Building Bridges across the Atlantic: the European Union Visitors Program. A Case Study for Public Diplomacy and the Transatlantic Relationship in the 1970s

This article addresses the core question of the complex interplay between Atlantic-alliance politics and European integration in the 1970s, a turning point in the European-US relationship. The analysis focuses on the European Community Visitors Program: the first European Community (EC) professional exchange programme seeking to foster mutual understanding between the Community and the United States, which is an intriguing case study in the history of transatlantic relations from a public-diplomacy standpoint. Its relevance is indeed twofold. From an intra-European perspective, it has contributed to laying the foundations for an identity discourse, upon which the narrative of a Euro-exceptionalism has been constructed from the 1970s onwards. Furthermore, as an exchange programme fostering connections among elites abroad, it has enhanced the EC's visibility outside its borders and thus promoted its recognition worldwide. At a systemic level, the ECVP - modelled after the most famous US public-diplomacy programmes - has served as a transatlantic bridge-builder and a prime tool for facilitating alliance management during the cold war, particularly in the troubled 1970s.     

Improving the transition to university: introducing student voices into the formal induction process for new geography undergraduates

Recently, there has been renewed interest in the area of school to university transitions within geography. This article focuses upon one aspect of these transitions, namely the induction programmes offered by universities to their new undergraduates. It argues in favour of extending the length of the induction period currently offered by many institutions and incorporating student voices into the induction process through peer mentoring. In making this argument, the article reports upon the new Extended Induction to Geography programme that Newcastle University piloted for the first time in 2011–2012.     

Promoting tourism through the EU LEADER programme: understanding Local Action Group governance

ABSTRACT

For many European rural areas, the rural development programmes based on the LEADER approach constitute the main policy for promoting tourism. Going a step further than a rural development programme, LEADER represents an ideal method for overcoming some of the challenges involved in rural tourism development, such as the integration of tourism supply through public-private organizations or the coordination of multi-level policies. Despite its potential, there are difficulties involved in putting this approach into practice. This article aims to provide in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by some managers responsible for developing tourism strategies through the LEADER approach. To do this, semi-structured in-depth interviews have been held with Local Action Groups managers from Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). The main findings reveal that the actions of regional governments lead to the limitation and strangulation of the principle of subsidiarity according with the LAG manager? opinion.     

The European Union and Major Infrastructure Policies: The Reforms of the Trans-European Networks Programmes and the Implications for Spatial Planning

The European Union (EU) has been involved in influencing major infrastructure in the fields of transport and energy mainly by means of the Trans-European Networks (TENs) programme begun in the 1990s. Other macro-planning and wider spatial planning exercises, including the European Spatial Development Perspective, made reference to such infrastructure systems, particularly in relation to the need for connectivity and mobility, but normally did not attempt to intervene in an area seen as one of the prerogatives of national states. Much more important have been the wider programmes of liberalization pressed by the EU since the 1980s, but these have had no specific geographical content. A revision of the TENs programmes since 2008 has led to proposals to increase the role of the EU, by drawing up continent wide schemas indicating needs for future investment in many fields of both transport and energy, and introducing new procedures to streamline decision-making by designating projects as of European interest. The initiatives in transport and energy are described here, including the two Regulations currently under discussion within the EU institutions. These include major proposals for cross-European multi-modal transport corridors within an EU core network, and regional schemas for energy drawn up primarily by energy industries and government counterparts. Both are likely to be of real significance for spatial planners throughout the continent, and have major impacts on the shapes of future infrastructure networks. These proposals are analysed, as cases of the rescaling and re-ordering of government, giving more force to the EU in these fields, and reinforcing sectoral- or silo-based decision-making. It is argued that somewhat different outcomes will result in the few areas, such as the Baltic, where long-term macro-regional collaboration has been present, from the rest of Europe, where these sectoral programmes may complicate further the mix of planning impacting on each region, making even more confused the accountability of governance. Suggestions are made for the careful assessment of these schemas by national and regional governments, and for the creation of some spatial planning analytical capability at the EU level, which could examine this type of proposals, with powerful spatial impacts.     

Putting two and two together? Early childhood education, mothers’ employment and care service expansion in Chile and Mexico

In recent years, several middle-income countries, including Chile, Mexico and Uruguay, have increased the availability of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. These developments have received little scholarly attention so far, resulting in the (surely unintended) impression that Latin American social policy is tied to a familialist track, when in reality national and regional trends are more varied and complex. This article looks at recent efforts to expand ECEC services in Chile and Mexico. In spite of similar concerns over low female labour force participation and child welfare, the approaches of the two countries to service expansion have differed significantly. While the Mexican programme aims to kick-start and subsidize home- and community-based care provision, with a training component for childminders, the Chilean programme emphasizes the expansion of professional ECEC services provided in public institutions. By comparing the two programmes, this article shows that differences in policy design have important implications in terms of the opportunities the programmes are able to create for women and children from low-income families, and in terms of the programmes’ impacts on gender and class inequalities. It also ventures some hypotheses about why the two countries may have chosen such different routes.     

Tackling the Down Side: Social Capital,Women’s Empowerment and Micro‐Finance in Cameroon

Micro‐finance programmes are currently dominated by the ‘financial self‐sustainability paradigm’ where women’s participation in groups is promoted as a key means of increasing financial sustainability while at the same time assumed to automatically empower them. This article examines the experience of seven micro‐finance programmes in Cameroon. The evidence indicates that micro‐finance programmes which build social capital can indeed make a significant contribution to women’s empowerment. However, serious questions need to be asked about what sorts of norms, networks and associations are to be promoted, in whose interests, and how they can best contribute to empowerment, particularly for the poorest women. Where the complexities of power relations and inequality are ignored, reliance on social capital as a mechanism for reducing programme costs may undermine programme aims not only of empowerment but also of financial sustainability and poverty targeting.     

Misaligned Social Policy? Explaining the Origins and Limitations of Cash Transfers in Sudan

This article examines whether the transitional government in the wake of the December 2018 Sudanese revolution succeeded in realigning social policy with public demands. The article focuses on the evolution of cash transfer programmes from the 2012 cash programme under the Ingaz regime to the transitional government's programme 2021. While the recent programme was popularly viewed as a ‘World Bank programme’, its originators were in fact Sudanese professionals. Similarly, the Ingaz regime experimented with cash transfers before seeking out World Bank technical support. In this sense, cash transfers cannot be seen as an external imposition, as domestic actors have favoured them across different regimes. Yet, their appeal may still reflect the ‘choicelessness’ that Thandika Mkandawire associated with structural adjustment, as in both cases cash transfers were introduced as part of broader economic reform. Sudan's case is distinct in the sense that its domestic policy makers did not begrudgingly accept cash transfers but were enthusiastic instigators of them. The article traces the origins of this enthusiasm within Sudan's recent political history and explores the way in which alignment with international mainstream policy making locks Sudan into a bind. The country urgently needs to reverse the fragmentation of social policy along geographic and racial lines, yet these programmes do little to overcome such regional and racial inequalities. Thus, even after a popular revolution displaced the prevailing political settlement and called for radical change, policy makers remain misaligned to public demands.     

The integration of geography in a curriculum focused to internationalization: an interdisciplinary liberal arts perspective from the Netherlands

Internationalization has been an important concept in higher education over the past two decades. The way that internationalization is manifest has consequences to academic disciplines, including geography. A new system of liberal arts colleges in the Netherlands has created opportunities for interdisciplinary education, representing a departure from the traditional model of European higher education. At Leiden University College the focus on global challenges created an opportunity for geography to be integrated into a diverse interdisciplinary and international curriculum. The positioning of geography into the curriculum, however, occurred because its adaptability and breadth, which enabled it to be incorporated into diverse facets of the overall teaching programme. To be successful, however, geographers should be cognizant of specific facets of the discipline suited for an international context. The case study herein reviewed highlights important differences between the U.S. and Dutch (European) context. Additionally, important points for academic geographers (academics) who are in interdisciplinary programmes (i.e. not a geography department) are emphasized, which relates to the development of course materials to suit an international context. The identification of key thematic and methodological disciplinary strands serves as bridges to interdisciplinary opportunities, which was essential to geography’s successful establishment within an international curriculum.     

Training,education, management and prehistory in the Mediterranean: Work in progress on a European Union research project

Abstract

This paper presents the work in progress of TEMPER (Training, Education, Management and Prehistory in the Mediterranean), a research project conducted by a consortium of seven partner institutions in the UK, Greece, Malta, Israel, and Turkey. TEMPER is funded by the European Union, as part of their Euromed Heritage II programme [1] and is the only project funded by the programme focusing on our prehistoric cultural heritage. The aim of TEMPER is to make the prehistory of the Mediterranean more accessible. This will be achieved through the development of educational programmes at pilot sites around the Mediterranean, the development of management plans for pilot sites, the delivery of a related training programme and dissemination of the project results. The project runs from January 2002 to June 2004.     

How and why we should encourage undergraduate geography students to participate in the Erasmus programme

Studying or working abroad during the course of an undergraduate degree has been associated with many positive outcomes and benefits. Despite this, there is scant literature on the role higher education institution (HEIs) play in encouraging outgoing student mobility. There is subsequently limited practical guidance for individuals within HEIs wishing to increase student participation in mobility programmes. Using evidence from the existing literature, and primary research conducted for a PhD study, this paper addresses this gap and offers guidance for encouraging students' participation in the European region action scheme for the mobility of university students (Erasmus). This paper focuses on the mobility of geography students who underperform in terms of participation in the Erasmus programme.     

Analysing How Environmental Concerns are Integrated in the Design of the EU Structural Funds Programmes

This paper analyses the environmental measures co-financed by the European Union (EU) Structural Funds in the less-developed regions. Specifically, it studies if these environmental measures are tailored to the specific needs of the different regions and whether they are driven by an ecological modernization approach. The inclusion of environmental goals into the regional policy is also tested by analysing its connection with the main European environmental directives. We find a suitability of the regional programmes to the regional specific environmental factors, a scarce presence of the ecological modernization paradigm behind the programmes implementation and a clear orientation of the regional programmes to meet the EU legislation.     

The Role of Telematics in Integrating Ireland into Europe's Information Society

This article is an evaluation of Ireland's participation in the Telematics Applications Programme (TAP), which was part of the European Commission's Fourth Framework Programme for the period 1994-1998. TAP was primarily concerned with public sector bodies and their ability to adapt to the Information Society. The article explores Irish participation in the programme and examines the contribution of this participation to the clustering of telematics experimentation within Ireland and to the increasing integration with other European regions arising from project networks. The role of the TAP programme in furthering Europe's information society in Ireland is assessed.     

The transformation of kinship and the family in late Anglo-Saxon England

The development of the family into a small unit in which descent was traced almost exclusively through the male line is regarded as a major turning point in medieval European history. The early stages of the formation of agnatic kinship have usually been connected to strategies designed to preserve and retain control of patrimonies and castles, arising from the breakdown of public order. In this article it is suggested that the emergence of new kinship values was connected to the investment of aristocratic energy and resources in monastic programmes, and to subtle changes in lay involvement with the rituals associated with death and the salvation of souls.     

Improving Child Nutrition? The Integrated Child Development Services in India

Levels of child malnutrition in India have fallen only slowly during the 1990s, despite significant economic growth and considerable expenditure on the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme, of which the major component is supplementary feeding for malnourished children. To begin to unravel this puzzle, this article assesses the programme's placement and its outcomes, using NFHS data from 1992 and 1998. The authors find that programme placement is clearly regressive across states. The states with the greatest need for the programme — the poor Northern states which account for nearly half of India's population and which suffer from high levels of child malnutrition — have the lowest programme coverage and the lowest budgetary allocations from the central government. Programme placement within states is more progressive: poorer and larger villages have a higher probability of having an ICDS centre, as do those with other development programmes or community associations. In terms of outcomes, the authors find little evidence of programme impact on child nutrition status in villages with ICDS centres.     

Thinking Outside the Box: Interdisciplinary Integration of Teaching and Research on an Environment and Development Study Programme

Abstract

Interdisciplinary education and research are increasingly in demand in land use, environment and development because understanding complex human-nature relationships requires a holistic approach. While the need for interdisciplinarity is acknowledged by most, in practice, traditional disciplines are still accorded greatest scientific recognition. This article illustrates how interdisciplinarity has been approached on an international education and research programme. A major challenge was how to strike a balance between interdisciplinarity and specialization, and a specific model based on problem-oriented group work and specialized research teams was developed which successfully negotiated this divide, according to a comprehensive student evaluation. International co-operation among Denmark, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Botswana has revealed structural and cultural barriers to the implementation of interdisciplinary programmes. Successful negotiation of these barriers requires personal relations based on long-term commitment which was achieved in this case through the study programme and annual joint student field courses.     

Evaluating the governance of structural funds programmes: The case of community economic development in South Yorkshire

Methods for evaluating regional and urban policies have become increasingly sophisticated in recent years. However, this paper argues that the evaluation of Structural Funds programmes has systematically underplayed the effect of governance on both programme design and implementation. This paper uses the role of voluntary and community sector organizations in promoting community economic development initiatives within the European Union's Structural Funds programmes in South Yorkshire as a case study. An argument is made for extending evaluation methods, especially theory-based evaluation, through using multi-level governance as a “theory of change”. A key finding is that to explain how programmes work, evaluators need to consider formal partnership and management arrangements, their traditional focus, but also wider governance structures and the importance of informal policy networks. Such a focus allows for a consideration of issues such as resource mobilization and power.     

Life Sciences in the Netherlands: Weakness in a Strong National Policy

The Netherlands is an example of a European country in which the commercialization of knowledge is hampered by a somewhat risk-averse culture at universities and a shortage of venture capital for early growth of start-up firms. This article addresses the policy programme in the Netherlands to improve the situation for the life sciences since the early 2000s. The target number of newly established firms could easily be achieved and the programme was able to improve the business climate for new firm establishment. However, the programme could not improve conditions for growth of new firms because it could not achieve a comprehensive turn in the business climate, due to the short cycle-time of the programme (4–5 years). In addition, the programme did not take advantage of existing critical mass in the largest cluster or from any other competitive strength of particular clusters. These circumstances were influencing a relatively large number of small and vulnerable firms. The article concludes with a set of insights from which lessons can be drawn.     

Enforcing the Human Rights of Citizens and Non-Citizens in the Era of Maastricht: Some Reflections on the Importance of States

This article explores the impact of globalization in the context of human rights enforcement within the European Union. It argues that despite the growing impact of transnational forces and supranational institutions, national mechanisms are still crucial in enforcing international obligations, so that states remain critical players rather than diminishing entities. The article considers the development of human rights as a fundamental norm within the European Union, and explores the relevance of this norm for third country (i.e. non-European) nationals. It argues that restrictionist policies designed to curtail immigration and exclude asylum seekers override international human rights obligations voluntarily entered into by the European member states. Even the concept of European Union citizenship, designed in part to address the rights deficit within Europe, has not so far created a base of fundamental rights capable of trumping state interests, but rather functions primarily as an exclusionary concept directed against non-Europeans.     

Effective or not? Success or failure? Assessing heritage and archaeological education programmes – the case of Çatalhöyük

Recent decades have witnessed an increasing involvement of archaeology projects in planning and carrying out heritage education programmes to increase heritage awareness among the public. This paper aims to explore ways in which models of education programmes in public archaeology could be more effective in ensuring the protection of heritage sites by examining the one of the worlds longest-running education programme, run by the Çatalhöyük Research Project in Turkey. It is important to pay attention to multi-vocal elements such as social, political and educational backgrounds of the communities to develop more effective education programmes, and most importantly it is crucial to assess the effectiveness and success of those programmes. However, most of archaeological education programmes have failed to carry out this important component. In order to be effective and successful, the success of the education programmes and the ways in which they are implemented and their results must be known and critically examined. Specifically, this paper will discuss the necessity of measuring the effectiveness of education programmes, suggest the most suitable methodology for assessment through examining the Çatalhöyük education programmes.     

Gender,Identity and Agency in Philippine Upland Development

Conventional feminist political analysis has considered male interests as historically institutionalized by the state, thereby claiming that women are largely ‘edged out’ in state programmes. By studying a state programme of granting ancestral domain tenurial rights to the Kalanguya in the northern Philippines, this article argues instead that women also edge themselves out. Kalanguya village women have linked with markets and are less interested in tenurial struggles with the state since such struggles underscore their indigeneity and their special role as resource managers, an identity they wish to discard. Men, for their part, attach themselves to the past and identify themselves as being ‘indigenous’ to make claims on land in the present, strategically aligning themselves with the state agenda on sustainable resource management. This article explores perspectives that provide more nuanced understandings of the different ways in which women and men may position and identify themselves as ‘indigenous’ as they engage with state programmes and markets, and argues that, under certain conditions, women through their agency may not be the natural constituency for natural resource management‐related programmes that they are often assumed to be.