From a Given to a Construct

The transition towards a cognitive and post-industrial economy has led to the emergence of new strategies of capture of the immanent productive capacities of the social forces. Heritage entities are subject to, and also participate in, processes by which common creativity and knowledge are being harnessed by novel forms of rent and control. The objective of this paper was to show that conceiving heritage as a common situated in specific contexts rather than as a universal essence can open up novel epistemological spheres of communication between different knowledge practices. Also, it can help bridge some ontological gaps among the various stakeholders in the arena of heritage, such as academics, managers, architects, local communities and market forces. This entails considering heritage as an emergent material and immaterial construction process involving many different agents. Currently, these processes tend towards the privatization of common values and the shattering of local communities. Normally, this situation entails a fundamental alienation between objects and subjects, and the reification of heritage. This paper suggests that considering heritage as a common could provide a different perspective to tackle this crucial problem. Accordingly, scholars should not only be bound to a critical discursive stance, but should also commit to ‘ontological politics’ that would situate them as mediators between the global hierarchies of value generated by heritage and the common productive potential of local communities.     

Beyond the Disciplinary Role of Governance: How Boards Add Value to Spanish Foundations

Due to the significant role of non‐profit organizations in the development of modern societies, these organizations must adjust their boardrooms. Since traditional theories of corporate governance appear to be limited in explaining the changing non‐profit world, we propose an extended model of governance that integrates the traditional arguments of agency theory with a cognitive dimension. Based on a sample of Spanish foundations, we present evidence on the effect of the board composition on foundations' organizational efficiency. We show that board size and independence do not have a definitive effect on the entity's efficiency. Instead, the knowledge diversity inside the boardroom and the active character of trustees have a positive influence on resource allocation. The cognitive dimension of the extended model of governance is critical to explaining how boards impact on organizational performance.     

Effect of product and geographic diversification on company performance: Evidence during an economic crisis

Based on a novel sample of Spanish listed companies from nonfinancial sectors, we explore the effect of product and geographic diversification on company performance during an economic downturn. The study develops comprehensive models to understand the interaction effect of both strategies on company performance. We find a U-shaped geographic diversification–performance relationship and no evidence of a positive effect from product diversification, unless combined with high levels of geographic diversification. The results show that companies improved their performance by combining these strategies. The results are robust after controlling for the endogeneity of both types of diversification. Our findings highlight that geographic diversification is an effective and valuable strategy in economic downturns. Furthermore, this study confirms the importance of the interaction between product and geographic diversification to determine the total effect of product or geographic diversification on company performance.     

Spatial Analysis of the Relationship Between a Life Quality Index,HDI and Poverty in the Province of Buenos Aires and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires,Argentina

The study of Quality of Life, Poverty and Human Development shares several elements. Nonetheless, while poverty is a measure of “lack” based on a set of basic need variables (unsatisfied basic needs—UBN), human development index (HDI) is derived from the notion of human capabilities. Quality of Life, however, is a measure of achievement. Our goal is to analyze the degree of spatial correspondence between a life quality index (LQI) and the other indices by using bivariate spatial autocorrelation with its global and local values. The comparison of these three indicators at a municipal level in the province of Buenos Aires and in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (the Federal Capital of Argentina) reveals a medium spatial correspondence which leaves room for discussion about the scope and limitations of the indicators. HDI and UBN have a similar spatial configuration while the LQI yields a more fragmented distribution associated to the complexity of its variables, dimension and weights.     

On “lab rats”

Experimental subjects usually self-select to the laboratory and this may introduce a bias to the conclusions derived from observing their behavior. We analyze data stored by a subject-pool management program at an experimental laboratory and speculate about the effect of individual decisions on returning. Specifically, we test whether experience and earnings in previous sessions together with demographic variables explain the decision to return to the laboratory. We find that males and (in monetary terms) well-performing subjects are more likely to participate in experiments again.     

Inducing efficient conditional cooperation patterns in public goods games, an experimental investigation

This study analyses the behavior in a repeated public goods game when subjects know about the possibility of existence of strict conditional cooperators. We employed a baseline treatment and a threat treatment in which subjects are informed about the possibility of being in a group together with automata playing a grim trigger strategy. We conjecture the resulting game allows for almost fully efficient outcomes. Contributions in the threat treatment increase by 40% before a surprise restart, and by 50% after the surprise restart. In line with the grim trigger strategy subjects contribute either all or nothing in the threat treatment.     

Cities and the state in Spain

Conclusions Leaving aside details and qualifications, the major turning point in relations between cities and the monarchy occurred during the second half of the sixteenth century. The cities paid a very high price for their initial support of the crown. The more the logic of imperial power took over, the less cities had any chance of developing on their own. Nonetheless, they never became simple toys in royal hands. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, as the power of Genoan financiers declined, the monarchy tried again to obtain the support of cities, which finally gave in - at a price. The most crucial price of all was the imposition on the crown of a fiscal system (the servicios de millones) that was even more favorable than the alcabala to the cities having votes in the Cortes. Furthermore, the millones placed severe restrictions on the monarch's use of the funds; from that point on, the monarch had to avert his eyes from the procedures the privileged cities used to collect the taxes that constituted his principal ordinary revenues.Unlike the French case, the Spanish experience, as seen from Castile, did not end with the complete submission of cities to the monarchy's expansive centralization. Yet we must recognize that the cities never tried to create a form of political organization that could have been a Castilian version of the urban republics. Formally the situation unfolded as a series of ritual confrontations in the Cortes, where each of the parties was well aware of its limits. With that balance of forces, any attempt to enhance state power the monarchy tried to initiate could only succeed with the approval of the cities.This series of intermediate barriers meant that the process by which communities became subject to statist royal power was halting and indirect. In addition, great administrative decisions became diluted when they entered the interlocked network formed by local urban authorities. Not until the first half of the eighteenth century, after the liquidation of Spain's imperial territories elsewhere in Europe, can we speak of the consolidation of an administrative monarchy, a true predecessor of what one day would become a Spanish state.     

Spanish Language Self-Efficacy Beliefs Among Spanish-Speaking Social Workers: Implications for Social Work Education

Limited research exists about Spanish-speaking social workers that provide bilingual social work services. To date, studies have not exclusively focused on actual language competence of bilingual social workers or even their self-perceived language beliefs. This study reviews the results of a cross-sectional Internet-based survey exploring self-perceived Spanish language skills of bilingual social workers. The nationwide sample consisted of 321 participants who self-rated their self-efficacy Spanish language skills in relation to 5 social work competency categories. Results indicate that the language that participants reported speaking at home versus at work was significantly associated with the self-efficacy ratings. These associations along with implications for social work education are discussed.     

‘The whole is always smaller than its parts’ – a digital test of Gabriel Tardes' monads

In this paper we argue that the new availability of digital data sets allows one to revisit Gabriel Tarde's (1843–1904) social theory that entirely dispensed with using notions such as individual or society. Our argument is that when it was impossible, cumbersome or simply slow to assemble and to navigate through the masses of information on particular items, it made sense to treat data about social connections by defining two levels: one for the element, the other for the aggregates. But once we have the experience of following individuals through their connections (which is often the case with profiles) it might be more rewarding to begin navigating datasets without making the distinction between the level of individual component and that of aggregated structure. It becomes possible to give some credibility to Tarde's strange notion of ‘monads’. We claim that it is just this sort of navigational practice that is now made possible by digitally available databases and that such a practice could modify social theory if we could visualize this new type of exploration in a coherent way.