Academic literature on the topic 'Regionalism – Spain'

The study of regionalism has been, perhaps, one of the trends in the world political science for more than half a century. At the same time, the main attention of researchers is attracted by cases of “successful” regionalism (for example, in Spain or Great Britain), while “unsuccessful” (in electoral terms) regionalisms remain without proper analysis. The purpose of this study was to identify the main factors contributing to the decline of the regionalism. Based on the materials of three regionalisms in Central Eastern Europe (Somogy, Moravia and South Slovakia), these factors were identified. As a research method, a small-N qualitative comparison was used. The study identified three groups of factors that can potentially influence the success of the regionalist movement: factors associated with the activity of regionalist actors, institutional factors and factors of regional identity. Each of these factors, directly and in combination with others, can affect the success of the regionalist movement. Thus, for Moravian regionalism, the decisive factors of decline were the organizational weakness of the regionalist party combined with the decline of regional identity; for regionalism in Somogy, the fatal reform of the administrative-territorial structure of Hungary, depriving the regions of any autonomy and real power, and Hungarian regionalism in Slovakia, deprived institutional and organizational privileges, has lost its electoral significance. In general, the decline of the regionalist movement in this context only in one case out of three led to the disappearance of the regionalist movement itself, in two cases it was successfully transformed into other organizational forms. Thus, the study identifies the main factors of the decline of regionalism and identifies possible models of its transformation.

Regionalism is a notably elusive political idea. In the paper an attempt is first made to identify various propositions that are general among contemporary European regionalists: A commitment to territorial reform of a nonfederal character, a belief that regional autonomy promotes political stability and spreads prosperity, and a notion of complementarity between European integration and internal devolution. In the second part of the paper the relevance of these propositions to Spain are considered.

- The article analyses the most recent reforms of Italian regionalism using the theory of competitive federalism as opposed to cooperative federalism. Although new competitive dynamics are developing with main reference to asymmetrical regionalism and fiscal federalism, the article shows the coexistence of competitive and cooperative institutional arrangements. Taking a comparative perspective the case of Italy portrays similarities to those of Germany and Spain: German cooperative federalism is more and more challenged by the developing of competitive dynamics between the Western and Eastern Länder as well as Spanish competitive regionalism is opening up to intergovernmental cooperation to assure policy coordination. As a whole the article provides an analytical framework to guide future empirical research.

Received 09.09.2020. The paper focuses on one of the most significant arenas of multi-level politics – the interaction between regionalist and state-wide parties in the creation and functioning of government coalitions at the regional level. The research is aimed at determining the factors influencing the creation of such coalitions in which regionalist parties act as coalition partners with a specific agenda. Spain provides significant empirical material for research on this issue, where regionalist parties function in most regions, and state-wide parties often enter government coalitions with them at the level of autonomous communities. A comparative analysis of the practices of concluding coalition agreements between statewide and regionalist political parties in the regions of Spain during the democratic period is a key research method. The theoretical part of the article provides an overview of the theories of party coalitions accumulated by Political Science since the 1950s and updated by researchers due to actualization of new circumstances in the context of multilevel politics. The empirical part of the article examines the influence of three categories of factors on the construction of coalition deals between regionalist and state-wide political parties in the Spanish autonomous communities, including: the size of the coalition, the ideological inter-party distance (comprising the regionalist-ideological dimension) and correspondence of the alignments of party forces at the regional and national levels. The research demonstrates that the factor of coalition size is fundamental for transactions between regionalist and state-wide political parties, while the other two categories of factors manifest themselves situationally. Acknowledgements. The research was carried out at the expense of a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 19-18-00053 " Subnational regionalism and dynamics of multilevel politics (Russian and European practices)") at the Perm Federal Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In recent years, flamenco has been consolidated as a prominent symbol of regional identity in Andalusia, the southernmost region of Spain. In the late 1970s, Spain began to decentralise into seventeen autonomous regions. As a result, each region has been encouraged to foreground its own culture vis-à-vis national culture. Although associated with Spain in general, flamenco has fulfilled the role of regional identity building in Andalusia. Increasingly, the Andalusian Government has focused attention on the development of flamenco within and outside of the region. In this thesis, I explore this relationship between flamenco and regional identity in Andalusia. In doing so, I draw upon the theoretical tenets of political geography. Through scholarly exchange, I argue that political geographers and ethnomusicologists can learn much about the relationship between music and regional identity. I use flamenco as a pertinent case study of this relationship in the European context. In particular, I discuss the role that governmental institutions play in the ‘regionalisation’ (Schrijver 2006) of flamenco (that is, the institutional development of flamenco as an ‘official’ symbol of regional identity). However, I argue that at times the regionalisation process can be disputed and subverted. Accordingly, I contend that regionalism (that is, the bottom-up identification with a region) in Andalusia is a fragmented concept. By examining the contexts, the discourses and the styles associated with flamenco, I present alternative readings of regionalism in Andalusia. Drawing upon virtual ethnography and traditional ethnography in Granada, I examine the reception and the production of flamenco at a local level as well as at a regional level. Arguably, some flamenco scholars present a somewhat rigid understanding of the relationship between flamenco and regional identity. By offering different readings of regionalism through flamenco, I reveal the complex and contested relationship between flamenco and identity in southern Spain.

Aquesta tesi doctoral està centrada en el funcionament dels partits d'àmbit estatal (PAES) en estats compostos a través de tres perspectives desenvolupades en quatre capítols: la dimensió orgànica, la institucional i l’electoral. Els PAE que operen en un context institucional multinivell han de fer front a una nova realitat política que modifica el seu funcionament ordinari, tant a les institucions de govern i oposició com en el funcionament orgànic i electoral del partit. Operar en estat compost implica per als partits la necessitat d’establir uns espais de decisió interna entre el partit i les organitzacions territorials del mateix partit, però també pot implicar donar respostes a l’aparició d’arenes electorals diverses, fent front a electorats que competeixen en clivelles electorals diverses i Partits d’Àmbit No Estatal que reclamen nous mecanismes d’autogovern o de govern compartit amb l’Estat. Aquest context ha contribuït al sorgiment d’una literatura que connecta la influència de l’element territorial en els partits. Concretament, durant la dècada dels 2000 s’han donat les primeres passes en la incidència de la descentraltizació en les estructures orgàniques i els mecanismes de decisió interna; l’impacte en l’arena electoral i l’evolució dels sistemes de partits en diversos nivells territorials. Aquest treball es desenvolupa seguint el camí iniciat durant la dècada dels 2000, amb l’interès de conceptualització aquesta qüestió, a través de l’anàlisi de continguts empírics en funció d’estudis de cas enfocats al cas del PSOE. Aquesta tesi contribueix a aquest debat presentant quatre capitols que adrecen la qüestió de com s’adapten els PAES, i més concretament el PSOE, a un context multinivell. La tesi analitza el període 2003-2011 i planteja els mecanismes que contribueixen a que les seccions subestatals dels PAES puguin dur a terme estratègies pròpies.
This doctoral thesis is focused on how Statewide Parties (SWP) operate in compound states. SWP operating in multi-level institutional contexts need to face a new political reality that modifies their regular activity. In this thesis three dimensions are considered in the four chapters, not including the conclusions: the organic dimension; the electoral dimension and the institutional one. Parties operating in a compound state need to stablish intern decision-making rules between the central organization and the regional branches of the organization. But it needs to find out new responses regarding the plurality of electoral arenas, confronting Non Statewide Parties claiming for more self-rule or share-rule dynamics. This context has fostered the proliferation of literature connecting the effect of the territorial issue on parties. More specifically, during the 2000s literature has paid attention on the effect of political decentralization on organic structures of the party, including intern decision-making; the impact on the electoral arena and the evolution of party systems on a plurality of territorial levels. This thesis responds to the literature on this question by presenting both conceptual and empirical contents on this topic. This doctoral thesis addresses the conceptual and empirical debate by presenting four chapters addressing this topic. The thesis addresses the mechanisms affecting the capacity of substate PSOE branches to develop their own strategies. The thesis focuses the analysis on an eight years period (2003-2011), including a comparative paper of the Statewide Parties capacity to drive to modify the Italian and Spanish Territorial Models.

Soil and freshwater are two absolutely essential resources for ecosystems and humanity. Agriculture depends very much on these resources, and so, without their correct management, farmland practices can trigger many adverse impacts on the environment and jeopardise the availability of soil and water for future agricultural activities. Agricultural lands represent only 12% of the world’s land area. However, roughly 70% of water withdrawals from nature are for irrigated agriculture and 30-40% of the agricultural land is affected by soil degradation. Desertification, irreversible soil degradation, is one of the main problems for sustainability in drylands, areas that cover 40% of the earth’s surface. For these reasons, the environmental impacts of the use of water and land by agricultural activities should be measured. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method to construct the environmental profile of production systems. It was initially developed for industrial production, but a considerable amount of research has been undertaken in recent years to adapt LCA to agricultural systems as well. Conventional LCA methodology does not determine the environmental impacts of water and land use, which is a very significant shortcoming when evaluating the environmental performance of agricultural systems. Furthermore, contrary to other global environmental impact categories such as global warming, the environmental impacts of water and land use vary in every location of the globe, depending on the spatio-temporal conditions of the location, requiring therefore an extension of current LCA methodology. This thesis focuses on the development of the LCA methodology to incorporate the environmental impacts arising from the use of water and land. The spatio-temporal variability of these resources is taken into account in the proposed methods using the complementary tool of geographic information systems (GIS). For water use, two screening frameworks are built to capture the impacts of soil-water consumption by plants, when, until now, efforts have been directed towards evaluating the environmental impacts of irrigation water consumption. For land use, a multi-indicator approach for a new impact category, desertification, until now never modelled in the LCA context, is provided, as well as a methodology for including soil erosion impacts, in which the soil loss has been related to the loss of organic carbon, as a measure of the soil quality, and finally, to the loss of biomass productivity of ecosystems. The methods developed deal with the life cycle inventory (LCI) and the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phases. In addition, to verify the applicability of the developed location-dependent methods and characterisation factors, these are applied to agricultural crop rotations with energy crops growing in Spain, with the aim of quantifying the side effects of producing bioenergy on the disputed water and land resources in the country. The outcomes indicate that there is no best solution of a single crop rotation grown in a specific location capable of minimising water and land use environmental impacts simultaneously. This is because, firstly, rainfed crop rotations exhibit higher land use related impacts but, in contrast, they are not irrigated. And secondly, locations with more surface, ground and soil water reserves are subjected to more intensive and erosive rainfalls, thus, to higher land use damages. Among other important follow-up lines of research, future work should focus on the study of suitable functional units for agricultural LCA, calculate the uncertainties of the developed methods as well as try to identify a feasible and relevant geographical scale at which to address the spatial differentiation of the characterisation factors for water and land use impacts, and in general, for any location-dependent impact category.
Suelo y agua dulce son dos recursos imprescindibles para los ecosistemas y la humanidad. La agricultura depende de la disponibilidad de estos recursos, que por tanto, debe gestionar correctamente. En caso contrario, las prácticas agrícolas pueden provocar impactos adversos en el medio ambiente y poner en peligro la disponibilidad de suelo y agua para futuras actividades agrícolas. Los suelos agrícolas representan sólo el 12% de la superficie terrestre mundial. Sin embargo, aproximadamente el 70% de las extracciones de agua de la naturaleza se utilizan en la agricultura de irrigación y el 30-40% de los suelos destinados a la agricultura están degradados. La desertificación, entendida como la degradación irreversible del suelo, es uno de los mayores problemas para la sostenibilidad de las tierras áridas, áreas que cubren el 40% de la superficie terrestre. Por estos motivos, deben evaluarse los impactos ambientales debidos al uso del suelo y del agua en la agricultura. El análisis de ciclo de vida (ACV) es un método para evaluar el perfil ambiental de sistemas productivos. El ACV se desarrolló inicialmente para estudiar la producción industrial, pero en los últimos años la investigación se ha dirigido a la adaptación del método para poder aplicarlo también en los sistemas agrícolas. La metodología convencional de ACV no determina los impactos ambientales debidos al uso del suelo y del agua, siendo ésta una importante deficiencia para evaluar el perfil ambiental de los sistemas agrícolas. Además, al contrario de otras categorías de impacto ambiental global, como el calentamiento global, los impactos ambientales derivados del uso del suelo y del agua son distintos en cada lugar del planeta, en función de las condiciones espacio-temporales del sitio. Por tanto, es necesario extender la metodología actual de ACV. Esta tesis se centra en el desarrollo de la metodología de ACV para incorporar los impactos ambientales resultantes del uso del suelo y del agua. La variabilidad espacio-temporal de estos recursos se tiene en cuenta en los métodos propuestos utilizando la herramienta complementaria de los sistemas de información geográfica (SIG). Para el uso del agua, se presentan dos métodos de aproximación para medir los impactos debidos al consumo de agua de las reservas del suelo, cuando, hasta la fecha, los estudios han intentado evaluar los impactos ambientales debidos al consumo de agua para la irrigación. Para el uso del suelo, se propone una aproximación multi-indicador para modelar el impacto de la desertificación, una categoría nunca antes incluida en ACV, así como una metodología para incluir los impactos de la erosión del suelo, donde la pérdida de suelo se relaciona con la pérdida de carbono orgánico, como medida de la calidad del suelo, y finalmente, con la disminución de producción de biomasa de los ecosistemas. Los métodos desarrollados comprenden las fases de inventario de ciclo de vida (ICV) y de evaluación de impacto de ciclo de vida (EICV). Además, para comprobar la aplicabilidad de los métodos regionalizados de ACV y de los factores de caracterización desarrollados, estos se aplican en rotaciones de cultivos con cultivos energéticos en España, con el objetivo de cuantificar los efectos colaterales de producir bioenergía sobre los recursos suelo y agua, muy disputados en el país. Los resultados revelan que no hay una solución idónea, con una rotación de cultivos sembrados en una zona específica del país, que sea capaz de reducir, simultáneamente, los impactos ambientales debidos al uso de suelo y agua. Esto se debe, en primer lugar, a que los cultivos de secano muestran mayores impactos relacionados con el uso del suelo, pero, al contrario, no utilizan agua de irrigación. Y en segundo lugar, a que las zonas con más reservas de agua en superficie, acuíferos y suelos están también sometidas a lluvias más intensas y erosivas, y en consecuencia, a un mayor deterioro del suelo. Entre otras importantes líneas de investigación a seguir, próximos trabajos deben centrarse en el estudio de unidades funcionales adecuadas para el ACV de sistemas agrícolas, el cálculo de las incertidumbres de los métodos desarrollados en la tesis, así como en la identificación de una escala geográfica significativa y de aplicación factible que aborde la diferenciación espacial de los factores de caracterización para los impactos del uso del suelo y del agua, y, en general, para cualquier categoría de impacto ambiental regional.

Les transcriptions des strophes des chants flamencos soulèvent des problèmes liés à leurs spécificités linguistiques et à leur portée symbolique. Cette thèse propose d’étudier les représentations phonologiques sous-jacentes aux graphies des premiers recueils consacrés à ce type de chants, publiés en Espagne entre la fin du XIXe et le début du XXe siècle. Ces graphies extra-normatives sont envisagées selon trois perspectives différentes et complémentaires : métalinguistique, historico-culturelle et historico-épistémologique.Les systèmes de transcription étudiés supposent des phonologies, donc des discours sur la langue, qui se rattachent aux diverses représentations culturelles sur le « peuple andalou » véhiculées dans ces mêmes ouvrages. Celles-ci sont analysées dans le contexte mouvementé de réorganisation politique et sociale – et de quête identitaire et symbolique – qui avait lieu en Espagne et dans ses régions à l’époque en question. On étudie donc le rôle qu’ont joué les folkloristes espagnols dans la recherche des particularités andalouses.L’élaboration de ces systèmes de transcription s’est faite dans un cadre scientifique caractérisé par l’institutionnalisation des études folkloriques, en Espagne comme ailleurs en Europe, et par l’émergence de nouveaux savoirs en linguistique. Linguistes européens et folkloristes espagnols échangeaient idées et matériaux, non sans engendrer des erreurs d’interprétation qui ont perduré pendant plusieurs décennies.De la sorte, les représentations linguistiques sous-jacentes acquièrent le statut de prototypies, participant à des constructions culturelles et légitimées par leur rattachement à un réseau scientifique international et interdisciplinaire
The transcription of flamenco songs raise various issues connected to their linguistic features and their symbolic value. This thesis addresses the phonological representations underlying the written forms found in the first collections, published in Spain between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. We approach these non-orthographical spellings from three different and complementary perspectives: a metalinguistic one, a cultural-historical one, and an epistemological-historical one.They imply phonological descriptions of the language of flamenco songs that are linked to different cultural representations about the “Andalusian people” conveyed by the authors themselves. These cultural representations are studied in the tumultuous context of the social and political reorganization and the symbolic and identity-related search that took place in Spain both at a national and at regional or local level at that time. Thus, this work focuses on the role played by the Spanish folklorists in the search for Andalusian peculiarities.The establishment of these transcription systems emanated from a scientific framework featuring the institutionalization of folk-studies in Spain and Europe, and the rise of new knowledge areas in linguistics. European linguists and Spanish folklorists shared ideas and materials, a process that led to some misunderstandings that were perpetrated through the following decades.In this way, the underlying linguistic representations acquire the status of prototypes, that participate to cultural constructions and that are legitimated by their connection to an international and interdisciplinary scientific network
Las transcripciones de las letras de los cantes flamencos plantean problemas vinculados a sus particularidades lingüísticas y a su valor simbólico. Esta tesis se propone estudiar las representaciones fonológicas subyacentes a las grafías de las primeras colecciones de este tipo de cantos, publicadas en España entre finales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX. Se contemplan estas grafías extra-normativas bajo tres perspectivas diferentes y complementarias: la metalingüística, la histórico-cultural y la histórico-epistemológica.Estas transcripciones suponen fonologías, esto es, discursos sobre la lengua que están relacionados con las diferentes representaciones culturales sobre el “pueblo andaluz” concebidas en las mismas obras. Éstas son examinadas en el marco tumultuoso de la reorganización política y social y de la búsqueda identitaria y simbólica que se registra en España y sus regiones en la época mencionada. Por lo tanto, se estudia el papel que desempeñaron los folkloristas españoles en la búsqueda de las especificidades andaluzas.La elaboración de estos sistemas de transcripción se hizo en un marco científico caracterizado por la institucionalización de los estudios folklóricos, tanto en España como en el resto de Europa, y por la aparición de nuevas áreas de conocimiento en lingüística. Lingüistas europeos y folkloristas españoles se intercambiaban ideas y materiales, generando a veces errores de interpretación que persistieron durante varias décadas.De este modo, dichas representaciones lingüísticas adquieren la condición de prototipos que participan a las construcciones culturales y son legitimados por su vínculo a un marco científico internacional e interdisciplinar

This work is set around three empirical papers concerned with the political foundations and consequences of trust among people. The first one addresses the question of how trust evolves and whether this is shaped by life-events related to economic shocks vis-à-vis experiences related to the individual engagement in civic life and to the institutional environment. The second paper turns the attention to the characteristics of the partner involved in the interaction investigating how intergroup political conflicts affect social cooperation and trust. This allows assessing whether heuristics about political group membership and identities shape the individual trust radius. The third paper considers, instead, the consequences of trust addressing whether it favors involvement in unconventional political participation, a still understudied relationship. This is done also accounting for other selective and collective incentives. Overall, this thesis offers a novel approach and new evidences on both political origins and implications of trust among people.
Este trabajo de tesis consta de tres artículos empíricos sobre las orígenes y las consecuencias políticas de confianza social. El primer articulo se propone investigar la cuestión esencial de cómo se forma confianza social y si esta es el resultado de shocks económicos, frente a experiencias relacionadas con la participación en la vida cívica o el contexto institucional. El segundo articulo se centra en la interacción de confianza entre individuos investigando cómo los conflictos políticos entre grupos afectan la confianza y la cooperación entre individuos. Esto nos permite evaluar si los individuos emplean heurísticos cognitivos e identidades sociales y políticas y si estos afectan al perímetro de la confianza social. En fin, el tercer articulo estudia las consecuencias políticas de confianza social analizando como esta influye en la participación política en formas no convencionales de protesta, en el marco de una teoría de los incentivos selectivos y colectivos, una discusión que sigue abierta en la literatura científica. En general, este trabajo de tesis se propone ofrecer nuevas evidencias empíricas sobre las orígenes y las implicaciones de la confianza social entre personas a través de soluciones metodológicas innovadoras.

AbstractThe crisis that started in Greece in 2010 gradually spread to other Eurozone member states. Things were worse for the crisis-hit countries of the Eurozone periphery, some of which implemented harsh adjustment programmes in the context of financial assistance agreements, while others adopted similar policies even though they had not officially entered a bailout agreement (e.g. Spain and to a lesser degree Italy). In this environment of deteriorating material conditions, Euroscepticism reached new heights. This chapter examines the impact of the crisis, and the way it was handled, on regionalism in Europe, through its effects on Euroscepticism. The authors compare Eurobarometer data from European Union (EU) member states, in order to develop a comparative outlook on attitudes towards European integration during the crisis. The analysis employs data at discreet time intervals, in order to capture the evolution of attitudes from the pre-crisis environment in 2008, to the peak of the crisis in 2012, its gradual resolution in 2016 and its official ending (with the exit of Greece from its third bailout programme) in 2018. This analysis is complemented by an overview of the political developments in crisis-hit countries with the objective of documenting and analysing the emergence and, in some cases, dominance of Eurosceptic parties. The objective is to present a comprehensive overview of political developments and the public attitudes that shaped them, vis a vis the EU, during the crisis and offer a tentative conclusion on their impact on the European integration process.