroccan youth, who during my research belonged to the largest, most stigmatized immigrant group in the area and whose stereotyped association with patriarchy, piety, and cultural isolationism placed them at odds with the values most fervently promoted in convivencia lessons, especially gender equality. I show how one unintended consequence of these interventions was that intolerance persisted not despite, but through, lessons on tolerance—a troubling finding for a place like El Ejido, which has seen some of the worst interracial violence in Europe. Using audio recordings collected at one school during democratic education classes and related activities, I identify patterns in teacher-student and student-student interactions that reveal how convivencia was constructed (and undermined) as a discursive performance of progressivism. Stance prompting, stance assessment, and stance attribution comprised tools that allowed teachers to defend their situational and moral authority while compelling students toward self-reflection and empathy. I reveal these repertoires as exclusionary to Moroccan youth, who were positioned as “others” unqualified to speak as progressive subjects, while their native-born peers launched critiques, and even insults, with impunity. Convivencia lessons, taught through classes mandated at the national and regional levels, politicized interactions and sparked various forms of resistance or pushback from students. Using analytic frameworks from linguistic anthropology and building on studies of diversity and civic education, Spanish social history, and liberalism and modernity, I argue that the dialogues analyzed in this dissertation represent tensions ever-present in projects of democratic equality. I ultimately describe convivencia pedagogies as ritualized instantiations of dominant social norms that inadvertently ostracize rather than unite youth across differences. While the shape of these efforts have much to do with Spain’s mottled history with democracy, these findings hold significance for educators everywhere insofar as heartfelt support for seemingly unassailable ideals—including human rights, gender equality, and racial equality—can smuggle in ethnocentrist biases.

Through studying the adoption of groundwater abstraction technology in the twentieth century in La Mancha, this research investigates the historical role of the state in the development of modern groundwater-fed irrigation in Spain between the 1940s and 1985. By focusing on the Mancha Occidental aquifer and the Las Tablas de Daimiel wetland, this study also scrutinizes how the adoption of groundwater abstraction technology led by the state fed back into the environment through ecosystem degradation and groundwater scarcity at the local and regional level. By examining the historical links between technology adoption, statecraft and ecological change, this study explores the different ways through which the state has taken a prominent role in producing groundwater-fed irrigation socio-ecologies. Additionally, it traces the socio-political mechanisms involved in the progressive desiccation of the Las Tablas de Daimiel wetland and its transformation into a burning dryland.

This thesis examines relations between domestic actors and central government or the state during the EC accession negotiations and EC/EU membership in Spain. It presents three theoretical perspectives on the role of the state: a state-centric approach which focuses on the state as autonomous actor; a two-level game framework which considers the state as gatekeeper between the European and domestic arenas; and a multi-level governance perspective where the state becomes an arena in which a number of different actors participate. A dynamic approach to the analysis is adopted, highlighting sets of changing conditions in the Spanish political system expected to influence the access to policy-making for actors other than central government, which it terms the domestic opportunity structure. The analysis of the high level of state autonomy during the EC accession negotiations acts as an essential baseline for an examination of the policy process during EC/EU membership when the state's autonomy is expected to be reduced by a more open opportunity structure. This changed context is explored in the specific areas of cohesion policy and fisheries, when the input of domestic actors is seen to depend on the particular policy setting, the policy-making stage and the type of decision, termed the EU opportunity structure. A combination of theoretical approaches is considered necessary to explain the changing levels of opportunity. Given that considerable evidence exists for the state's retention of its role as key decision-maker in the policy process, this thesis concludes that the state-centric approach is still relevant to the case of Spain. However, at certain stages of the process, particular sets of actors have gained greater access to policy-making during EC/EU membership, as illustrated by the increasing involvement of regional authorities in the implementation of the structural funds, thus indicating that theoretical insights which place greater emphasis on the influence of domestic actors other than. the state may be needed to supplement a purely statist approach.

Support for the creation of an independent Catalan state has increased significantly during the past two decades. In 2017, an estimated 40.2 percent of the total Catalan population supported the creation of an independent Catalonia. The road towards independence has shown to be filled with legal obstacles. While the separatists tend to base their demand for independence on a supposed “right to self-determination” and a “right to decide”, the meaning and effects of invoking these “rights” can be questioned. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the legal possibilities of forming an independent Catalan state based on these commonly invoked rights. With regard to self-determination, this thesis concludes that all peoples have a right to self-determination, but this right does not necessarily entail a right to secession. Only under grave circumstances can self-determination lead to secession. The Catalans are not in such a situation and cannot therefore successfully claim that their right to self-determination entails a right to secede from Spain. As to a “right to decide”, the right as such exists neither within international law nor Spanish national law. This right can be broken down into two parts: The possibility to hold a referendum on independence and the possibility to declare independence based on the referendum. The thesis concludes that despite a referendum being complicated, but not impossible, to organise based on the Spanish Constitution, the Catalans can organise such a referendum based on international human rights law. The Catalans can also unilaterally declare independence since there is no explicit prohibition against doing so. Finally, the thesis discusses the issue of international recognition. Catalonia is unlikely to receive international recognition under the current circumstances. The thesis then concludes that even though the Catalans do not have a right to self-determination in the form of secession, they could organise a referendum and unilaterally declare independence. Such a declaration will however have no effect in practice without recognition from the international community.
El apoyo a la creación de un estado catalán independiente ha incrementado considerablemente en las últimas dos décadas. En 2017, se estimaba que un 40,2 por ciento de la población catalana apoyaba la creación de una Cataluña independiente. El camino hacia la independencia ha demostrado varios obstáculos jurídicos. Las personas que abogan por esta independencia, tienden a fundar su anhelo de establecer una Cataluña independiente apoyándose en un “derecho a la autodeterminación” y un “derecho a decidir”. El significado y los efectos de invocar estos “derechos” pueden ser cuestionados. El objetivo de esta tesis es investigar las posibilidades e incertidumbres legales que podrían conllevar el crear una Cataluña independiente protegiéndose en estos derechos. Con respecto a la autodeterminación, esta tesis concluye que todos los pueblos tienen un derecho a la autodeterminación, pero este derecho no implica un derecho a la secesión. El derecho a la autodeterminación sólo puede implicar un derecho a la secesión bajo circunstancias graves. Hoy en día los catalanes no se encuentran en una situación de tal gravedad, es por ello que el derecho a la autodeterminación no les da un derecho a la secesión de España unilateralmente. El “derecho a decidir” no existe en el orden jurídico español ni en el nivel internacional. Sin embargo, este derecho puede ser dividido en dos partes: La posibilidad de organizar un referéndum, y la posibilidad de unilateralmente declarar independencia según el resultado del referéndum. Esta tesis concluye que, a pesar de que un referéndum es complicado, no sería imposible organizar uno según la constitución española. Es por ello que la población catalana que aboga por la independencia, podrían organizar un referéndum apoyándose en derechos humanos internacionales. Los catalanes también pueden unilateralmente declarar la independencia, porque no hay ninguna prohibición explicita contra una declaración de independencia. Para finalizar, la tesis examina el tema de reconocimiento internacional. Es improbable que Cataluña obtenga reconocimiento internacional como un estado independiente. La tesis concluye que, a pesar de no disfrutar de un derecho a la autodeterminación, los catalanes podrían organizar un referéndum y unilateralmente declarar la independencia. Pero, en todo caso, sería una declaración vacía de contenido y no tendría ningún efecto sin un reconocimiento de la comunidad internacional.
El suport a la creació d’un estat català independent ha incrementat considerablement les últimes dues dècades. El 2017, s’estimava que el 40,2% de la població catalana va donar suport a la creació d’una Catalunya independent. El camí cap a la independència s’ha topat diversos obstacles jurídics. Les persones que advoquen per aquesta independència, tendeixen a fundar el seu anhel d’establir una Catalunya independent en un “dret a l’autodeterminació” i un “dret a decidir”. El significat i els efectes d’invocar aquests “drets” es poden qüestionar. L’objectiu d’aquesta tesi és investigar les possibilitats i incerteses legals que podria comportar el fet de crear una Catalunya independent protegida per aquests drets. Pel que fa a l’autodeterminació, aquesta tesi conclou que tots els pobles tenen un dret a l’autodeterminació, però aquest dret no implica un dret a la secessió. El dret a l’autodeterminació només pot implicar un dret a la secessió sota circumstàncies greus. Avui dia, la població catalana que advoca per la independència no es troba en una situació d’aquesta gravetat, és per això que el dret a l’autodeterminació no els dona un dret a la secessió d’Espanya unilateralment. Pel que fa al “dret a decidir”, aquest dret no existeix en l’ordre jurídic espanyol ni en l’àmbit internacional. No obstant, aquest dret pot dividir en dues parts: la possibilitat d’organitzar un referèndum, i la possibilitat d’unilateralment declarar la independència segons el resultat del referèndum. Aquesta tesi conclou que, tot i que un referèndum és complicat, no seria impossible organitzar-ne un segons la constitució espanyola. És per això que els catalans podrien organitzar un referèndum basant-se en drets humans internacionals. Els catalans també podrien unilateralment declarar la independència, perquè no hi ha cap prohibició explícita contra una declaració d’independència. Per finalitzar, la tesi examina el tema del reconeixement internacional. És improbable que Catalunya obtingui reconeixement com a un estat independent de la comunitat internacional. La tesi conclou que els catalans, malgrat no tenir un dret a l’autodeterminació, podrien organitzar un referèndum i podrien unilateralment declarar la independència. Però, en tot cas, seria una declaració buida de contingut i no tindria cap efecte sense un reconeixement de la comunitat internacional.

The aim of this thesis is to study state regulation of anti-democratic parties, i.e. party regulation. The term ‘Party regulation’ refers to laws that may regulate the activities and behavior of political parties. This thesis uses a comparative method, conducted on three European countries which regulate anti-democratic parties differently. The cases studied are Germany, Spain and Sweden.The basis for understanding state regulation of anti-democratic parties rests on a historical institutionalist perspective along with theories of democratic tolerance. The analysis reveals that states regulate anti-democratic parties differently as a result of their historical past which has made them adopt different ideas of how political parties should be seen. Further, the analysis shows that there is no connection between the party regulation adopted and the effect it has on the anti-democratic parties.

This thesis examines the present-day educational policies enacted by Spain in response to the country’s growing immigrant populations, specifically by comparing the policies implemented in two of Spain’s distinct autonomies. The thesis ultimately argues that the regions’ differing conceptualizations of national identity and their distinct relationships to the central Spanish state play a fundamental role in their motivations to enact comprehensive and effective policies that promote immigrants’ educational and social success.

Mestrado em Contabilidade, Fiscalidade e Finanças Empresariais
As privatizações tendem a levar a um aumento da performance e eficiência das empresas bem como um melhoramento dos saldos orçamentais do estado, acompanhado de um aumento de concorrência (Carreira, Megginson e Netter, 2001). Desta forma, o objectivo do trabalho é estudar se as privatizações realizadas na última década, em Portugal e Espanha, foram realmente benéficas e se o processo de privatização se traduziu em melhorias para as empresas envolvidas. Este trabalho, suportado numa revisão de literatura de cerca de 60 artigos, contempla uma comparação dos períodos pré e pós privatização, bem como uma comparação entre os indicadores das empresas privatizadas e das ainda empresas de capitais públicos. Procura-se ainda analisar o papel da estrutura de capital e a sua influência nas melhorias trazidas pelas privatizações. O estudo replica os métodos utilizados Omran, M. (2004) and McGuinness, P. and Ferguson, M. (2005). Os resultados mostram que não existe uma melhoria significativa de performance após a privatização, nem uma interferência da estrutura de capital, mas apenas uma melhoria da eficiência operacional.
The privatization of state owned enterprises (SOEs) tend lead to an increase in performance and efficiency, an improvement in the fiscal budget, followed by an increase in competition. (Carreira and Megginson and Netter, 2001). The goal of this study is to analyse if the Portuguese and Spanish privatization processes, in order to determine if the privatizations done in the last decade really led to improvements among the privatized firms. The study, backed by a literary review of circa 60 publish articles, provides a comparison between the pre and post privatization periods of the privatized companies, as well as a comparison between the same privatized firms and existing SOEs. Furthermore, it is investigated the influence the capital structure may have in such improvements. This study replicates the methods used by Omran, M. (2004) and McGuinness, P. and Ferguson, M. (2005). The results show that there is no evidence of significant improvements in performance or any capital structure influence, but rather an improvement in operational efficiency.

Historical learning is affected by cultural features and differences in educational systems. This is a comparative analysis of the progression of students' ideas in the understanding of historical significance, between two countries of the European Union, England and Spain. The research was intended to establish an empirically grounded model of progression in an area hitherto not investigated, namely significance within accounts. Progression was evaluated in two aspects: a) the relationship between significance and accounts (the significance of an event in rival historical narratives); and b) its variability of attributions, or types of significance (the different assessments of significance). This study was carried out with a sample of English and Spanish 12 to 17 year-old students. Methods followed were mainly qualitative, but the scale of the sample also allowed some quantitative analysis. The analysis of the relationship between significance and accounts concentrated on several notions: intrinsicallitylcontextuality; importance; emplotment and story parameters; point o/view; and validity and truth. Empirical data allowed the development of level-scales for each concept. Progression was found in all these areas, both for English and for Spanish students. However, cross-cultural differences were evident for some concepts, levels and age, in particular for importance and point 0/ view. English students became aware of these concepts at earlier ages and in higher numbers than Spanish ones. Five types of historical significance, contemporary, causal, pattern, symbolic, and presentljuture were defined. A further model of progression was generated through a qualitative analysis. This model comprises different levels, from responses that indicate no awareness of the notion of importance, and make no allusion to any type, or refer to the contemporary type only, towards responses that establish some kind of criteria to assess significance in different contexts and mention various types. The comparison of English and Spanish students' responses indicated several qualitative differences regarding types of significance and progression: pattern, symbolic and present/future types were more frequently mentioned amongst English participants in all year groups; and they reached a higher order of ideas at an earlier age than Spanish ones.

There are several arguments why the economic analysis of gambling seems to be very interesting. Gambling is a very important economic industry from which either local or national governments obtain resources due to some sort of fiscal imposition on gambling participation. On the other hand, the consumption of gambling seems to violate the premises of economic theory (risk aversion, maximizing and rational conduct). The empirical literature on this field has tried to answer several questions that might be summarized as follows: Who does gamble? Why do people gamble? And, how do game features, such as the rules or the prize structure, affect the demand for gambling? This thesis tries to shed more light on the questions identified above, focusing on the particular case of state-operated lotteries and football pools in Spain. Specifically, we are interested in examining what aspects drive gamblers' participation in Spanish lottery markets and spending on lotteries, focusing on network externalities in consumer spending on closely related lottery goods. Next, we study the demand for a particular game, paying attention to the factors that explain why individuals bet, especially, those that refer to the design of the game and the structure of prizes. Finally, the analysis of the main economic determinants of demand for gambling is extended to football pools as a particular form of sports gambling. In addition to these empirical exercises, this study contributes to the economics of gambling by briefly reviewing the theoretical work and empirical highlights from the previous analysis of the demand for lottery.

The emergence of supranational organizations like the European Union (EU) raises questions fundamental to the sociological study of regions and nation-states. Hypothetically, the EU could provide regions within nation-states most of the governmental services that they currently receive from the state. For regions with strong ethnic and cultural identities that have sought to break away from the nation-state over time, decreased political and economic dependency may provide the autonomy that they have been seeking. On the other hand, if the emergence of supranational organizations like the EU represents state-building at the global level, then the EU can pose a threat to regional groups seeking autonomy from the nation-state. At issue is how the growing influence of supranational organizations like the EU is affecting the demand for autonomy within ethnically, politically, and culturally distinct regions. This dissertation attempts to answer these questions by examining variations in nationalism over time for three regions in Spain (Basque Country, Galicia, Catalonia) from 1977-2002. In order to begin to answer this question, I created a new dataset of protest events in Spain in order to assess variations in demands for autonomy over time. The protest event counts were incorporated into a comparative historical analysis that seeks to explain the effects of the influence of the evolving European Union (EU) on contentious demands for autonomy within those three regions; the variations in the protest event counts over time were analyzed against additional economic and political data collected from archival materials. I find that, while nationalism declined overall over time, it did not disappear but rather took on a different character. The classical manifestations of nationalism transformed into distinct movements centered on human rights. I argue that this transformation took place as a result of three interrelated factors: 1) Forced cooperation between the regions and the central Spanish government; 2) Elite abandonment of the nationalist movement; and 3) The state of the regional economies. In contrast to what extant theory might predict, my results indicate that nationalism continues to exist for the following reasons: 1) The EU has not rendered the nation-state irrelevant, but rather has altered their competencies; 2) The EU has not resolved the tensions between the nation-state and regions, but rather has created new ones; and 3) The EU has not leveled the economic playing-field between regions, but rather has opened them up to new forms of competition. In conclusion, this dissertation argues that supranational organizations like the EU have altered the relationship between regions and nation-states, thus transforming - but not solving - the nationalist question.

National innovative performance is a key driver for sustainable growth (Pavitt, 1980). National innovative capacity may be improved by fostering industrial Research and Development (R&D), by funding academic research and by effectively supporting university-industry interactions in order to strengthen the linkage between R&D and product development. In a context of growing relevance of external sources of innovation, where the industry, rather than relying on internal R&D, increasingly engages in ‘open innovation’ (Chesbrough, 2006), the role played by universities is crucial. The essays presented in this thesis focus mainly on academic R&D and knowledge transfer mechanisms from the university viewpoint, as opposed to government or industry perspectives. These essays contribute to our understanding of how universities organise themselves to adapt to this changing context. In other words, the thesis looks at the ‘reflexivity’ norm of the system associated with the entrepreneurial university, as established by Etzkowitz (2004); or “a continuing renovation of the internal structure of the university as its relation to industry and government changes, and of industry and government as their relationship to the university is revised”.

Universities play a major role in the national innovative capacity of a country as producers and transmitters of new knowledge (see for instance, Adams, 1990; Mansfield, 1991; Klevorick et al. 1995; Zucker et al. 1998; Cohen et al. 2002; Arundel and Geuna, 2004; Guellec and van Pottelsberghe, 2004). While European countries play a leading global role in terms of scientific output, they lag behind in the ability to convert this strength into wealth-generating innovations (this is known as the ‘European paradox’, see for instance Tijssen and van Wijk, 1999; and Dosi et al. 2005). This level of innovation may be improved by different factors; for instance, by fostering an entrepreneurial culture, or by increasing industry’s willingness to develop new products, new processes. One of these factors relies on the notion of an ‘entrepreneurial university’. Universities, in addition to the two traditional missions of research and teaching, foster their third mission of contribution to society, by improving the transfer of knowledge to the industry. New tools and regulations have been established to support universities in this process. Since the early 80’s, academic technology transfer offices (TTOs) have been created, dedicated employees have been trained and hired, incubators for the launch of new academic ventures have been set up, academic or independent pre-seed investment funds have been founded and laws related to the ownerships by university of their invented-patents have been promulgated.

But what exactly stands behind the notion of ‘entrepreneurial university’? There exist more different descriptions of a similar concept or of a similar evolution than a general agreed definition. Indeed, "(…) There is high heterogeneity, there is no such thing as a typical university, and there is no typical way to be or become an entrepreneurial university" (Martinelli et al. 2008, p.260). However some similar patterns of what is or should be an entrepreneurial university may be identified.

First, there is this notion of a revolution experienced by universities that now have to integrate a third mission of contributing to economic development aside of their traditional academic missions. “(…) But in the most advanced segments of the worldwide university system, a ‘second revolution’ takes off. The entrepreneurial university integrates economic development into the university as an academic function along with teaching and research. It is this ‘capitalisation of knowledge’ that is the heart of a new mission for the university, linking universities to users of knowledge more tightly and establishing the university as an economic actor in its own right” (Etzkowitz, 1998, p.833).

This revolution finds its origin in a necessary adaptation of universities to an external changing environment where modern societies put a strong emphasis on knowledge. “The concept of the entrepreneurial university envisions an academic structure and function that is revised through the alignment of economic development with research and teaching as academic missions. The transformation of academia from a ‘secondary’ to a ‘primary’ institution is a heretofore unexpected outcome of the institutional development of modern society (Mills, 1958). In consequence, the knowledge industry in modern societies is no longer a minor affair run by an intellectual elite, an activity that might be considered by pragmatic leaders as expendable; it is a mammoth enterprise on a par with heavy industry, and just as necessary to the country in which it is situated (Graham, 1998, p.129)”, quoted by Etzkowitz et al. (2000, p.329).

The notion of an ‘entrepreneurial university’ also exceeds the simple idea of the protection of academic intellectual property by patents owned by universities and their out-licensing as well as the launch of new ventures. It encompasses an overall change of how the university is organised. “In the gruesome and heady world of changing external environments, organizations – including universities – will need to seek opportunities beyond their existing competences (Hamel and Prahalad, 1989, 1994), which suggests the need for an entrepreneurial orientation (Lumpkin and Dess, 1996)”, quoted by Glassman et al. (2003, p.356). This entrepreneurial orientation will only be possible if the overall organisation of the university changes. “An entrepreneurial university, on its own, actively seeks to innovate how it goes about its business. It seeks to work out a substantial shift in organizational character so as to arrive at a more promising posture for the future. Entrepreneurial universities seek to become 'stand-up' universities that are significant actors on their own terms” (Clark, 1998, p.4).

The notion of entrepreneurial university also encompasses the concept of academic entrepreneurship in its broad sense. For a university to become entrepreneurial, individual academics also have to adapt and to behave in an entrepreneurial way. This concept is not solely conceived here as the launching of new ventures by academics (a view embraced by Shane, 2004, for instance). It relates more to the view of Stevenson, Roberts and Grousbeck (1989), referenced by Glassman et al. (2003, p.354) or “the process of creating and seizing an opportunity and pursuing it to create something of value regardless of current available resources.”

The difficulty facing universities is then to adapt to their external environment while preserving the integrity of their two traditional academic missions. However, some conceive this challenge as precisely an ability that characterise the very intrinsic university’s nature. "The uniqueness of the university,(…) lies in its protean capacity to change its shape and function to suit its temporal and sociopolitical environment while retaining enough continuity to deserve its unchanging name” (Perkin, 1984, p.18).

Furthermore, others perceive this challenge as a tension that has always been at the root of the university’s character. “The cherished view of some academics that higher education started out on the Acropolis of scholarship and was desecrated by descent into the Agora of materialistic pursuit led by ungodly commercial interests and scheming public officials and venal academic leaders is just not true for the university systems that have developed at least since 1200 A.D. If anything, higher education started in the Agora, the market place, at the bottom of the hill and ascended to the Acropolis on the top of the hill… Mostly it has lived in tension, at one and the same time at the bottom of the hill, at the top of the hill, and on many paths in between” (Kerr, 1988, p.4; quoted by Glassman, 2003, p.353).

Nevertheless, it appears that some institutions, the ones integrating the best their different missions and being the most ‘complete’ in terms of the activities they perform, will be better positioned to overcome this second revolution than other institutions. “Since science-based innovations increasingly have a multidisciplinary character and build on "difficult-to-codify" people-centred interactions, university-based systems of industry science links, which combine basic and applied research with a broader education mission, are seen as enjoying a comparative advantage relative to research institutes” (OECD, 2001 quoted by Debackere and Veugeleers, 2005, p.324). Or as stated by Geuna (1998, p.266), in his analysis of the way the different historical trajectories of European universities are influencing their ability to adapt to the current changing environment, “ (…) the renowned institutions of Cluster IV (pre-war institutions, large in size, with high research output and productivity) are in a strong position both scientifically and politically, and can exercise bargaining power in their relations with government and industry. (…) On the other side, universities in the other two clusters (new postwar universities, characterised by small size, low research output and low research orientation and productivity, whether involved in technological research or in teaching), with very low research grants from government, are pushed to rely more heavily on industrial funding. Being in a weak financial position, they may find themselves in an asymmetric bargaining relationship with industry that they may be unable to manage effectively.”

To summarize, one could attempt to define the broad notion of an ‘entrepreneurial university’ as follows. An entrepreneurial university is a university that adapts to the current changing environment that puts a stronger emphasis on knowledge, by properly integrating the third mission or the capitalisation of knowledge aside of its two traditional missions. This adaptation requires a radical change in the way the university is organised. It will require important strategic reorientation from the top but also, and mainly, it will require from the individual academics to better seize new opportunities to generate value (not only financial but also scientific or academic) given scarcer resources. Renowned and complete universities (with teaching, basic and applied research) have an edge over other institutions to overcome this second revolution.

This notion of ‘entrepreneurial university’ has drawn criticisms. For example, academics’ interactions with industry could impact negatively on research activities by reorienting fundamental research towards more applied research projects (Cohen and Randazzese, 1996; David, 2000), by restricting academic freedom (Cohen et al. 1994; Blumenthal et al. 1996; Blumenthal et al. 1997), or by potentially reducing scientific productivity (see for instance van Zeebroeck et al. 2008 for a review on this issue). The present work does not address the issue of the impact of increased interactions with the business sector on traditional academic missions nor the question of whether universities should become entrepreneurial or not. Instead, the essays start from the idea that the ‘entrepreneurial university’ notion is part of the intrinsic nature of modern universities, or at least, is a part of its evolution. Industry-university relationships are not a new phenomenon; it can be traced at least to the mid- to late-1800s in Europe and to at least the industrial revolution in the USA (Hall et al. 2001). What is evolving is the nature of such relationships that become more formal. The present analysis starts then from the general observation that some universities (and researchers) are more entrepreneurially-oriented and better accept this mission than others. From that stems the primary research question addressed in this thesis: are there characteristics or conditions leading to a smooth coexistence of traditional and new academic missions inside an entrepreneurial university? And if so, what are they?

Existing work on the entrepreneurial university is a nascent but already well developed field of research. The aimed contribution of this thesis is to analyse the topic under three specific but complementary angles. These three perspectives are explored into the four main chapters of this work, structured as follows. Chapter 1 is titled “Turning science into business: A case study of a traditional European research university”. It introduces the topic by investigating the dynamics at play that may explain the propensity of a traditional, research-oriented university to start generate entrepreneurial outputs, while being not full-fledge entrepreneurially organised. Exploring the importance of “new” entrepreneurial outputs, as defined as patents and spin-off companies, compared to other ways of transferring new knowledge to the industry, Chapter 2 reviews the literature on the variety of knowledge transfer mechanisms (KTMs) used in university-industry interactions. It is titled “University-Industry interactions and knowledge transfer mechanisms: a critical survey”. Given scarcer structural funds for academic research and increasing pressure on academics to diversify their activities in terms of being involved in patenting or spin-off launching, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 investigate the role played by individual characteristics of researchers in attracting competitive, external funding. Chapter 3 presents stylised facts related to external fundraising at ULB and characteristics of researchers who attracted these funds over the period 1998-2008. The empirical analysis on associations between individual characteristics of researchers (intrinsic, scientific and entrepreneurial) and the extent of funds attracted from different sources (national, regional and business) is presented in Chapter 4, titled “The determinants of academic fundraising.” Chapter 5 concludes and suggests ideas for future investigation on this topic. Chapter 6, in appendix of the present work, titled “A note on the drivers of R&D intensity”, is not directly linked to the issue of the entrepreneurial university. It has been included to complement the studied topic and to put in perspective the present work. Academic research and university-industry interactions constitute important drivers of a national R&D and innovation system. Other factors are at play as well. Looking at this issue at the macroeconomic level, Chapter 6 investigates to what extent the industrial structure of a country influences the observed R&D intensity, and hence would bias the well-known country rankings based on aggregate R&D intensity.

Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009.
Title from electronic title page (viewed Mar. 10, 2010). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in the Department of Political Science Trans-Atlantic Masters Program." Discipline: Political Science; Department/School: Political Science.

Although there has been a wealth of academic literature which has examined counter-terrorism, both in the general sense and in case study focused approaches, there has seldom been an engagement in terrorism studies literature on the nature of the state itself and how this impacts upon the particular response to terrorism. Existing literature has a tendency to either examine one branch of the state or to treat (explicitly or implicitly) the state as a unitary actor. This thesis challenges the view of the state as a unitary actor, looking beneath the surface of the state, investigating intra-state dynamics and the consequences for counter-terrorism. I highlight that the state by its nature is ‘peopled', demonstrating through comparative analysis of case studies from Spain, France, and the United Kingdom, how the individual identities and dispositions of state personnel at all levels from elites to entry level positions determine the nature and characteristics of particular states. I show that if we accept that the state is peopled, we must pay attention to a series of traits that I argue all states exhibit to understand why campaigns of counter-terrorism take the shape and form that they do. I posit that we must understand the role that emotional and visceral action by state personnel in response to terrorism plays, how the character of particular state organisations can impact upon the trajectory of conflicts, and how issues of intra-state competition and coordination can frustrate even the best laid counter-terrorism strategies. Furthermore, I show how the propensity for sub- state political violence to ‘terrorise' populations makes the response to terrorism a powerful political tool, and how it has been deployed in the past for political gain rather than purely as an instrument to improve security. I conclude that future academic analyses of counter-terrorism must take this into consideration, and likewise, state personnel must be mindful of the nature and character of their state should they wish to effectively prevent terrorism and protect human rights and the rule of law.

Linguistic minorities are playing a crucial role in determining how states are reimagining themselves in more plural and inclusive ways. Pressure from both supranational and sub-state levels of government has meant that the repression of linguistic minorities by state institutions is no longer acceptable and even attitudes of neglect are widely condemned. However, while there has been a noticeable change in attitudes towards linguistic minorities in many European states, the specific role of the central state in relation to these groups remains ambiguous and merits further study. This thesis thus compares the language policies of the central states of Spain and Italy between 1992 and 2010, concerning two specific linguistic minorities in each country. These include Catalan-speakers in Catalonia and the German-speaking minority in Alto Adige/Südtirol, which have received considerable recognition and find themselves in a comparable situation within their respective states. In contrast, the Asturian- and Sardinian-speaking minorities have received the most minimal recognition at both the regional and state levels. Three sources of primary data were identified for the purposes of this study: official state documentation and legislation, elite interviews with political and institutional representatives, and state-wide newspapers. The research reveals the rationales, ideologies and motivations behind the actions of the central states of Spain and Italy in their approaches towards these distinct groups. New insight is provided by considering cases which have not previously been compared, as well as focusing on the typically hidden language policies of the state in contrast to the visible and widely studied policies implemented at the regional or provincial levels. This approach allows conclusions to be drawn on the extent to which both states may be moving away from the traditional monolingual nation-state model and provides recommendations for future approaches to linguistic minorities at the state and European levels.

This thesis is the result of research into the impact on the population of Catalonia of Catalan normalisation policies ('normalisation' in this context refers to the Catalan Government's intention to return Catalan to its rightful place as Catalonia's own language) in education in terms of language behaviour and ethnic relations. Chapter one focuses on the concepts of Bilingualism and Diglossia and how they have been employed in the Catalan context. Chapter two is a review of the relevant literature related to the Catalan situation. Chapter three is a narrative account of the political context of the period under study. Chapter four describes the methodologies and the results obtained from the fieldwork. Chapter five summarises the contributions of the preceding chapters, clarifies the grounded theory generated by this research project and draws conclusions. The theory and methods used to investigate this topic are drawn from sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, sociology and social anthropology, resulting in a multidisciplinary approach to the material. The wider political context of the Spanish state as a whole is thought to be a crucial factor to be considered in the investigation of ethnic relations within the autonomous region of Catalonia. The relationship between the central state and the region of Catalonia as history has unfolded has had its impact on the modern context of democracy and autonomy. The language attitudes and relations between members of the ethnolinguistic groups in Catalonia are a product of struggles and experiences that have been shared over generations. The fieldwork for this thesis was carried out primarily in Igualada at the beginning of 1993, shortly after the general election when the Socialists lost their overall majority. The research methodologies were qualitative in nature and consisted of: a report on newspaper debates and public discourse concerning the political context of the implementation of language policy. Private discourses were researched by interviews with teachers, pupils and parents associated with the three secondary schools in Igualada, observation of linguistic interaction both in the school environment and in a variety of social contexts, and participation observation of everyday life. The results and conclusions include a discussion of the evidence that the power relationship between the Castilian and Catalan ethnolinguistic groups is of importance to the success enjoyed by policies aimed at the 'normalisation' of the Catalan language. However, it is pointed out that, far from being stable or predictable, the situation of language and ethnic competition is changing and dynamic.

This thesis analyses the influence of Francoist agrarian policy on agricultural output in Spain in the 1939-55 period. The focus is on the wheat, olive and wine sectors, and special attention is given to small-scale farmers. Agrarian policy included price-fixing, production quotas and rationing of consumption. In the historical literature, this policy is often blamed for the post-Civil War decline in output. Yet, the present analysis states that this interpretation is erroneous. Producers and consumers circumvented intervention by creating a black market. When earnings from this source are included, value of output per unit of land remained close to pre-war levels. This also holds for small-scale farmers, although they benefited less from the black market than large-scale farmers did. It is then concluded that the decrease in wheat output was caused by lack of work animals and fertilisers rather than official prices. Intervention in the wheat sector was therefore desirable from a social viewpoint, but the system could have been improved. Average olive oil output was only below the pre-war level immediately after the war. Consequently, state intervention was unnecessary after 1942-43 and could have been abolished long before it was finally done in 1952. Thus, the intervention in the olive sector is an example of state failure. In the wine sector, policy aimed at increasing farm prices rather than decreasing consumer prices. Table wine consumption declined after the war, but this was counteracted by higher demand for high-alcohol white wine for the production of brandy and industrial alcohol. The winegrowers in Toledo successfully reacted by increasing output of high-alcohol white wine. Yet, the strategy led to overproduction, and state protection was increased in 1952-53. Consequently, state intervention had different effects on different sub-sectors. However, in none of the cases did output decline significantly because of the price policy.

While i was studying abroad in Spain and China, I found that, although there are many differences between two countries, i feel that they share some similarities in various aspects. My thesis will be a comparative study focusing on the problems of the educational system in Spain and China. In order to understand about the problem, I will also talk about the history of the educational systems in both countries, since the beginning of the twentieth century. Furthermore, this thesis will also explore the changes in both countries after the Franco regime, and the Post-Mao era, so that readers will know about the progress governments in both countries have been made in order to improve the educational system.

The world political economy passed through sea changes starting from the early-1980s. The transformation of the finance capital was an indispensible and important aspect of this change. Most of the countries in this process adapted themselves in line with the abovementioned transformation and liberalized their financial systems. However, the specific country practises diverged from each other considerably. On the one hand, some of the countries transformed their finance capital as part and parcel of a comprehensive political economy framework. As a result of the strategic involvement of the state (&lsquo
pro-active states&rsquo
) and the organic interaction between the interest groups in the industrial and financial sphere, the transformation of financial systems materialized within the context of the upward restructuring of the overall political economy structure of these countries. On the other hand, some countries could not establish the productive link between industrial, financial and state elites (&lsquo
reactive states&rsquo
) and the financial transformation exacerbated the structural problems in the countries in question. As illuminating examples of the former and latter categories, Spain and Turkey represent instructive cases in point. In this regard, the aim of this study is to make a comparative political economy analysis between the transformation of the finance capital in Spain and Turkey and to pinpoint the diverging paths of the political economy structures of these countries.

This thesis examines non-formal settings for development education by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). I focus on teaching and learning methodologies and on the attitudes and actions generated in learners. The study is informed by transformative learning theory, particularly as developed by Jack Mezirow (2000) and by Paulo Freire (1970). I look at opportunities for non-formal transformative learning in both Britain and in Spain and the use of participative methodologies to develop knowledge and understanding of and attitudes towards global development issues. I consider how such personal transformations might lead to social change and how a postcolonial analysis might affect the way issues are presented. This is a qualitative study informed by interviews with staff from seven organisations in the UK and seven in Spain. Illustrative cases are also provided based on observations of three non-formal educational activities in each country and interviews with learners attending these courses. I found that the extent to which participative critical dialogue was generated by such development education activities varied and depended on a number of factors, including the length of the course and pedagogical styles of the facilitators. Learners showed signs of transformation through the activities. Many talked about increased self-esteem and changes in understanding and attitudes. This had consequential influences on behaviour, particularly relating to more sustainable consumer behaviour and other lifestyle or career choices. I note that, through opportunities for transformative learning, participants also formed networks that could contribute to social as well as personal transformations; this relates to the stated aims and objectives of the NGOs and thus has important policy implications.

La acumulación de Capital Humano es fundamental para explicar recientes procesos de crecimiento económico experimentados en numerosos países, los cambios en la distribución de la renta salarial, en la localización de la actividad productiva, del comercio, etc... Por ello, consideramos fundamental avanzar en el conocimiento que dicha acumulación haya podido tener en una economía como la española, caracterizada recientemente por un crecimiento intenso en la educación de los trabajadores. Por este motivo se realizan tres análisis. En el primero, descomponemos la distribución de los salarios para conocer qué factores han afectado a su cambio desde 1980. Dedicamos especial atención al efecto que el cambio educativo haya podido tener en la desigualdad salarial. En un segundo análisis descomponemos el cambio en la brecha salarial entre trabajo cualificado y no cualificado entre cambios en la demanda y oferta de cualificación. Por último, estimamos las externalidades del capital humano en España a nivel regional.
Human Capital accumulation is crucial for explaining countries' recent economic growth episodes, changes in income and wage distribution, production localization, trade, etc. Thus, we consider important enhance the knowledge for the Human Capital accumulation effects on Spanish economy, characterized by intensive growth of educated workers. Then, we do three analysis. First, we decompose the wage distribution to know which factors are behind its changes since 1980. We give special attention to education effects on that wage inequality change. In our second analysis, we decompose the more educated wage premium change between changes in demand and supply of skills. Finally, our third analysis try to estimate human capital externalities for Spanish regions.

This thesis studies the expansion of workers' collective action and collective bargaining over working conditions in the context of the Spanish Restauracion (1875-1923), in an institutional setting characterised by the absence or little enforcement of legislation concerning industrial conflict and the regulation of working conditions. The thesis addresses two of the main issues in the contemporary and historical debate. The first one addresses the causes of labour unrest and the existence of a weak and politically radical labour movement. A second related issue argues that, had Spanish unions adopted the outlook of more conservative British or German unions, they would have been able to advance the interests of workers more effectively. In the first part of the thesis, I offer a narrative of union development based in coalition-formation. My main argument is that state policy was crucial in shaping the outlook of Spanish unions. I argue that in strike waves, workers in large cities had some degree of political power and were able to obtain the (often only temporary) protection of state officials from employers' counterattacks. Since the state was able to monopolise the repression of the labour movement up to 1919, 'public' lobbying to attract the support of the state radicalised the positions of employers and unions. Severely contested union rights brought about a system of industrial relations that was fragmented and organisationally weak, dependent on state policy to be shaped effectively. Up to 1920, the state, however, hesitated to expand its authority to regulate more thoroughly the relations between workers and their employers. The second part of the thesis asks if the Spanish system of industrial relations hindered the reaching of co-operative solutions to social problems. In other words, was the prevailing system of collective bargaining efficient in the fulfilment of the rapidly changing preferences of workers in the period. To answer this question, the thesis offers three case studies of collective bargaining over workplace public goods. The main conclusion of these exercises is that the supply of public goods was more neutral than expected with respect to the institutional setting. Weak unions and the absence of local or regional collective bargaining did not prevent workers to modify working conditions according to their changing preferences for a shorter workday, a safer workplace, stable wages and income smoothing during economic downturns.

This dissertation explores the role of Absolutist states in the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Western Europe. Three general questions are addressed: (1) what are the determinants of variations in the autonomy of rulers? (2) what are the consequences of variations in autonomy for states policies? and (3) what are the effects of various state policies on economic development? A new theoretical framework, based on a synthesis of the neoclassical economic literature on principal-agent relations and current organizational theory in sociology, is developed to answer these three questions. Case studies of Absolutism in England, France, Sweden, and Spain are used to illustrate the explanatory power of the theory.

The problem of this study was an analysis of the funding procedures in states which provide funding for local community education projects. The purpose of the study was to identify states which appropriate funds for community education and to provide an analysis of the guidelines for operation and use of state funds for community education at the local level. Twenty-five states were initially identified as having some type of state funding for community education, Eleven of the twenty-one states responding do provide funding for use at the local level. The guidelines and applications for obtaining these funds were compared in the areas of purpose of state legislation, minimum elements required of community education projects, eligibility requirements, use of state funds, grant periods, and annual reporting requirements.

There is a national call for teacher leadership, which has occurred after many education reforms have struggled due to a perceived lack of teacher involvement. The purpose of this study was to examine whether teachers felt that their involvement in education policy had impact and whether there is ample teacher expertise in education policy. The overarching research question was to appraise educator perceptions of teacher impact on state education policy. The study revealed a perceived lack of teacher impact and education expertise. The conceptual framework was based on theories of adult learning and the development of expertise and supported the necessity of teacher expertise in policy discussions' because teachers are the ones who have developed classroom expertise and the potential impact of policy on classrooms. A case study methodology was applied with 5 state teachers of the year participants. The participants were from 4 states, recognized from 2012-2015, and had local, state, and national policy experience. Interviews were conducted to collect data, with direct interpretation and categorical aggregation through coding applied to analyze data during collection. After identifying a perceived lack of teacher impact, themes were identified that could create more effective impact. Themes were grouped into skills, knowledge, and dispositions that could be taught in a series of learning experiences, serving as curriculum for teachers to build expertise in policy. This project has the potential to assist educators in developing the skills, knowledge, and dispositions needed to become more effectively involved in policy. It also has the potential to create social change in the United States by assisting teachers in getting meaningfully involved in policy, thereby positively impacting public education for their students in their classrooms, schools, districts, and beyond.

This thesis consists, in the first place, of a social history of education in Spain, centered on the decade of the sixties which led up to the 1970 Education Act and the economic, political and social processes involved in the passing of this Act. At this time, Spain was still dominated by a fascist dictatorship but was emerging from its state of isolation created by Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War and undergoing a process of great social and economic change. As a result a unique process of -modernization-, full of contradictions and restraints owing to the fascist nature of the Regime took place. The thesis maintains that the education system was ill prepared for this challenge and indeed played a minor role in the social transformation produced by an important industrializing process and large migration to the industrial centres. The main part of the thesis is centered on teachers themselves and how they responded to the objective conditions analysed in the first part. Teachers found themselves immersed in a changing society and in an antiquated institution incapable of adapting to the changes. Even the so called reform proposed by the Regime was an attempt at apparent reform without change. Those teachers who developed politically and became active anti Regime 1. mil itants, offered and aspired to a quite different educational solution expressed in the democratic -Alternative-, The development of a broad teachers' movement, of pedagogic groups and of a parents' movement, within the area of preschool, primary and secondary school ing is the main subject of this thesis, This study shows the difficulties of their activities under severly repressive conditions, and how their methods of struggle, the influence its nature had on its content and the fact that their very opposition to the Regime represented a pol itical advance in anti fascist resistance gave place to the development of a democratic -Alternative· shared by all progressive t.achers of the epoch.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006.
Title from electronic title page (viewed Oct. 10, 2007). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in the Transatlantic Masters (TAM) Program in the Department of Political Science." Discipline: Political Science; Department/School: Political Science.

Despite the enormous interest in recent years in the movement to recover the ‘historical memory' of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship, the teaching of these contentious and bloody periods of Spanish history has received relatively little attention. This qualitative study, which explores the experiences and perspectives of secondary school teachers of history, aims to address this gap in the literature. To select the participants for this research, I adopted a stratified, multi-stage, purposive approach, sampling by region, city, school and teacher. The sample comprised 24 history teachers from 17 separate secondary schools in the cities of Madrid (Torrejón de Ardoz), Barcelona, Seville and Oviedo. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five history education experts. All interview transcripts were imported into QSR NVivo 9, a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis package. The data was then analysed using Framework, a systematic, matrixbased approach to data management and analysis. The research findings build on Kitson and McCully's (2005) work by developing their ‘continuum of risk-taking', which relates to the teaching of controversial issues associated with history in Northern Ireland. An adapted model of risktaking is presented. It helps to explain the challenges and pressures teachers face in the Spanish context by identifying and exploring five distinct approaches to the teaching of the history of the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship: avoiding (‘natural' and ‘reluctant'), containing, risk-taking and activist. The research also highlights teachers' frustration with the dominant narrative presented in textbooks of Spain's ‘exemplary' transition to democracy. In so doing, it points to the danger of retrospective inevitability if the history of the transition is not presented in a nuanced fashion and if the alternatives are not explored. As such, the research constitutes an original contribution to the literature, opening up space for new conversations about the teaching of the history not only of conflict but also of the difficult and often controversial compromises that help to bring about cessations of violence. The study also considers the role of history education in the recovery of historical memory and, more broadly, in contributing to the wider reconciliation of Spanish society. Finally, the thesis highlights implications for curriculum and teacher education policy in Spain and beyond.

This is a mixed methods study about graduate educational and skill mismatch in Spain. The study examines the evolution of graduate mismatch at the macro level, investigating changes in the number of tertiary graduates vis-à-vis-the number of high-skilled jobs in the economy. The proliferation in the share of graduates unable to find high-skilled jobs in Spain has accentuated policy concerns that the number of graduates has increased faster than the number of high-skilled occupations available. Graduates are consequently "bumped down" the occupational ladder and forced to take up lower-skilled jobs, a situation defined in this thesis as occupational drifting down. The first part of this thesis is dedicated to exploring the determinants of graduate labour market mismatch, with focus on the influence of educational track and field of study on the probability of graduate employment and occupational drifting down. Drawing on the Spanish Labour Force Survey for 2006 and 2012, this study provides an original analysis of the determinants of employment and occupational drifting down among Spanish graduates, employing logistic models to evaluate the influence of personal, educational and occupational characteristics. The fact that these graduates are employed in jobs that one generation ago were occupied by non-graduates, however, does not automatically indicate that the demands of these occupations has remained the same. Since job content is not fixed, the quantitative methods employed in this thesis alone are insufficient to determine the skill requirements of occupations and changes in job content over time. This study, therefore, uses the multiple-case study approach to investigate changing skill requirements within occupations. To this end, 50 in-depth interviews with senior managers and graduates in the retail banking and retail trade industries were conducted in Spain between January 2015 and March 2016. In gaining proximity to the real-life context of graduate mismatch in the workplace, this study seeks to advance scholarship on graduate skills utilization and hiring trends at the sectoral level, providing novel insight into the changing skill requirements of two industries in Spain. In this way, this study fills a research gap, as sectoral case studies are sparse in the literature (Caroli et al., 2008; Elias and Purcell, 2004; Mason, 2002; Green and McIntosh, 2002, Knights and McCabe, 1998, Mason, 1996), particularly for Spain.

This study examined the impact of school reform on the homebound/ hospital education program before and after the implementation of the Quality Basic Education Act. The impact of school reform was in relationship to the location of the school district and delivery modes of services. It also examined teacher preparation, types of funding sources, selected biographic factors of special education directors and certification of special education directors. Participants included 52 directors in the state of Georgia with responsibility for homebound/ hospital delivery services. The study revealed that contract teaching is on the increase. The study recommended that special attention should be given to the written contract.

Investment in human capital is a key tool for the social and economic progress in every country. Thus one of the most important public policies in the last century has focused on increasing the level and quality of education among the population. This goal has been reached by all developed countries. However, the rapid increase of the percentage of the population with high education in developed economies during the last decades has probably contributed to labour market inefficiency. It is observed that part of this population is not working in jobs that require their level of education; otherwise they end up in jobs that require workers with a lower level of education. This situation is called overeducation. This dissertation examines several aspects related to the overeducation phenomenon in Spain. In particular, the first empirical analysis studies whether overeducated workers obtain a higher return on this training – specifically, non-education training activities – than the rest of workers. If it is so, overeducated workers could overcome part of the wage penalty derived from their education-occupation mismatch. The results showed that non-formal education activities have a positive effect on wages, but only overeducated workers who have undergone non-formal education activities receive a wage premium. It seems that this type of training provides overeducated workers with new abilities that permit them to reduce the wage penalisation derived from the mismatch between their level of education and occupation. The aim of the second empirical analysis is to test a supported theory based on the existence of individuals’ skill heterogeneity to explain the wage penalty associated with overeducation. From such a perspective, the wage penalty associated with overeducation is due to the huge variation of skills between workers with the same level of education. Then, overeducated workers would not suffer a wage penalty. In fact, they would earn lower wages as a result of their lower skills. Our hypothesis was that the wage penalty associated with overeducation could be explained by lower skill levels. As a consequence, overeducated workers may not be suffering a wage penalty in Spain, but their earnings are determined by their skill level. Our results show that individuals’ skill heterogeneity explains only 18% of the effect of educational mismatch on wages in Spain. The wage penalty still remains for those overeducated workers who are not less skilled than properly matched workers. Finally, the last empirical analysis aims to identify a relationship between the situation of overeducation of parents and the educational performance of their children. Previous literature found that children of highly educated parents tend to perform better than children of less educated parents. One possible explanation for the positive relationship between parents’ human capital and students’ performance is based on children’s perceptions about the importance of education. In this sense, students whose parents have a high level of education and good jobs might be more aware of the value of education and, consequently, have higher motivation and perform better than other students. Under this point of view, our hypothesis is that the existence of parents’ job-education mismatch can modify the students’ perception about the importance of education and, consequently, have an effect on their performance at school. In particular, we analyse whether there is a relationship between parents’ educational mismatch and the educational performance of their children, and we checked whether it is similar across the performance distribution or, by contrast, whether there are differences between students at the top and at the bottom of the performance distribution. The results shows that students whose parents are overeducated have a penalty in their academic achievement in all three subjects analysed, this effect being stronger for students with lower educational outcomes. So, the results seemed to confirm our hypothesis.

This essay studies the intergenerational transmission of education in four European countries, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Ordinal variables are used to distinguish between low, middle and high education for both the respondent and the respondent´s parents. The main findings are that Portugal has the highest intergenerational transmission of education from parents to children. Spain is on a second place, Norway on a third and on a last place, Sweden. Another finding is that the respondent´s that are 50-60 years old have a significantly higher risk of being low educated and a lower chance of being highly educated in comparison to the respondent´s that are 30-40 years old. Having a highly educated parent increases the chance of being highly educated and decreases the risk of being low educated in comparison to having a low educated parent. Having a low educated parent decreases the chance of being highly educated and increases the risk of being low educated in comparison to having a highly educated parent.