Search

This paper shows the results of a research project on relative social mobility patterns in Spain during the second half of the 20th century. The data were collected by the Spanish National Statistics Institute for the Survey of Incomes and Living Conditions (2005). This empirical material has not been used previously and it provides new data about the last decade of the 20th century. The social fluidity models created by Erikson and Goldthorpe in The Constant Flux (1992) have been applied. In short, this paper confirms that the rates of the social fluidity remain invariant during this period and that the patterns of core social fluidity for European countries closely match the Spanish case. Nevertheless, this mobility regime has certain particularities resulting from the characteristics of Spain's social and economic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When called upon to deliver judgment, citizens must believe that government is capable of affecting economic outcomes. Economic integration arguably reduces the power of governments to act independently in response to macroeconomic shocks. This paper seeks to determine whether institutional changes implemented by 12 European countries in the wake of monetary integration affected economic voting, and whether such changes were mediated by party messages. It employs statistical analyses across 12 European countries at two points in time. The results show that differences in economic voting were mediated by perceptions of EU integration; voters who believed in delegation at EU level weighed up economic issues to a lesser extent when casting their vote. In addition, such findings were to a large extent driven by partisan concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we introduce a system of composite indicators designed to analyze the digital gender divide. This tool, called Gender & ICT Indicators System (GICTIS), is an advance in the measurement and analysis of the difference between men and women in the Information Society. Its application allows us to a) make inter-gender comparisons, determined by their degree of e-equity; b) carry out intra-gender analysis according to the degree of e-inclusion of each sex; and c) contextualize the results obtained with the corresponding thirty-one European countries. Furthermore, this transnational analytical perspective is specified in the ranking of countries that are used to establish five classification categories according to the level of ICT use, combined with the degree of existing gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of democracy is probably one of the easiest to get consensus about in contemporary societies, while at the same time there are clear symptoms of political disaffection. The explanations for this political disaffection phenomenon are quite varied. While some argue that the lack of political implication is a consequence of individualism and «civic privatism» that threatens to break the bonds within the political community, others argue that this is a consequence of the crisis of the politics led by elites, which gives way to new forms of political participation driven by the masses. Lying behind these contradictory explanations there is a debate about the normative concept of citizenship or the «good citizen». In this paper I analyze empirically different conceptions of citizenship in Europe, as measured by how much value individuals attach to different civic duties that belong to the definition of citizenship from a normative point of view. In order to do that, I distinguish one dimension of normative commitment and one of community commitment. I then explain the value attached to each dimension at the individual level using multilevel analysis techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the results of an empirical and theoretical analysis intended to determine the current state of religiosity in Europe, that is, the degree to which Europeans give their allegiance to either a religious world view or a secular one. Applying multiple correspondence and cluster K-means analysis to the data gathered from the ISSP European survey «Religion-II», a new typology based on five basic cultural positions has been developed: religious; believers; skeptics; agnostics and atheists. These results show the quantitative extent and the qualitative importance of skepticism. Through an interpretation of the contents of each type, it shows that the skepticism regarding both religious and secular world views represents, at this particular moment in time, an essential key to European culture. We cannot affirm that there is a return to religious matters, but it is clear that the secularisation process has lost some of its original strength. Post-modern Europe is immersed in a cultural crossroads, and will have to decide about its future. The article ends by showing the three possible strategies for settling the doubt: the Kierkegaardian resolution, whereby Europeans will take up either exclusive religious or secular positions; the Borgian solution, whereby religious and secular content and forms will be hybridized; and the Hegelian dissolution, through which Europe may possibly develop a new cultural synthesis built from the remains of the old secular and religious world views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]