Industrial districts and migrant enclaves: a model of interaction

So far, the relationship between Industrial Districts (IDs; clusters of interconnected local industries) and migrant enclaves (areas with a high concentration of international migrants from a single nationality) has been studied mostly by focusing on the emergence of ‘ethnic enclave economies’ within the district and/or by highlighting racist conflicts that achieved notoriety in the media. In this study, we contend that there is a more general and complex interaction between the two phenomena. This interaction is mediated by the local context, national regulations, and the organization of the international market, among other factors. By focusing on the case of the ceramic ID of Castelló de la Plana (Spain), we show how this ID with a high rate of job formality, combined with other job opportunities and a unique ‘institutional completeness’, set up the conditions for a non-conflictive Romanian migrant enclave that reached 14% of the town’s total population in 2012. Finally, and also considering another case study of ID and migrant enclave (Prato, and its Chinese enclave), we suggest a model of interaction that should be interpreted taking into account the general dynamics of the international organization of value and the requirements of flexibility and reduction of costs that frame IDs.     

Labour mobility in the Euroregion Galicia–Norte de Portugal: constraints faced by cross-border commuters

ABSTRACT

Removing barriers to labour mobility is expected to contribute to processes of spatial integration in cross-border regions, by an efficient allocation of labour and consequently a convergence between territories separated by a common border. Nevertheless, despite the de-bordering process within the European Union, administrative, legal and language barriers still hamper cross-border labour mobility, preventing the process of labour market integration. The aim of this paper is to identify obstacles to the mobility of cross-border workers commuting within the Euroregion Galicia–Norte de Portugal. The methodology employed combines the analysis of official data on labour mobility with qualitative data gathered from interviews with cross-border commuters, aimed at finding explanations for the different attitudes towards cross-border mobility inside this Euroregion. While traditional push and pull factors remain relevant in explaining cross-border labour flows, the qualitative information offers new insights into different levels of indifference from cross-border workers. The result is a fragmented labour market where Norte de Portugal is providing low-qualified, low-wage labour, whereas Galicia is contributing with well-paid, qualified labour.     

The International Fund for Cultural Diversity: a new tool for cooperation in the audiovisual field

This paper analyses the implementation of the International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD), emerged from the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (UNESCO 2005). The uniqueness of this multilateral fund is that most of its resources are aimed at supporting actions of non-governmental organizations functioning within the fields of cultural policy and cultural industries in developing and underdeveloped countries. Through a thorough study of different decisions and documents, this text analyses the IFCD’s funding, the results of the first calls for initiatives and the support obtained by projects focused on the audiovisual industry. Conceived as an instrument to implement initiatives whose goal is to strengthen the cultural sphere of the poorest countries, the hitherto modest IFCD faces now questions about its future growth and effectiveness in terms of changing the existing imbalance at work within the flows of audiovisual content both regionally and internationally.     

On the Text of Ovid,Met. 13.692–696

The structure and meaning of the passage are analysed, and its variants and textual proposals discussed. A way of understanding the text as transmitted is presented.     

A royal Maya country house: Archaeology at Bejucal,Guatemala

This article presents three years of archaeological investigations at the minor Maya center of Bejucal, Guatemala. A complete site history is presented relying on data from artifact analysis, architectural study, epigraphy, and bioarchaeology, with a goal towards identifying the site's function within the broader El Zotz polity. The authors argue that Bejucal underwent significant transformation following its establishment as a sacred hilltop site during the Late Preclassic period (400 b.c.–a.d. 250). The El Zotz royal family gradually appropriated the space, converting it into a royal country house and elite burial place. Bejucal's proximity to a large permanent water source suggests that the country house was situated within favorable hunting grounds. The research contributes to a broader discussion about the role of minor centers in regional settlement patterns, highlighting the benefit of textual data in making interpretations. The article also highlights the important role of salvage work in lowland Maya archaeology.     

The Dynamics of Regional Invention and Innovation: Innovative Capacity and Regional Change in the Twentieth Century

The twentieth century dynamics of United States regional invention trends are explored in this study. Historically, regions that become major loci of invention have always gained much influence, through innovation diffusion, their human capital infrastructures, and their national economic and political projection. The United States has experienced a remarkable inversion of regional roles on invention since the middle of the twentieth century, where the predominant position of heartland regions (the Northeast and the Midwest) is being overturned. This analysis develops a macro-level measure of inventive output, innovative capacity, to evaluate changes in regional inventive performance and the potential for innovation. The analysis of patent age cycles provides insights on the temporal structure of the national and regional innovative capacity, and on the dynamics of crisis periods for U.S. scientific and technological invention. A consideration of regional income trends over the twentieth century and of innovative capacity performance shows the potential importance of endogenously generated inventions for regional development.     

Principal Component Regression in Spatial Lag Model: Teen Employment in the City of Rosario,Argentina

Teen employment is a very important socioeconomic phenomenon because of its consequences on human capital formation. We assess the relation between teen employment and poverty, education, and unemployment in the city of Rosario, using information from the 2010 Argentina Census disaggregated at census block level. We use two different spatial models: The spatial lag model (SLM) and a linear regression model with the spatial component filtered (filtering model, FM). Given the nature of the variables employed, multicollinearity is an issue. One of the techniques proposed in the literature to deal with multicollinearity problems is principal component regression (PCR). We develop an adaptation of such methodology to be used in the SLM. Both models are estimated using their traditional methodologies (instrumental variables for the SLM and OLS for the FM) and using PCR. Although results are similar between the two models, depending on the methodology used in the estimations they differ greatly. Under traditional methodologies estimations show high variability, instability, and contradictory outcomes, but under PCR, results behave according to the literature.     

Urban Regeneration in the Brazilian urban policy agenda

This article aims to highlight the main arguments that sought to justify the incorporation and legitimization of Urban Regeneration in the urban policy agenda in Brazil. It shows how the convergence between different and even conflicting propositions related to urban development provided ideological support to the construction of discourses in which urban regeneration is portrayed as beneficial to society as a whole, and how recent international ideas on urban development were incorporated in urban policies of contemporary Brazil, considering our local socio-economic and political environment, planning tradition and regulatory frameworks. The focus will be on Rio de Janeiro and particularly São Paulo given the key role these two cities play in defining urban policy paradigms, guiding government agendas and exporting regulatory models to other parts of Brazil.