Is Greener Whiter Yet? The Sustainable Slopes Program after Five Years

This study focuses on two basic questions: Are voluntary programs effective in promoting higher environmental performance by participant firms? If so, which distinct areas of environmental performance are more likely to be improved by firms joining a voluntary environmental program? We address these questions by assessing the environmental effectiveness of the ski industry’s Sustainable Slopes Program in the western United States between 2001 and 2005. We found no evidence in our five-year analysis to conclude that ski areas adopting the SSP displayed superior performance levels than nonparticipants for the following areas of environmental protection: overall environmental performance, expansion management, pollution management, and wildlife and habitat management. SSP participants only appear to show a statistically significant correlation with higher natural resource conservation performance rates. For policymakers, these results suggest that caution is needed before a priori assuming that strictly voluntary programs can be effective in promoting comprehensive superior environmental performance.     

An Evaluation of Endogenous Sustainable Development Planning for the Rural–Urban Environment in Gran Canaria

Urban developments can transform adjacent rural areas by degrading their natural resource base and environmental values. In this paper we provide evidence on the implementation of an endogenous sustainable development plan for the rural–urban environment in the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The objective was the generation of endogenous development in the rural areas by implicating the local population in developing activities in line with natural values and the recuperation of traditional cultures. At the same time, urban societies were expected to benefit from the preservation and availability of these rural environments. The plan was implemented in a large rural valley located between adjacent urban areas. The valley represents an opportunity for urban dwellers to benefit from a large rural park in the urban environment for leisure and cultural activities. The overall accomplishment of the plan was evaluated and contrasted with the benefits to the urban population, which were also measured with a discrete choice experiment. The results highlight that the principal objectives failed because of the lack of political determination to promote the participatory channels that would lead to the preservation of natural resources in a dynamic process of social change.     

Between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic: nautical iconography in the south‐west Iberian Peninsula

This study presents two new representations of ships, recently found in Casas del Turuñuelo, Spain, and dated to the end of the 5th century BC. They depict river barges, which supports the importance of river navigation in structuring the central Guadiana region in the Tartessian era. The systematization of all known ship iconography found in the area from the Early Iron Age makes it possible to highlight their homogeneity, and their Mediterranean hallmark. This serves to emphasize the interconnectivity that existed in Iberia's south‐west, fostering a process of cultural hybridization of which the vessels were both result and vehicle.     

¿Hacia una literatura de compromiso? Cohesión social desde el individuo en La muerte de Kurt Cobain de Care Santos

Socially committed writing in contemporary Spanish narrative scene sometimes eliminates the possibilities of depicting individual realities. Care Santos's novel La muerte de Kurt Cobain (1997) develops the case of a unique young girl who goes through a life-changing experience during a summer when she has to overcome personal issues in order to form her persona. The novel is half crime-fiction since there is a mystery to solve and half bildungsroman due to the formation of the personality of the female lead character. Coming of age by becoming a human being, a friend, a sister, and a woman is the main focus of this text, which rejects generalizations regarding youth as a reckless period of life and embraces adulthood as a natural process of growth. Young Spanish girls represented in Santos's work are portrayed through the protagonist who contributes to build a human and cohesive society that stems from the level of commitment of the individual.     

La tragedia del Tasso: obra inédita de Manuel Fernandez y Gonzalez

Although Manuel Fernández y González is mainly known for his work as a novelist, he also developed a significant number of plays that, in spite of the warmth of the audience at the time, today remain unexplored in most of nineteenth century studies. The purpose of this article is twofold: first, recovering an unpublished play of Fernández y González that it is also representative of Spanish postromantic drama from the mid-century; and second, exploring the reasons why the figure of Torcuato Tasso did not reach in Spain the category of romantic icon that it did in other European counterparts.