Vivienda obrera en Bilbao y el Bajo Nervión: las casas baratas, una nueva forma de alojamiento (1911-1936)

A finales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX la provincia de Vizcaya despuntó en el contexto internacional como importe centro extractor de mineral de hierro y como relevante foco productor siderometalúrgico. Las explotaciones mineras se adueñaron de los Montes de Triano y las fábricas conquistaron las márgenes del Río Nervión, arrastrando tras de sí una densa marea humana. Alojar a esa población se convirtió en una cuestión de primer orden. Paralelamente, las instituciones estatales desbordadas por problemas similares en otros puntos de la geografía española, idearon y pusieron en práctica un complejo engranaje administrativo para erigir las primeras viviendas sociales. Así, las denominadas Casas Baratas fueron la respuesta oficial a la insuficiencia de vivienda obrera y Vizcaya fue una de las provincias donde mayor desarrollo tuvieron este tipo de propuestas constructivas. De este modo, la presente investigación comienza indagando sobre el origen de la problemática en Bilbao y la Cuenca del Bajo Nervión, para después repasar las medidas adoptadas por el Estado y la Diputación de Vizcaya en esta materia. Hecho esto, se da paso a un concienzudo repaso de las características principales de la edificación de Casas Baratas en toda la provincia de Vizcaya, descendiendo, posteriormente, a la realidad de Bilbao, Baracaldo, Sestao, Portugalete, Guecho y Erandio, haciendo hincapié en las inquietudes locales. El estudio finaliza con un ejercicio comparativo con las Casas Baratas de Barcelona, Sabadell y Tarrasa, estableciéndose similitudes y divergencias con el foco industrial más importante del momento en el panorama nacional.

Os Ministros da Educação Nacional (1936-1974). Sociologia de uma Função

Entre 1936 e 1974, período que corresponde à maior parte da história do Estado Novo, as questões relativas à educação estiveram sob a alçada do ministério da Educação Nacional, que substituiu o ministério da Instrução Pública. Este artigo pretende caracterizar os homens que, nesse mesmo período, desempenharam a função de ministros da Educação Nacional. Serão estudados aspectos como as gerações a que pertenciam, a respectiva formação académica e os cursus honorum, sempre em comparação com os restantes membros do governo de Portugal.

Contemporary social variations in household water use, management strategies and awareness under conditions of 'water stress': the case of Greater Amman Jordan

One of the distinctive characteristics of the water supply system of Greater Amman, the capital of Jordan, is that it has been based on a regime of rationing since 1987, with households receiving water once a week for various durations. This reflects the fact that while Amman's recent growth has been phenomenal, Jordan is one of the ten most water-scarce nations on earth. Amman is highly polarised socio-economically, and by means of household surveys conducted in both high- and low-income divisions of the city, the aim has been to provide detailed empirical evidence concerning the storage and use if water, the strategies used by households to manage water and overall satisfactions with water supply issues, looking specifically at issues of social equity. The analysis demonstrates the social costs of water rationing and consequent household management to be high, as well as emphasising that issues of water quality are of central importance to all consumers.

Predicted soil organic carbon stocks and changes in Jordan between 2000 and 2030 made using the GEFSOC modelling system

Estimates of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and changes under different land use systems can help determine vulnerability to land degradation. Such information is important for countries in and areas with high susceptibility to desertification. SOC stocks, and predicted changes between 2000 and 2030, were determined at the national scale for Jordan using The Global Environment Facility Soil Organic Carbon (GEFSOC) Modelling System. For the purpose of this study, Jordan was divided into three natural regions (The Jordan Valley, the Uplands and the Badia) and three developmental regions (North, Middle and South). Based on this division, Jordan was divided into five zones (based on the dominant land use): the Jordan Valley, the North Uplands, the Middle Uplands, the South Uplands and the Badia. This information was merged using GIS, along with a map of rainfall isohyets, to produce a map with 498 polygons. Each of these was given a unique ID, a land management unit identifier and was characterized in terms of its dominant soil type. Historical land use data, current land use and future land use change scenarios were also assembled, forming major inputs of the modelling system. The GEFSOC Modelling System was then run to produce C stocks in Jordan for the years 1990, 2000 and 2030. The results were compared with conventional methods of estimating carbon stocks, such as the mapping based SOTER method. The results of these comparisons showed that the model runs are acceptable, taking into consideration the limited availability of long-term experimental soil data that can be used to validate them. The main findings of this research show that between 2000 and 2030, SOC may increase in heavily used areas under irrigation and will likely decrease in grazed rangelands that cover most of Jordan giving an overall decrease in total SOC over time if the land is indeed used under the estimated forms of land use. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Experimental crop growing in Jordan to develop methodology for the identification of ancient crop irrigation

Crop irrigation has long been recognized as having been important for the evolution of social complexity in several parts of the world. Structural evidence for water management, as in the form of wells, ditches and dams, is often difficult to interpret and may be a poor indicator of past irrigation that may have had no need for such constructions. It would be of considerable value, therefore, to be able to infer past irrigation directly from archaeo-botanical remains, and especially the type of archaeo-botanical remains that are relatively abundant in the archaeological record, such as phytoliths. Building on the pioneering work of Rosen and Wiener (1994), this paper describes a crop-growing experiment designed to explore the impact of irrigation on the formation of phytoliths within cereals. If it can be shown that a systemic and consistent relationship exists between phytolith size, structure and the intensity of irrigation, and if various taphonomic and palaeoenvironmental processes can be controlled for, then the presence of past irrigation can feasibly be inferred from the phytoliths recovered from the archaeological record.