The role of foreign direct investment in an old industrial region: The case of the Basque country and Japanese FDI

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been used as a tool to improve the competitiveness of countries or regions affected by a structural crisis focused in the industrial sector. Spain, in general, has implemented this strategy successfully. However, the inflows of FDI in Spain have been concentrated in the most dynamic regions: Madrid and Catalonia especially. The Basque Country, typified as a declining old industrial region, has not benefited from this inflow owing to its low attraction for foreign investors. Furthermore, the sectors in which FDI is located are mature ones. The result is that FDI in Spain is increasing the gap between the growing and the declining regions. This fact is clearly detected when the case of Japanese FDI is analysed: Japanese FDI in the Basque Country is scarce and marginal when compared with that directed to the regions of Madrid and Catalonia.     

Conflicting nationalist traditions and immigration: the Basque case from 1950 to 1980

Immigration from the different regions in Spain to the Basque Country has traditionally opposed Basque and Spanish nationalism. This article provides an overview of the discourse of both nationalist traditions with respect to the intra‐regional migration movement of the second half of the twentieth century as well as of the resulting controversy. Whereas the Basque nationalist movement claims to have defended the need to integrate immigrants since the middle of the twentieth century, particularly through politics, Spanish nationalism claims that Basque nationalism has helped marginalise these same immigrants. A qualitative analysis is used to contrast this controversy by consulting the opinion of the Spanish immigrants who settled in the Basque Country and did not avail of the political integration proposed by Basque nationalism. The main conclusion is that these immigrants tend to avoid the heart of the matter of discord between both nationalist traditions, granting little importance to political and cultural elements though stressing their social integration in the Basque Country.     

Persistence of innovative activities in times of crisis: the case of the Basque Country

By drawing on a large sample of Spanish manufacturing and service sector firms, the changes in firms’ innovation expenditures that have taken place since the onset of the 2008 economic crisis are analysed, as is the relationship between such changes and the location of the company. Special focus is placed on firms in the Basque Country. Compared to other Spanish regions, the Basque Country differs in terms of its fiscal status, its earlier experience of crises, its innovation performance and its greater focus on innovation-related policies. Our results show that the impact of the crisis on firms’ innovation expenditures in the Basque Country has indeed differed from that in comparable Spanish regions. Even after controlling for sectoral differences and for detailed characteristics at the firm level, firms with R&D employment in the Basque Country showed a significantly lower probability of abandoning innovation activities and even a somewhat higher probability of increasing their innovation efforts. This regional effect is especially significant for small and medium-sized enterprises.     

The historical dynamics of ethnic conflicts: confrontational nationalisms,democracy and the Basques in contemporary Spain*

ABSTRACT. All the historical moments in which the Basque debate reached political protagonism in contemporary Spain coincided with political contexts of institutional democratisation. The debate on patriotism in the Basque Country is connected with a uniform narrative regarding the Basques and their moral distance from the Spanish nation: the ‘Basque problem’. This narrative has fostered a confrontational discourse between Spanish and Basque nationalism. It has also promoted recourse to specific stereotypical images of the Basques, which bind ethnicity to collective identity. Such representations reveal that the invention of the Basque country as a uniform ethnic collective had much more to do with the internal contradictions of Spanish national identity – and later of Basque identity – than with the existence of a secular conflict between Basques and Spaniards. The Basque case shows that every ‘ethnic conflict’ requires adequate contextualisation in order to avoid simplifying its origins and past pathways to make it conform to present uses.     

Nested or exclusive? The role of identities on blame attribution during the Great Recession

Despite an increasing number of studies assessing the importance of institutions as regards to accountability, it still remains to be known whether and how an individual's national and regional identity shapes the attribution of responsibilities in multi‐level settings. By focusing on the economic crisis that affected Europe since 2008, we argue that identity‐based assessments of responsibility for the crisis will occur solely among individuals who hold exclusively national or regional identities and who live in regions that have nationalist aspirations. This will be in contrast to individuals that have exclusively identities who live in regions that lack nationalist aspirations, as well as dual‐identity individuals, irrespective of where they live. We test our arguments by using data from Catalonia and Madrid (Spain) and Bavaria and Lower Saxony (Germany). In line with our expectations, our results show that, in minority nationalist regions such as Catalonia, an individual's identity will crucially determine which level of government is blamed for the economic crisis, while this will not occur in regions with no nationalist aspirations. The article reveals the existence of an additional determinant of blame attribution in some specific multi‐level arrangements and contributes to the understanding of the tensions between identity politics and blame avoidance.     

Panorama of the Basque Country and its Competence for Self-Government

The aim of this article is to present a panoramic view of the Basque Country's capacity and competence for self-government. We have analysed the historical process of industrialization, the effects of the industrial crisis and new possibilities for development of the area's own regional policy based on new institutions (Government and Provincial Councils) that emerged from administrative decentralization in Spain after 1980. In the following section, we analyse the scope of authority in EU regions. Some of the cultural and transport infrastructure projects backed by these Basque institutions are studied. These projects have had a considerable impact on the Bilbao Metropolitan Area. The changes observed in the nation state, specifically in Europe, show contradictory effects. However, they have reduced the State's sovereignty but at the same time have prompted the State to retain powers rather than transfer them to lower institutional levels. This clashes with the desire of some regions or historical nations to access greater shares of self-government, such as the case of the Basque Country.     

Regional Network for Quality Promotion: A Case-study of the Basque Country

Quality promotion as a means of improving competitiveness is a major objective in many countries. This paper examines successful practices in the Basque Country over an 11-year period, with a view to shedding light on the theoretical literature. Research on policy networks has produced useful results but we are still some way from a plausible, consensus-based theory of policy networks. Based on experience in the Basque Country, an integrated approach to understanding the antecedents and consequences of a regional knowledge-driven network for quality promotion is offered. Other regions in developing countries could use this approach to achieve successful policy networks. Although Total Quality Management implementation in public sector entities has been studied before, evidence about Regional Quality Promotion experiences is scarce.     

Measuring structural social capital in a cluster policy network: insights from the Basque Country

Cluster Associations (CAs) attempt to promote competitiveness through inter-firm collaboration, and are generally seen as drivers of social capital formation in the region. We map in this paper, by using Social Network Analysis, the cluster policy network of the Basque Country in 2013, which may be considered a proxy of the structural dimension of social capital in the region. Besides, we identify the central agents of this network and attempt to explain the reasons for their centrality and the roles that they play. We take the affiliation of an organization to at least two CAs as a first indicator of the overall pattern of connections within the cluster policy network. Later on, we filter it with data about the Boards of Directors of CAs, and the Basque Contact Points created to concur with the Seventh Framework Programme for Research launched by the European Commission. We contend that those organizations that are present in these three networks form a ‘small world’ that numerous studies have shown to be favourable for creative output, where they might play a dual role of gatekeepers of knowledge and innovation within and between clusters and drivers of bridging social capital formation in the Basque Country.     

‘It broadens your view of being Basque’: identity through history,branding, and cultural policy

The purpose of the paper is to address what is the impact of the synthesis between Basque history, branding identity and Law 8/1994 on Basque identity in the homeland and Diaspora. Naturally occurring brands combine history, anthropology, sociology, and marketing to explain the phenomenon of communities defined by a sense of place. Focusing on both the Basque Country and Basques in Boise, Idaho as one case study, the authors discuss how the naturally occurring brand and cultural policy of the Basque people became formalized 20?years ago with Law 8/1994. The article addresses who the Basques are and how they have branded themselves through language, place, industry, food, drink, and culture. Similarities to other communities are explored so that other ethnic/cultural communities can learn from this Diaspora cultural policy discussion.     

War Shields of the Torricelli Mountains,West Sepik Province,Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACT The usefulness of the term ‘ethnolinguistic group’, as a construct suggesting that ‘differences in language automatically translate into differences in culture’, has been questioned by Welsch, Terrel and Nadolski (1992). Not many researchers would insist on the term ‘automatically’, but would nevertheless support an argument for a strong correlation between material culture and language. As a contribution to this debate, we discuss two types of wood shields of the Torricelli Mountains (one of which is being identified for the first time) and pigskin shields to the south of the Torricellis, their use, and the details of the carved designs of the wood shields. The results of our analysis provide limited support for the correlation of material culture and language but highlight the need for analysis of material culture based on reliable data for a large number and wide range of artefacts, from defined regions, presently held in museums and private collections worldwide.     

Lords,settlers and shifting frontiers in medieval Catalonia

This article examines how settler conditions on formerly Muslim-ruled land in the area known as New Catalonia (in north-eastern Iberia) changed as the territory was consolidated by Christian landlords and migrants from the north, and increasingly buffered from the border with Islam by conquests against Muslim Valencia over several generations following its conquest in the mid-twelfth century. Most landlords responded to the conditions of the local land market, but there is little evidence that the region as a whole, or even favourable sub-markets, experienced a straightforward trajectory from liberal to heavier tenant obligations. While lords in Old Catalonia are known to have limited peasant mobility from the later twelfth century in order to diminish an exodus to territory with more franchises in New Catalonia, lords in New Catalonia from the early thirteenth century were not able to respond to a similar extent to the territorial offerings in northern Valencia. Their overall ability to erode or reformulate exemptions and other privileges was checked by customary practice, insufficient settlement density and increased regulation which accompanied a rise in royal administrative capacity.     

Lords,settlers and shifting frontiers in medieval Catalonia

This article examines how settler conditions on formerly Muslim-ruled land in the area known as New Catalonia (in north-eastern Iberia) changed as the territory was consolidated by Christian landlords and migrants from the north, and increasingly buffered from the border with Islam by conquests against Muslim Valencia over several generations following its conquest in the mid-twelfth century. Most landlords responded to the conditions of the local land market, but there is little evidence that the region as a whole, or even favourable sub-markets, experienced a straightforward trajectory from liberal to heavier tenant obligations. While lords in Old Catalonia are known to have limited peasant mobility from the later twelfth century in order to diminish an exodus to territory with more franchises in New Catalonia, lords in New Catalonia from the early thirteenth century were not able to respond to a similar extent to the territorial offerings in northern Valencia. Their overall ability to erode or reformulate exemptions and other privileges was checked by customary practice, insufficient settlement density and increased regulation which accompanied a rise in royal administrative capacity.     

Contextual effects on subjective national identity

Does the interaction between context and individual‐level features affect political attitudes? By using the case of Catalonia, a receiver region of international and national immigration since the fifties, this paper intersects a classic acculturation model and a newly reemerging literature in political science on contextual determinants of political behaviour to analyze how context affects subjective national identity. Results reveal that environment matters. The Percentage of Spain‐born population in the municipality is statistically significant to account for variance in the subjective national identity, even after controlling for age, sex, origin, language and left–right orientation and other contextual factors. This conclusion suggests that researchers should not underestimate the direct effect of the environment on feelings of belonging in contexts of rival identities.     

Protest Cycle,Political Violence and Social Movements in the Basque Country

A close look at the groups, organisations and social movements among which a terrorist organisation seeks refuge and support, will provide a fundamental and strategic view of its evolution. By means of the concept of a protest cycle, I analyse the relationship between political violence and social movements in the Basque Country. With the help of Tarrow's fundamental variables in the political structure, to which I have added the degree of consciousness‐raising and mobilisation in civil society, I aim to study the protest cycle of ETA's violence from its social origins at the start of the 1960s, through its consolidation in the 1970s, to its decline from the mid‐1980s onwards. The idea I will defend is that political violence should be seen as a form of collective action directed towards a mobilisation of society, and that its vicissitudes depend on the structure of interactions set up between the armed organisation, social movements and civil society.     

Sprawl in Spain and Madrid: A Low Starting Point Growing Fast

This article comments upon the situation of sprawl in Spain and Madrid, especially residential sprawl. It does not appear to be a serious problem due to its low starting point, but artificial surface and residential sprawl is growing rapidly. For that reason, it may be an issue in the future. Between 2000 and 2006, urban residential land use grew 0.4% in Spain and 0.2% in Europe per year, land use of industrial and commercial areas grew 2.3% in Spain and 0.4% in Europe and total artificial surface grew 2.7% in Spain and 0.6% in Europe (EEA, 2010). Further, we will study the legislation on maximum and minimum urban density in Spain. The highest maximum urban density is established by the Basque Country, with 230 dwellings per hectare, and the highest minimum urban density is established by Catalonia, with 50 dwellings per hectare. In both cases, it is applied to only certain types of territories. Finally, we will analyse what happens in the Region of Madrid in relation to sprawl. It has very similar patterns compared with the rest of Spain, although more pronounced.     

Privileging masculinity in the social construction of Basque identity

Following a framework developed by Susan Gal and Judith Irvine (1995), this article illustrates how Basque‐medium schools promulgate an androcentric vision of the Basque nation. First, male privilege is upheld in textbooks through the erasure of women's contributions to Basque language and culture, so that men appear as the quintessential Basque speakers and cultural agents. Secondly, language ideologies about Spanish and Basque recursively construct Basque ethnic identity is such a way that it centres on vernacular Basque, whose primary marker is a second person pronoun, ‘hi’, which indirectly indexes male speakers and masculinity. An iconic relationship is thereby created between authentic Basque identity, Basque culture, Basque linguistic forms and masculinity. However, I also show that women have challenged this male privilege in various domains, thereby opening up the possibility of a Basque nation that embraces its female as well as its male members.     

National identity,devolution and secession in Canada,Britain and Spain*

ABSTRACT. The aim of this article is twofold. First, it examines whether devolution fosters the rise of dual identities – regional and national. Second, it considers whether devolution encourages secession or, on the contrary, it stands as a successful strategy in accommodating intra‐state national diversity. The article is divided into three parts. First it examines the changing attitudes towards Quebec's demands for recognition adopted by the Canadian government from the 1960s to the present. It starts by analysing the rise of Quebec nationalism in the 1960s and the efforts of the Canadian government to accommodate its demands within the federation. It then moves on to consider the radically new conception of Canadian unity and identity embraced by Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and its immediate impact upon Quebec. The paper argues that Trudeau's ‘nation‐building’ strategy represented a retreat from the pro‐accommodation policies set in place to respond to the findings of the 1963 Royal Commission on Biculturalism & Bilingualism (known as the B&B Commission). Trudeau's definition of Canada as a bilingual and multicultural nation whose ten provinces should receive equal treatment alienated a significant number of Quebeckers. After Trudeau, various attempts were made to accommodate Quebec's demand to be recognised as a ‘distinct society’– Meech Lake Accord, Charlottetown Agreement. Their failure strengthened Quebec separatists, who obtained 49.4 per cent of the vote in the 1995 Referendum. Hence, initial attempts to accommodate Quebec in the 1960s were replaced by a recurrent confrontation between Canada's and Quebec's separate nation‐building strategies. Second, the article explores whether devolution fosters the emergence of dual identities – regional and national – within a single nation‐state. At this point, recent data on regional and national identity in Canada are presented and compared with data measuring similar variables in Spain and Britain. The three modern liberal democracies considered here include territorially circumscribed national minorities – nations without states ( Guibernau 1999 ) – endowed with a strong sense of identity based upon the belief in a common ethnic origin and a sense of shared ethnohistory – Quebec, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Scotland. Third, the article examines whether devolution feeds separatism by assessing support levels for current devolution arrangements in Canada, Spain and Britain. The article concludes by examining the reasons which might contribute to replacing separatist demands with a desire for greater devolution.     

Technology Transfer between Technology Centres and SMEs: Evidence from the Basque Country

Public policies (often at the regional level) favouring pre-competitive research and cooperative research and development have played a decisive role in the development of technology centres in Europe and all over the world. The technology offer model gave priority to the creation of technology transfer organizations and structures, but there is increasing evidence that this model did not attach enough attention to the needs of small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and in particular, to their capacity to take in knowledge. In this paper, based on qualitative research, we show in detail some of the main issues involved in the relationships between technology centres and SMEs in the Basque Country, a region that has developed intensive policies favouring technology transfer organizations over the years.     

The Competitive Position of the Basque Aeroespatial Cluster in Global Value Chains: A Historical Analysis

In this paper, based on the case study of the aerospace cluster of the Basque Country (Spain), we aimed at analysing how local industries develop a new specialization, that is, how a cluster emerges, and how it evolves over time. For that purpose, apart from considering local factors (both forces that are internal to the cluster and to the territory), we explicitly consider the role of institutional and technological changes, and how they affect industry structure and governance patterns of global value chains (GVCs). We observe that global-scale regulations (deregulation and competition policy) and technological change, together with local factors such as the existence of anchor firms, local policies, related variety and social capital at regional and cluster levels played a significant role in the emergence of the cluster and how it became inserted in the GVCs. Later on, the development of suppliers' capabilities also had a relevant role in the evolution of the governance patterns of GVCs.     

An Evolutionary View of Policy Network Management

This paper examines successful policy network (henceforth PN) practices in the Basque Country over an 18-year period, in relation to Cluster Associations, Quality Promotion and Local Agenda 21 Promotion. Basing our work on the Basque experience and on previous multi-disciplinary knowledge regarding learning processes, networking management and marketing, we contribute new insights that help to understand how PN management evolves. The need to analyse PN from an evolutionary perspective has been pinpointed by the various traditions of network research as one of the main gaps in the study of networking. Our research shows that expertise in PN management is generated through a long, performance-oriented dilemma-solving process that takes place in time and space. The first experiences provide initial knowledge and absorptive capacity, both of which improve through new and diverse experiences of increasing complexity. Step by step, a quantity of tacit and codified knowledge is created and shared, mainly through face-to-face contact, within the territory. Finally, the knowledge achieved is substantially similar to the normative knowledge that, though sparse, can be found in various networking literatures and needs to be brought together. But we also suggest that more emphasis on PN marketing is needed.