European urban spaces in crisis - the mapping of affective pracitices with Living with Difference: introduction

The introduction outlines the notion of urban space and crisis in Europe while taking into account the more recent protests and riots in different cities, in and beyond Europe. It is argued that the phenomen of protest is happening alongside the economic crisis underscoring an alternative political public civic spirit expressing to a certain degree the renaissance and timely making of, what might be called in the digital age, #œuvre. Its forces and emotional properties capture a political realm that unfolds as a globalized urban transnational public space, still progressing. Further, it introduces the collection of papers for the special themed feature. Five papers look at affective practices through a Continental European lens, which places the meaning of race, migration and intersecting identity angles at the centre of debates of individual encounters in public spaces. The final and sixth paper, written by Brenda Yeoh, looks through a Singapore/East Asia lens, and comments on the common European threats as well as on the historical specificity and implications of distinctive geo-political spaces for affective practices.

Reforming the Westminster Model of Agency Governance: Britain and Ireland after the Crisis

Conventional understandings of what the Westminster model implies anticipate reliance on a top-down, hierarchical approach to budgetary accountability, reinforced by a post–New Public Management emphasis on recentralizing administrative capacity. This article, based on a comparative analysis of the experiences of Britain and Ireland, argues that the Westminster model of bureaucratic control and oversight itself has been evolving, hastened in large part due to the global financial crisis. Governments have gained stronger controls over the structures and practices of agencies, but agencies are also key players in securing better governance outcomes. The implication is that the crisis has not seen a return to the archetypal command-and-control model, nor a wholly new implementation of negotiated European-type practices, but rather a new accountability balance between elements of the Westminster system itself that have not previously been well understood.

Economic Stability and Economic Governance in the Euro Area:What the European Crisis Can Teach on the Limits of Economic Integration

The recent European economic crisis has dramatically exposed the failures of
the various institutional mechanisms in place to maintain economic stability
in Europe, and has unveiled the difficulty in achieving international coordination
on fiscal and financial stability policies. Drawing on the European
experience, this article analyzes the concept of economic stability in international
law and highlights the peculiar problems connected to its maintenance
or promotion. First, we demonstrate that policies that safeguard and
protect economic stability are largely regulated and managed at the national
level, due to their inextricable relationship with the exercise of national political
power. Until recently, more limited levels of pan-European integration
did not make the coordination of economic stability policies seem necessary.
However, a much deeper level of economic integration makes it very difficult
to tackle an international economic crisis through national responses. If EU
Member states wish to maintain and deepen economic integration, they
must accept an erosion of sovereignty over their economic stability policies.
This will not only deprive states of a fundamental anchor of political power,
but also create a challenge for the maintenance of democratic control over
economic policies. Second, this article argues that soft law approaches are
likely ineffective in enforcing the regulatory disciplines required to ensure
economic stability.

Thanking the Greeks: The Crisis of the Rule of Law in EU Enlargement Regulation

This paper showcases the weaknesses of EU enlargement law and demonstrates how one Member State – namely, Greece – is notable for abusing this weakness, for harming the candidate countries, the EU, and the institutions alike, for stripping the EU position of its predictability, and for undermining the EU Commission’s efforts. Accordingly, Greece has severely incapacitated the key procedural rule of law component of the EU’s enlargement regulation, turning it into a randomised political game and ignoring any long-term goals of stability, prosperity, and peace that the process is to stand for. Following a walk through Greece’s engagement throughout a number of enlargement rounds, the paper concludes that the duty of loyalty – which is presumably able to discipline Member States that undermine the common effort – should find a new meaning in the context of EU enlargement.

Mismatches and matches in address information from the Census and the BSO: A longitudinal perspective 2001-2011

Accurate address information from health service providers is fundamental for the effective delivery of health care and population monitoring and screening. While it is currently used in the production of key statistics such as internal migration estimates, it will become even more important over time with the 2021 Census of UK constituent countries integrating administrative data to enhance the quality of statistical outputs. Therefore, it is beneficial to improve understanding of the accuracy of address information held by health service providers and factors that influence this. This paper builds upon previous research on the social geography of address mismatch between census and health service records in Northern Ireland. It is based on the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study; this is a large data linkage study including about 28 per cent of the Northern Ireland population, which is matched between the census (2001, 2011) and Health Card Registration System maintained by the Health and Social Care Business Service Organisation (BSO). This research compares address information from the Spring 2011 BSO download (Unique Property Reference Number, Super Output Area) with comparable geographic information from the 2011 Census. Multivariate and multilevel analyses are used to assess the individual and ecological determinants of match/mismatch between geographical information in both data sources to determine if the characteristics of the associated people and places are the same as the position observed in 2001. It is important to understand if the same people are being inaccurately geographically referenced in both Census years or if the situation is more variable.

Eurozone Network Connectedness During Calm and Crisis: Evidence from the MTS Platform for Interdealer Trading of European Sovereign Debt

This paper examines the connectedness of the Eurozone sovereign debt market over the period 2005–2011. By employing measures built from the variance decompositions of approximating models we are able to define weighted, directed networks that enable a deeper understanding of the relationships between the Eurozone countries. We find that connectedness in the Eurozone was very high during the calm market conditions preceding the global financial crisis but decreased dramatically when the crisis took hold, and worsened as the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis emerged. The drop in connectedness was especially prevalent in the case of the peripheral countries with some of the most peripheral countries deteriorating into isolation. Our results have implications for both market participants and regulators.

Revisiting intersectionality for EU Anti-Discrimination Law in an economic crisis –a critical legal studies perspective

This article discusses the role of EU anti-discrimination law in challenging EU anti-crisis measures from a critical legal studies perspective. Critical legal scholarship is defined through its challenge of ‘lex’ through the vision of ‘ius’ and its critical links with social movements. EU anti-discrimination law attracts critique for constituting a compartmentalised socio-legal field, which prevents justice for those at intersections of inequalities. By defining as the aim of anti-discrimination law the combat of disadvantage resulting from ascribed otherness around the nodes sex/gender, race/ethnicity, and disability, the article suggests a convincing normative vision suitable to de-compartmentalise the field and adequately address intersectionality. This critical legal perspective on intersectionality differs from its sociological counterparts by omitting class as a category. The article demonstrates that this distinction is necessary for EU anti-discrimination law to maintain its critical edge.

(Des)encontros com a realidade: a trajectória profissional dos licenciados em ensino básico : 1º ciclo formados pelas instituições de ensino superior público do Alentejo entre os anos de 2001 e 2003

A problemática que constitui o ponto de partida do presente estudo evidencia a importância de se conhecer e compreender a forma como se processa a inserção profissional dos recém-diplomados em Ensino Básico - 1º Ciclo. De entre distintas ópticas possíveis, considerou-se importante assumir, como elemento estratégico deste processo, e na linha do pensamento de M. Alves (2001), o entendimento de que o processo de inserção profissional assume um carácter dinâmico, que envolve três actores fundamentais: os diplomados, os empregadores e os estabelecimentos de ensino superior. É tendo como base de trabalho esta perspectiva (conceito de inserção profissional articulado com o paradigma da aprendizagem ao longo da vida) que se edifica o presente estudo, estruturando-se em quatro partes. A primeira delas visa, embora não de forma exclusiva, a explanação dos principais referenciais teóricos relativos à temática em questão; a segunda parte explicita as opções metodológicas adoptadas; a terceira debruça-se sobre a análise e interpretação dos resultados e a quarta remete para algumas conclusões que emergiram de todo o processo de investigação empreendido. Procurando desenvolver-se uma investigação descritiva assente numa metodologia integrada e complementar com abordagens qualitativas e quantitativas, a recolha de dados incide num questionário e numa entrevista, tendo-se sempre em consideração os objectivos subjacentes ao estudo e optando-se, para tal, como sujeitos, pelos licenciados em Ensino Básico - 1.° Ciclo que realizaram a sua formação nas instituições formadoras do Alentejo (Escolas Superiores de Beja e Portalegre e Universidade de Évora), no período compreendido entre 2001 e 2003. As trajectórias profissionais destes licenciados ficam marcadas por sentimentos de ilusão, incerteza e indignação, mas também por um forte sentimento de frustração. Não foi pacífico, para muitos deles, aceitar que a realização do curso não lhes conferiu o acesso ao emprego esperado. A sua maioria encontrava-se integrada em sectores profissionais que não estavam directamente relacionados com o curso ou, então, permaneciam desempregados. A esperança de virem a exercer a profissão docente parecia ser cada vez mais ténue. /***Abstract - The problem that constitutes the start of the present study emphasizes the importance of knowing and understanding the way it proceeds the professional insertion of the new graduates of the Ensino Básico — V Ciclo (primary school).Between several visions, it has been important, as a strategic element of this process and following the line of M. Alves (2001), the understanding that the professional insertion assumes a dynamic character, that envolves three fundamental elements: the graduates, the employers and. the universities. This study, structured in four parts, is based in the concept that links profession insertion with life long learning. The purpose of the first part is to expose, not in an exclusive way, the several theories connected with the theme in question the second part explains the methodology used; the third consists of the analysis and interpretation of the results and the fourth and. last one, exposes some conclusions that carne out of the investigation process. It has been tried in this study to develop a descriptive investigation, based on an integrated and complementary methodology that includes a qualitative and quantitative analysis. Therefore, the gathering of data is based on a questionnaire and an interview. Always considering the underlying objectives of the study, we have chosen, as subjects, the graduates in Ensino Básico - 1º Ciclo that performed their formation in the institutes of Alentejo (Escola Superior de Educação de Beja, Escola Superior de Educação de Portalegre e Universidade de Évora), in the period between 2001 and. 2003. The professional trajectory of these graduates is full of uncertainty, indignation and also full of strong feelings of frustration. It was not easy for many of them to accept that the course they have completed doesn't open the doors for the job they've dreamed of and expected. The majority was integrated in professional areas not directly connected with their course or then remained unemployed. The hope of becoming teachers was turning more and more tenuous.

Convergência regional na União Europeia: evidência para o período 1990-2001

Tendo em conta que um dos principais objectivos da União Europeia é a aproximação dos níveis de vida dos cidadãos europeus, este trabalho testa a hipótese de convergência entre as regiões NUTS II da União Europeia no período de 1990 a 2001, através da análise da dispersão e estimação de regressões “tipo Barro” que relacionam o crescimento com o nível de rendimento inicial e outras variáveis. Identifica os factores que explicam as diferenças regionais no produto per capita, produtividade e produto por pessoa com idade para trabalhar, mostrando as diferenças de resultados consoante a variável utilizada. Os resultados mostram a existência de convergência do produto per capita e do produto por trabalhador, mas não do produto por pessoa com idade para trabalhar, uma vez que a evolução da demografia tem-se mostrado favorável à redução das disparidades, mas o emprego não. Procura também avaliar se a eligibilidade das regiões como “objectivo 1”, no âmbito da política comunitária, permitiu um maior crescimento das mesmas. Encontra ainda evidência de convergência condicional entre as regiões da UE, com o dinamismo das regiões vizinhas a terem um impacto positivo na velocidade de convergência regional, mostrando-nos a importância do investimento em acessibilidades que tornem as regiões periféricas cada vez mais próximas dos grandes centros económicos.