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Against the heteronormativity of the increasing field of studies around intergenerational family relations within asset-based welfare systems, the paper analyses the housing pathways of lesbian and gay young people, focusing on family intergenerational relations and the implications concerning emotional, private and sexual life. The paper focuses on Greece and Italy, two countries characterized by the so-called 'Southern European' model of welfare system centred around the family. Given the persistence of homo/lesbophobia, this process pushes lesbian and gay youth to negotiate between housing choices and personal lives in ambivalent ways. The housing strategies analysed are regrouped into four categories: (i) the return to the family house; (ii) the dependence on the family of origin to buy or rent; (iii) international migration to be more autonomous; (iv) the experience of alternative housing models, mostly squatting, or sharing (including Airbnb). Our categorization must not be interpreted as fixed or immutable since people might try different solutions over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The steady weakening of the relationship between parties and civil society, in particular trade unions, has been the subject of considerable research. The same cannot be said, however, of the programmatic salience assigned by political parties to labour issues. This paper aims to explore how different party families relate to labour through a quantitative and qualitative approach. First, data from the MARPOR/Comparative Manifestos Project is used to compare the relative salience of labour in distinct party families, thus allowing us to analyse trends over time and across countries. Second, we focus on Southern Europe, before and after the crisis, to conduct a qualitative analysis of left-of-centre party positions toward labour. The findings suggest that labour issues are less salient in contemporary party platforms and that the mainstream left depoliticised this dimension of competition over the last decades. The historical links between parties and trade unions, the ideological legacies of left-of-centre parties and electoral pressures are the main factors that explain variations of party positions toward labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly turbulent forms of mobilities are emerging in Europe as diverse groups of migrants arrive, settle and move on. This paper explores this phenomenon of onward migration arguing that this is underpinned by various forms of feminized precarity. Challenging existing work on the feminization of precarity and migration that usually focuses on specific workers in situ, this paper explores the experiences of onward Latin American migrants (OLAs) who have moved to London from Southern Europe in a holistic manner. It develops the notion of "feminized onward precarity" to capture how female and male migrants experience precarious living and working conditions that reflect devaluation and exploitation in intersectional ways. In highlighting the interdependence of in/mobility and feminized precarity enacted through the relational lens of onward migration, the paper provides important insights into the increasingly complex and feminized lives of migrants as they move (or not) across diverse spatio-temporal contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the following question: Which forms of care are used by older migrants compared to older natives in Switzerland? Access to care is an important issue for older people. Health problems and the reduction of the functional abilities can lead older people to become more vulnerable and dependent on social support. Many forms of care are available to support older people. In this paper, we explore help and home-care services, together with other ambulatory care activities provided mainly by the public sector and not-for-profit organisations or by private services, and the informal care provided by family and friends. Many studies show that older migrants are underusing formal services while others arrive to opposite conclusions. Using data from a 2012 representative survey in Switzerland, where older migrants from Italy, Spain and Portugal are over-represented (300 individuals aged 65–79 from both an oversample and the main sample in the regions of Geneva and Basel), we test these contradictory observations by comparing the forms of care received by older migrants with those received by older Swiss of the same age cohort (65–79). The results are presented and discussed in regard to various hypotheses about services use. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper is to set a general framework for this themed issue of JEMS in order to understand the notion of Southern European countries as an ensemble in relation to their migratory system. The proposed theoretical framework is based on a triadic relationship composed of the impact of global economic processes, a weak and familistic welfare state and a dynamic informal economy. The paper also incorporates and integrates some of the conceptual ideas deriving from other papers in this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demand for and supply of environmental quality, which constitute the underlying forces that lead to turning points of Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKCs), are only implicitly referred to in the fast growing literature. Unlike conventional approaches to EKCs, which look at indices of single pollutants per capita as per capita incomes rise, this paper estimates the impact of GDP per capita on all actions per capita seeking environmental quality in Greece, Spain and Portugal during the period 1974-1994. The findings indicate that rising GDP per capita leads to higher environmental actions per capita, implying either that we are on the rising segment of an EKC or that EKCs do not exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Southern Euro Zone countries show significant delays to adapt their social and productive systems to the EU goal of creating knowledge-based societies. A signal can be the increasingly higher level of skilled labor migration from these countries, especially during the actual crisis. Recent literature on skilled migrations often rejects the concept of “brain drain” (BD) arguing that circulation and exchange of people and knowledge is expected in the era of globalization. Using both conceptual analysis and secondary data, the paper attempts to highlight proportions of the intra-EU BD phenomenon and show how they may challenge the assumptions of circular migration models. It discusses that a BD problem likely exists in the Southern Euro Zone and proposes an alternative framework for its analysis. The main hypothesis behind this review is that the phenomenon relies on substantial lack of social opportunities for high-skilled people in the countries of origin as provoked by multiple factors. In this account, the several drivers of migrants' choice will be conceptualized by adopting a “Capability Approach,” and they will be further analyzed according to its foremost hypotheses regarding rational behavior, human welfare, and development. The resulting theoretical view has to be considered as an expansion of the neoclassical economics “standard view” on high-skilled migrations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes that the prevalence of illegitimate wage practices in Southern European societies results from the discord between the formal rules (formal institutions) and the socially shared unwritten rules that reflect citizens' beliefs (informal institutions). To evaluate this, a 2013 survey is reported on whether employers in five Southern European countries fraudulently evade tax and social security payments by paying employees a portion of their salary off the books. A strong association is revealed between the extent of wage under-reporting and the degree of institutional asymmetry across these societies. The implications for theorising illegitimate wage practices are then explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2008, dramatic economic crises have brought falling GDP, rapidly rising unemployment and pressure on government to limit public spending to Spain and Italy. These are two countries with similar experiences of migration but quite different politics of immigration over the past two decades, with public order and security concerns coming to the fore in Italy during the 1990s and 2000s, whilst there was a general avoidance of the issue in Spain. Spain and Italy therefore provide a useful opportunity to examine the interaction between the economic crisis and political debates on immigration. Examining political debates on immigration in the parliaments of both countries from 2008 to 2011, this paper finds that during the crisis there was not a mainstream negative politicisation of immigration in these countries, despite high migration flows, rising high unemployment, aggressive austerity from government and uncertainty regarding the economy. This is explained by showing how the political debate in each country is mediated by different configurations of public opinion, institutions and discursive structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southern European welfare states are under stress. On the one hand, the recession has been causing unemployment to rise and incomes to fall. On the other hand, austerity has affected the capacity of welfare states to protect those affected. This paper assesses the distributional implications of the crisis in Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal from 2009 to 2013. Using a microsimulation model, we disentangle the first-order effects of tax–benefit policies from the broader effects of the crisis, and estimate how its burden has been shared across income groups. We conclude by discussing the methodological pitfalls and policy implications of our research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial crisis of 2008 and the ongoing economic turmoil in Southern European countries pose significant challenges to many welfare regimes and their pension systems. This paper analyzes the Turkish pension system and pension reforms in relation to welfare regime discussions in the literature. Via the application of the hierarchical cluster analysis to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data, this study shows that, supporting previous comparative studies, the Turkish pension regime can be characterized as a part of the Southern European welfare regime, and the 2006 pension reforms were implemented mainly to achieve a recalibration of the Turkish pension system. This paper asserts that although important improvements have been made toward achieving a sustainable and fair pension system, the Turkish pension system still has some structural problems with respect to intergenerational equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at moments of citizen organisation to evoke an understanding of the new civic practices they bring to the fore. It argues that the Greek movement is shaped by an unprecedented number of citizens moving away from traditional, representative, recognised forms of citizen organisation to citizen-led, anti-hierarchical, horizontal networks that resist the consequences of the economic crisis and create alternatives to the current democratic and economic model. This movement has been nurtured by both small, diverse citizen initiatives, and mass protest and participation. The paper calls for a better understanding of the interplay between everyday resistance and significant political events. Hors des sentiers battus : un moment transformateur pour l'action citoyenne en Grèce Cet article traite de certains moments d'organisation citoyenne pour évoquer une manière de comprendre les nouvelles pratiques civiques qu'ils font ressortir. Il soutient que le mouvement grec est façonné par un nombre sans précédent de citoyens qui s’éloignent de formes traditionnelles, représentatives et reconnues d'organisation citoyenne vers des réseaux horizontaux, antihiérarchiques et dirigés par les citoyens, qui résistent aux conséquences de la crise économique et créent des alternatives au modèle économique et démocratique actuel. Ce mouvement s'est nourri de petites initiatives citoyennes diverses, mais aussi de la participation en masse. Cet article demande l'amélioration de la compréhension de l'interaction entre la résistance au quotidien et les événements politiques importants. Abriendo caminos nuevos: una cambiante coyuntura para la acción ciudadana en Grecia El presente artículo examina las distintas coyunturas de organización ciudadana con el objetivo de comprender las nuevas prácticas cívicas que dichas organizaciones ponen en juego. Sostiene que, en Grecia, el movimiento se caracteriza por el creciente número de ciudadanos que abandonan las formas de organización ciudadana tradicionales, representativas y reconocidas, ingresando a redes ciudadanas, no jerárquicas y horizontales, que resisten las consecuencias de la crisis económica al mismo tiempo que crean alternativas al actual modelo económico y democrático. El movimiento se ha visto beneficiado tanto por las pequeñas y diversas iniciativas ciudadanas como por las participaciones masivas. El artículo aboga por comprender mejor la interacción que tiene lugar entre la resistencia cotidiana y los eventos políticos significativos. Trilhando um novo caminho: momento de mudança para a ação de cidadãos na Grécia Este artigo examina os momentos da organização de cidadãos de promover um entendimento das novas práticas civis que eles suscitam. Ele argumenta que o movimento grego é influenciado por um número sem precedentes de cidadãos que estão se distanciando de formas tradicionais, representativas e reconhecidas de organização de cidadãos e indo de encontro a redes lideradas por cidadãos, anti-hierárquicas e horizontais que resistem frente às consequências da crise econômica e criam alternativas ao modelo atual democrático e econômico. Este movimento tem sido gerado tanto por pequenas e diversificadas iniciativas de cidadãos quanto pela participação da massa. O artigo clama por um melhor entendimento da interação entre a resistência do dia a dia e eventos políticos significativos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses technical performance in the water industry in the Southern European region of Andalusia, while accounting for sustainability in the management of water. This allows the opportunity cost of producing sustainability to be evaluated. Given the low cost of raw water in Spain in relation to the estimated opportunity cost of saving this natural resource, wasting water becomes a profitable strategy for utility managers from a private perspective. However, this managerial strategy has a huge social cost in an area of Europe where the sustainable management of water is a pressing need. The conclusion is that environmental policy aimed at discouraging this wasteful behaviour is urgently needed. For this reason, a suitable mix of environmental taxes on water abstraction and institutional reforms is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This brief concluding article deals with immigration control and integration policies in the four countries of Southern Europe. In general, control prevails over integration. The paper is in three parts. First, some common features and an overview of the situation of immigrants in Southern Europe are described. The third and final section of the paper analyses some of the difficulties of applying policies for integration and the creation of multicultural citizenship in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1987-8 a large attitudinal survey covering all twelve Member States of the European Community was carried out by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in Dublin which focused on various aspects of participation by employee representatives in new information technology. This paper presents evidence on one of the central trade union concerns about technological change -- that of work organization. The paper first sets out an explanatory framework which is based on much of the literature, surveys and case-study evidence on the impact of new technology on work and employment. Second, the explanatory factors are used to explain the wide diversity in the levels of participation in work organization across the Community. The paper concludes that there is a significant North/South divide, with the northern EC Member States, particularly Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium having much higher levels of participation in work organization than their Mediterranean partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origins of secondary product exploitation for domestic livestock, in particular milking, is a long-standing debate in archaeology. This paper re-analyses zooarchaeological age-at-death data from the central Balkans of south eastern Europe to demonstrate that the earliest intensive milking in this region probably occurred through the exploitation of goats, and not cattle or sheep, and that they were exploited in this manner from the beginning of the Neolithic. The analyses also suggest that there is a change in cattle and sheep exploitation patterns beginning during the Eneolithic, when secondary product exploitation becomes visible in age-at-death patterns, which can be interpreted as an increased scale of secondary products exploitation. This proposal is congruent with the ceramic lipid and zooarchaeological data from the region and has larger implications for understanding and identifying the origins of milking throughout the Old World. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Previous research on youth drinking has brought out important features in young people's time- out cultures as and how they relate to the current neo-liberal social order with its expectation of self-governing individuals. However, previous research has not sufficiently considered cultural variations on the meaning of binge drinking for young people; in particular, there have been very few studies dealing with under-aged drinkers. This paper considers the applicability of binge drinking as ‘controlled loss of control’ in Northern and Southern European contexts by comparing young people's perceptions of binge drinking in Finland and Italy, which have conventionally been considered as representing sharply contrasting drinking traditions. The data consist of 28 focus-group interviews conducted at schools among 15-year-old pupils (N= 148) in Helsinki and Turin. In both countries, binge drinking was seen as risky, but it was associated with social norms that defined the limits of successful or failed drinking experience. Cultural variations were found especially in the ways self-control was defined with regard to drinking regulation. However, in both data the competence of the drinker and self-control was emphasized, thus contradicting the interpretation of binge drinking as loss of control or a time-out from the neo-liberal social order. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Great Recession has had a deep impact on employment levels and on income inequality in the Southern European countries (Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy). It has given rise to a new stage in the discussion on the distinctiveness of a possible ‘Mediterranean’ variant of welfare capitalism. This paper analyses the performance of the Mediterranean cluster during the Great Recession period in its two main dimensions, labour market participation and poverty risk, and to what extent that performance has evolved in a divergent or convergent manner. Firstly, it portrays the main changes in this variant of welfare capitalism during the last two decades. The second and third sections, respectively, provide a comparative profile of the employment crisis suffered by these countries and of its impact on poverty risks. Finally, the main institutional traits are discussed, explaining the relative performance of welfare capitalism in this cluster of countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The critical analysis of conservation conflicts in Protected Areas (PAs) raises interesting questions about the redefinition of human-environment relations in the current ecological crisis. In recent years these debates have unveiled that, in the attempt to define the ‘proper’ place of humans in nature, PAs have embodied modern dualistic worldviews, which understand nature as a realm different from society, culture and ‘civilisation’. This paper suggests that the utilisation of these worldviews should be understood as part of the conceptual apparatus that enables a transition in management roles in Protected Areas, through which new empowered groups are granted the right to control and use natural resources. By analysing the practices and discourses of conservation stakeholders at the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park, in southern Spain, this paper shows that modern ideas of nature are essential to the collective appropriation of Cabo de Gata by new empowered groups because these ideas justify a new way of managing local resources in accordance with their own interests and desires. This has deep implications for the study of people-park conflicts and the problems associated to the promotion of more environmentally friendly ways of mastering the environment, which must be approached in the light of the power relations associated to the appropriation of territory and natural resources. The paper also concludes that, in order to understand how the nature-society dualism still dictates the way we should relate to the environment, we must trace the practices of those who bear this worldview and unveil the strategies and mechanisms that are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition theories suggest that there is a spatial, temporal and structural co-existence of several processes of transition from productivism to post-productivism going on in rural areas in multiple combinations resulting in a more complex, contested, variable mix of production, consumption and protection goals. This is particularly true for South European landscapes dominated by extensive agro-silvo-pastoral systems. The fragile agricultural sector is in some cases just entering the productivist phase, let alone moving towards post-productivism both in terms of discourse and management practices. At the same time, these are landscapes increasingly valued by society, and this demand should encourage new strategies for farm survival and new ways of managing the land. But such new strategies require a paradigm shift, not only in policy goals and formulation, but also in farmers’ attitude towards their role and their management goals. In this paper, the question addressed is how the land managers within this system, facing multiple transition options, are choosing different management paradigms, in the complex range between productivism and post-productivism. Based on a farm survey in southern Portugal, a typology of land managers is produced, aiming to grasp the combination between their management practices in the farm and their expressed attitudes towards farm management and the role of their farm in the landscape. Results reveal some inconsistencies between land managers’ intentions and their landscape outcomes, in an opposite sense to what has been earlier identified in Northwestern Europe. Even if they manage a multifunctional system, their self-concept is dominantly productivist and not affected by the public expectations of multifunctionality. This tension may reflect contradictions in the policy framework and, at the same time, raises challenges which the existing policy mechanisms do not consider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper outlines the principles, outcomes, and impacts of the Council of Europe's heritage-rehabilitation project in South-East Europe, the Integrated Rehabilitation Project Plan/Survey of the Architectural and Archaeological Heritage (IRPP/SAAH). It is suggested that, although the project began in 2003, before the adoption of the Faro Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society, it anticipated many of its themes, so in effect was putting theories into practice. The lessons learned from this continuing heritage project will contribute to future discussions on the theory and practice of heritage-led regeneration, in which the conservation of heritage is not an end in itself but a means to an end of social and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the influence of the climate change scenarios predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) for Southern Europe and the Mediterranean region on the energy efficiency of light-weight steel residential buildings. A performance-based approach is adopted to carry out this assessment using advanced dynamic simulation of the operational energy performance. Based on a typical Portuguese cold-formed steel residential building, a representative numerical model is calibrated against normative requirements for dynamic simulation of thermal behaviour and sophisticated computational fluid dynamics models. Considering climate change scenarios predicted by the IPCC, a parametric study is carried out to assess the influence of climate change on the energy efficiency of light-weight steel residential buildings representative of a warm temperate summer dry climatic region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The vipers in the Vipera ( Acridophaga) ursinii complex are small-sized insectivorous snakes found in parts of central and southern Europe. Subspecies include Vipera ursinii ursinii, Vipera ursinii moldavica, Vipera ursinii macrops, Vipera ursinii rakosiensis, and Vipera ursinii graeca and are commonly known as the meadow vipers. These are the least known European Vipera from a clinical point of view. Methods. We identified cases of V. ursinii envenomations through three methods, including literature search in PubMed, ISI web of Knowldge, JSTOR, Biological Abstracts, Zoological Record, using the various combination of the following terms: snakebite, envenoming, bite, venom, ursinii, meadow viper, steppe viper (in English, French, Italian, Hungarian, Croatian, Serbian, Romanian), review of paper-based medical case records of hospitals in Hungary (four) and Romania (one) covering the 1970--July 2010 period, and personal communications of professional and amateur herpetologists studying V. ursinii and snake-handlers bitten by these snakes. Results. We identified 64 cases from subspecies: V. u. ursinii (14), V. u. moldavica (8), V. u. macrops (5), and V. u. rakosiensis (37). Forty-five bites were collected from the literature, 5 from hospitals, 10 cases were communicated by seven herpetologists and four cases by two snake keepers. Bites were mostly asymptomatic. Forty-five envenomings (70%%) resulted in mild and moderate local symptoms, involving pain with low-intensity, pruritus, numbness, swelling with or without erythema and/or local hematoma. Bullae (n == 3, 5%%), mild superficial necrosis (n == 4, 6%%), cellulitis (n == 1, 2%%), and moderately extended edema (n == 8, 13%%) of the bitten extremity rarely develop. Massive limb edema was recorded in eight (13%%) cases. The most common systemic symptoms were dizziness caused by transient hypotension and tachycardia. Gastrointestinal disorders (i.e. nausea, vomiting) were rare (n == 2, 3%%) compared to other Vipera, and probably triggered only by anxiety. Symptomatic and supportive therapy was applied in the relatively severe envenomings and antivenom therapy in six cases. Complete recovery ranged from 12 h to 2 weeks. Moderate and severe envenomings required significantly longer recovery. Application of first aid was associated with significantly longer recovery times. Neither the age (i.e. juvenile or adult) of the culprit specimen, nor the anatomical location of the bite determined the severity of symptoms. Conclusion. Professional and amateur herpetologists, and snake keepers are mainly at risk. Most V. ursinii bites do not require first aid or medical intervention, since only local symptoms develop and resolve spontaneously. The rare hospitalized cases require symptomatic and supportive treatment only. Antivenom therapy is not indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unfavourable evolution of social conditions and housing patterns of immigrants in contemporary Southern Europe challenges the association of social inclusion and integration with spatial dispersal. Recent housing and socio-urban changes, involving limited public-housing production and few opportunities for self-build housing, have triggered additional processes of socio-residential exclusion associated with peripheralisation, de-segregation in the context of urban renewal, and gentrification. Finally, the strength and specific composition of the major waves of immigrants in the 1990s and early 2000s have also contributed to narrowing migrants' access to the housing market and promoting distinctive patterns of settlement. Focusing on the six metropolises of Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Turin, Milan and Rome, we explore patterns and dynamics of socio-ethnic segregation in Southern Europe, paying particular attention to the processes of marginalisation through dispersal, and questioning the orthodox association between residential de-segregation and social inclusion. Despite data limitations and the fact that these examples may not be representative of all Southern European metropolises, this paper aims at a more accurate interpretation of the contemporary socio-urban dynamics associated with the presence of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has often been argued that Southern European countries are more familialistic in their culture than Western and Northern European countries. In this paper, we examine this notion by testing the hypothesis that adult children are more responsive to the needs of their elderly parents in countries with more familialistic attitudes. To test this hypothesis, we analyse the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We focus on three indicators of need: (a) the partner status of the parent, (b) the health status of the parent, and (c) the education of the parent. Using Heckman probit models, we examine the effects of these variables on whether or not the parent receives instrumental support from children, thereby controlling for whether or not children live independently from their parents. We estimate effects of need on support and we compare these effects across 10 European countries, using both graphic devices and a multilevel probit model where individuals are nested in countries. We find significant cross-level interactions of need variables and the degree of familialism in a country. Our analyses, thereby provide more positive evidence for the hypothesis than earlier studies, which have focused largely on comparing aggregate levels of support among countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing and residential marginalisation in Southern European cities represents the most critical and controversial of urban conditions for the settlement and inclusion of immigrants. However, these issues are conspicuously under-researched in both the international and Southern European comparative literature. The complexity of ethnic housing hardship and segregation is often de-problematised and misleadingly attributed solely to market mechanisms or inevitable polarisation dynamics. This paper reviews the distinctive features of ethnic residential segregation within wider societal and urban contexts, drawing on an analysis of eight Mediterranean cities with a special focus on the role of housing systems and processes of ethnic and social differentiation. Problems and drivers are reconceptualised within an holistic, comparative framework. It is demonstrated that low levels of ethnic spatial segregation conceal a real problem of social residential marginalisation. This paradox predominantly originates from macro-scale mechanisms of differentiation rooted in the welfare redistributive arrangements and dualist housing systems. It is additionally reinforced by current urban renewal strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today all European societies are experiencing far-reaching changes in work and employment as a result of global and technological transformations. The article aims at exploring the impact of these changes in South European employment patterns and structure. The evidence provided suggests that while Southern Europe follows the general trend towards service employment, employment growth is biased towards the lower end of services that are not very demanding in terms of skills and depend to a large extent on low pay and precarious job security. The paper argues that pre-existing institutional arrangements and economic structures typically found in the region shape the adjustment process and give rise to a South European pattern of employment growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the growing aspect of entrepreneurship associated with lifestyle-induced migration from wealthy countries, through investigating self-employment among expatriates from northern Europe in rural areas of southern France and Spain. Most expatriates had no prior experience of entrepreneurship and typically established their business opportunistically and some time after arrival. Based upon interviews with 41 expatriate households (operating 70 business ventures), the study explores the characteristics of the individuals involved, the nature of their businesses, factors influencing start-up, and processes and patterns of business development. Self-employment is shown to be the most effective available mechanism for supporting lifestyle objectives of expatriates who vary greatly in their skills, experience and resources. The study identifies significant differences between the respective groups from the two countries, reflecting the spatially differentiated character of migration in terms of age, education, qualifications and capital resources. These appear to have given rise to a more sophisticated profile of businesses in the French areas. Sharp differences in language skills as between the different countries are seen as influencing the ability of entrepreneurs to network with, and market to, the indigenous population, with implications for the future development of the businesses, and their local impact. The study seeks to augment standard conceptual approaches to entrepreneurship, through taking account of the primacy of the migration decision and specific related processes, and proposes a model that advances our understanding of the phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the origins and functions of the Swedish consular service in Southern Europe between 1720 and 1815. It is argued that establishment of the consular service was a necessary part of the Swedish policy of trade expansion. Consuls acted partly as commission agents of Swedish merchant and shipowners, because Sweden lacked established trading contacts in the area. Partly, consuls had official diplomatic functions, especially in North Africa. The consular service is conceived as an institutional arrangement reducing transaction costs of Swedish agents. This article suggests that reduction in protection costs in particular was a significant competitive advantage of Swedish merchants and shipowners and was due to peace treaties with the Barbary states in North Africa and Sweden's neutrality in the 18th‐century great power conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents results on the occurrence of three- (or more) needle dwarf shoots on two-needle pine species in southern and central Europe. The anomalous dwarf shoots were found on single individuals of Pinus halepensis and P. nigra from Greece, and on P. sylvestris from Spain. The significantly high level of frequency of individuals with at least one anomalous three-needle dwarf shoot were confirmed for P. mugo subsp. uncinata from western and for P. mugo subsp. mugo from central Europe. The frequency of individuals with anomalous dwarf shoots on the latter species in the Balkan populations is statistically significantly lower than in the Alpine, Sudethian and Carpathian ones. The highest frequencies of individuals with three-needle dwarf shoots on P. mugo subsp. mugo were found in the northernmost populations, in the Sudethian and west Carpathian ones, and in the locations near the upper limit of the species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses and discusses the patenting activity of Public Research Organizations (PROs) in Southern European countries. Despite the importance of the topic, studies about the European experience are rare. By using an original database of “American” (USPTO) and “European” (EPO) patents held by PROs in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece, we observe that the number of university patents in these countries has not increased dramatically during the last years, despite a growing interest at both European and national level during the same period. However, differences do exist among countries in terms of number of granted patents and regulative frameworks. With regard to PROs patenting strategies, we argue that PROs should be progressively able to adopt a “balanced” approach, in order to achieve co-existence between the traditional mechanisms of the so-called “open research system” and the more recent concerns about intellectual property protection, technology transfer and regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is analysis of the changing socio-spatial situation of immigrants in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area during the 1990s. The theoretical framing of this analysis is built on several bases: the metropolitan area's particular urban history and planning processes; the post-industrial features which are common to Southern European cities; the nature of the welfare system; and the specific characteristics of the Lisbon housing market. The analysis explores the links between the circumstances of different immigrant groups and contemporary urban social processes, such as polarisation, exclusion, residential segregation, and fragmentation of the urban social fabric. Regarding differential effects and processes across immigrant groups, two dimensions of comparison can be stressed: the distinction between the labour immigrants, mainly from Portuguese-speaking African countries, and highly-qualified migrants from the European Union; and a further distinction between the 'first wave' of labour migrants from Africa, whose numbers grew sharply after the decolonisation process of the mid-1970s, and whose migration still continues, and a 'second wave' made up mainly of East Europeans, Brazilians and some Asian groups, who arrived after 1999-2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces a series of articles on Southern Europe and the Balkans. Eastward expansion of the European Union on May 1, 2004; Economic, political and diplomatic relationship between Italy and its Eastern neighbors; Conflict between “official” and private memories in the former Yugoslavia.

The past was ubiquitous in South Eastern Europe in the 1990s. On the one hand, historical analogies were widely and tendentiously used by observers and participants to render comprehensible the numerous conflicts that scarred the region, as the scripting of the Kosovo war of 1999 as a re-run of the Second World War exemplified. On the other hand, 'history' was also commonly adduced as a significant factor actually causing those conflicts. Western policy-makers and pundits interpreted them as the product of ancient ethnic enmities unleashed by the collapse of communism, while indigenous nationalists concocted extravagant narratives of historical victimization and destiny to ground new identities and mobilize populations for war. These representations exerted an important influence upon trends in scholarship on the region through the same period. First, the long-term genealogies of western 'Balkanist' perceptions were elaborated by historians, anthropologists and literary critics. Second, nationalist mythologizing was deconstructed by scholars positing alternative socio-economic and political causes of the violence. Third, drawing on wider bodies of scholarship exploring the work of memory under and after state socialism and in relation to the trauma of war, connections between memory,identity and war in the region began to be scrutinized. Of particular interest here were the role of historical narratives in grounding national and other senses of identity, the efforts by nationalists to co-opt or stimulate private memories of past traumas and wrongdoings as part of these projects (including the broader issue of the resistance to or negotiation of would be dominant memories at local levels) and the question of the agency of 'history'. The papers within this collection, first delivered at a conference organized by the University of Wales Centre for the Study of South Eastern Europe in 2000, contribute to the growing body of scholarship on these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe’s response to the sovereign debt crisis in Southern Europe has been premised on the idea that these states can return to growth through internal devaluation and fiscal consolidation. This article explores the distributive consequences of that strategy in Greece, Portugal, Italy, and Spain. We argue that standard measures of poverty do not capture the deterioration in living standards as fully as anchored poverty. Moreover, we show that inequality trends conceal considerable re-ranking within the income distribution: those who were rich in 2012 had got richer in 2009–12, but those who were rich in 2009 lost ground in 2009–12. We find that in all four countries the new poor include significantly fewer pensioners and more unemployed workers, and are considerably poorer than the old poor had been. We demonstrate that there was significant variation in the magnitude and design of austerity, with Italy imposing a far smaller adjustment than Spain, and Portugal achieving less inequality in spite of robust fiscal consolidation. Nevertheless, even when austerity measures were designed to reduce inequality by compressing incomes downward, their second-order macro-economic effects ultimately increased inequality (except in Portugal). In the last section, we explore the political reasons for this variation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents a state of the art of the history of education in Western and Southern Europe by 'cutting together–apart' (Barad) 'knotting-s' (Ingold), in terms of both discipline formation and historiography across and beyond countries in these regions. It (dis)entangles national and regional particularities in terms of approaches, themes and constraints, and contributions to thriving international networks in the history of education. It sketches local trends and developments of the last 30 years and situates these within their differently evolving national and/or language-based disciplinary and institutional landscapes. Its snapshots of the history of education across the Benelux, Germany and Germanophone regions, the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and France highlight the contribution and interaction of national/linguistic intellectual traditions, institutional nodes of activity, (inter)disciplinary identities, methods and approaches, and vibrant scholarly communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to the issue by the guest editor, thanking contributing authors and describing the paper's common source from the "Divine Interventions: Politics of Change, Violence, and Memory in South-East Europe," held in June 2004 at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences.

We make the case for a technology-enabled approach to Smart Specialisation policymaking aimed at increasing its effectiveness by assessing the general equilibrium effects of the European Cohesion Policy objectives contained in the regional Operational Programmes prepared by the regional policymakers. We simulate the impact of achieving the research and development personnel targets on gross domestic product and its components in a set of Southern European regions. We discuss the implications and challenges of the proposed methodology for future assessments of Smart Specialisation and for its implementation in the regions of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socio-economic disadvantaged students are not equally vulnerable: some of them are defined as 'resilient' students because they are able to 'beat the odds' and achieve positive academic outcomes. Using data from the last two editions (2015 and 2018) of OECD-Programme for International Students Assessment, we aim to analyse the academic resilience (i.e. the 25% most socio-economically disadvantaged students who achieve an adequate level of proficiency in reading, science, and math) of native and immigrant-origin students. We focus attention on the comparison between resilient students in three Southern European countries (namely Greece, Italy, and Spain) that have only recently become destinations of migratory flows, and those in four North-western European countries (namely France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) characterised by consolidated migratory traditions. Empirical findings show that self-efficacy beliefs, positive home environment, and language attitudes at home promote good academic adjustments among immigrant-origin students. Furthermore, the 'double origin gap' (socio-economic and migratory) of students makes them more dependent on the school environment and climate than their native peers. Specific strategies at school may be further developed (such as improving extra-curricular activities) in Southern countries to promote the inclusion of migrants and reduce their vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the modification of limestone bedrock and fine-grained sediment within the Pleistocene glacial and proglacial environments of the Orjen massif in western Montenegro. We have characterised the fine-grained components of till and outwash using lithological and particle size data. Two main types of fine-grained outwash sediment have been recognised and each is associated with a distinctive meltwater route. Fine-grained sediments deposited downstream of bedrock gorges (type 1 meltwater route) typically display a bimodal particle size distribution, where the carbonate silt fraction (10-60 μm) has been depleted and non-carbonate silts become dominant. This probably reflects both physical sorting and corrosion of the fine-grained limestone sediment within the proglacial fluvial environment. The 10-60 μm component matches the particle size characteristics of typical loess. Fine-grained outwash deposits from directly in front of the former ice margin (type 2 meltwater route) show unimodal particle size distributions which more closely resemble the grain size characteristics of the glacial till, but they also show evidence of silt depletion. We argue that the fine-grained sediment exported from glaciated limestone catchments during the cold stages of the Pleistocene formed an important source of the carbonate-rich loess in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South European countries have been hit hardest and longest by the post-2008 economic crisis. This has brought their welfare states under acute strain. Unmet need has sharply increased while significant welfare reforms and (more or less) deep cuts and changes in social spending have been prominent in the repertoire of the crisis management solutions implemented by the governments (under European Union constraints and the strict rescue-deal requirements for Greece and Portugal). This introduction briefly reviews reform trends prior to and during the crisis in order to highlight convergent and divergent paths among the four countries and outline the major questions addressed by the contributions to this volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discussion on the existence of a distinctive ‘Mediterranean’ welfare model has focused on the historical and politico-institutional dynamics, as well as on the policy traits of the welfare arrangements found in Southern European countries. Particular attention has been given to the external pressures and internal constraints faced by the welfare systems of these countries, as well as to what extent there is a common response to such challenges. In this article, we claim that while researchers were embarked in this scholarly effort, Southern European societies kept changing, transforming the nature of existing arrangements in not always forecasted directions, to the point of questioning the adequacy of clustering them under a common type. The current context of economic and financial crisis introduces additional factors in the process of transformation and reform of the welfare schemes of these countries, placed at the epicentre of the turmoil shattering European economies and societies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article investigates why, despite similar background conditions, Greece has been the site of frequent, highly visible, fringe, anti-system politics and street riots, while similar phenomena are rare in Spain. Although the article's focal point is the eruption of the December 2008 riots in Athens, it sheds light on the two countries' diverse social reactions to the sovereign debt crisis. Deploying the tool of media framing, it argues that historical legacies and political cultures matter. In the Greek case, the transition to democracy shaped a political ‘culture of sympathy’ towards acts of resistance to the state, a culture that has been institutionalised since the mid-1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There are many superficial reasons to believe that the Italian political system does not work in a satisfactory way. In this paper, we explore three different areas: parties and the party system; the governments; and the satisfaction of Italian citizens with their politics and their personal life. We utilize a variety of data to illustrate the most important points and we do so comparing Italy with Greece, Portugal and Spain. Practically, on all measures and indicators Italy remains quite different from the other three Southern European countries. Though there have been some improvements, especially when we compare two rather different phases of the Italian Republic: 1945-93 and 1994 up to now, not only are there still unsolved problems, but the most important changes do not appear to be stabilized and could quite easily be reversed as we explain rather succinctly. In sum, Italy remains an outlier and the explanation for the persistent difficulties must still be looked for and can be found in the fragmentation of the party system and in the instability of the coalition governments. Hence, the dissatisfaction of Italian citizens with the working of their political system appears to be fully justified, even more so when seen in a Southern European comparative perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests that EU governance in Southeastern Europe reproduces a discourse in which the failures and problems which have emerged, especially in relation to the pace of integration and the sustainability of peace in candidate member states such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, have merely reinforced the EU's external governance agenda. On the one hand, the limitations of reform have reinforced the EU's projection of its power as a civilising mission into what is perceived to be a dangerous vacuum in the region. On the other hand, through the discourse of post-liberal governance, the EU seeks to avoid the direct political responsibilities associated with this power. Rather than legitimise policy making on the basis of representative legitimacy, post-liberal frameworks of governance problematise autonomy and self-government, inverting the liberal paradigm through establishing administrative and regulatory frameworks as prior to democratic choices. This process tends to distance policy making from representative accountability, weakening the legitimacy of governing institutions in Southeastern European states which have international legal sovereignty but lack genuine mechanisms for politically integrating society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional cooperation in South East Europe is at a crossroads. Until now, it has been largely ascribed by outside forces, perceived as a condition related to the EU integration process, and approached from a state-based viewpoint as an interstate construct. However, there are emergent trends which reframe regional cooperation as 'open regionalism', more achieved from within, and consisting of multi-actor, multilevel and multi-scalar processes forming a complex geometry of interlocking networks, with variable reach and multiple nodal points. This text critically explores these trends, addressing some of their cross-border, transnational and interregional dimensions, in the context of wider processes of regional integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the high rate of exports from Greece and explores the Greek economy and the export behavior of Greek firms. The reasons why Greek companies are exporting to southeast Europe are examined and the factor analysis technique is used to analyze these reasons. Details are provided about the performance of Greek companies that export and enter into the markets in southeast Europe. The fields that Greek firms invest in, including telecommunications, manufacturing, and finance services, are also described.

Discusses several articles about economic, industrial and trade developments in Southern Europe and the Balkans, published in the 'Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans'. Assessment of key policies with the objective of helping establish a soundly based industrial structure in the transition states of Slovenia, Poland and Bulgaria; Response of small and medium businesses to competitive pressures.

This article examines how the news media framed the allegations made in 2016 against Cristiano Ronaldo for evading taxes through offshores, and how audiences discussed this online, in Portugal, where he is originally from, and Spain, where he played football at the time. These countries were amidst an "austerity culture" justifying welfare cuts, promoting entrepreneurialism as "success", and presenting neoliberal policies as "common sense". Our analysis reveals Ronaldo portrayed as a member of the economic elite criticized for the high earnings of football players and celebrity tax privileges; as an ungrateful immigrant who does not contribute enough to society; and as "one like us" maneuvering to evade taxes. The comparative analysis shows audiences had double standards based on their feelings toward the celebrity, and they interpreted this case positively or negatively in relation to the inefficiency of the fiscal and justice systems in Southern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses the topic of the issue, "The Black Sea Region in Focus," as well as various reports within the issue on the social and political conditions of the Black Sea region including articles by Panayotis Gavras, Mitat Celikpala, and Johanna Deimel.