Facilitation in Community Development. Twenty-Five Years of Experience in Rural Territories in Cuenca,Spain

The process of facilitation aims to solve community problems by encouraging the exploitation of skills through different tools implemented by the facilitator. Facilitation has been analysed in the context of advanced and established groups with well-defined objectives, but not at the start of these groups. This article analyses the facilitation process carried out by the Institute of Community Development over 25 years with four work groups in rural areas of Cuenca, Spain. The leadership role taken on by the facilitator is crucial when it comes to identifying and managing the initial efforts required to start the group work. During the facilitation process, training and information tools are essential. It is also important to see a suitable transfer of roles between the facilitator and the stakeholders as they acquire new skills. This transfer is crucial for the continuity of the group and can cause difficulties if it does not happen.     

Introduction: Religious toleration in the Age of Enlightenment

ABSTRACT

This article is an introduction to a special issue on ‘Religious Toleration in the Age of Enlightenment’. It begins by characterizing the Enlightenment's attitude towards religion as an opposition to bigotry and ecclesiastic authority based on a particular interpretation of the European Wars of Religion. Then it acknowledges the problematic nature of the phrase ‘Age of Enlightenment’, which seems to push some of the most relevant eighteenth-century realities to the margins of history. Next, it challenges some common scholarly assumptions regarding Enlightenment ideas on tolerance. In particular, it disputes that these ideas were essentially principled, secular, pluralist and liberal. By way of conclusion, this introductory article suggests that the Enlightenment's main contribution to the history of toleration is found not in the originality or subtlety of its ideas, but rather in the promotion of a new mentality according to which toleration came to be regarded as an essential feature of modern civilization.     

Between the sword and the wall: Spain's limited options for Catalan secessionism

We propose a game theoretical model to assess the capacity of Catalonia to become a recognised, independent country with at least a de facto European Union (EU) membership. Support for Catalan independence has been increasing for reasons pertaining to identity and economics. Spain can avoid a vote for independence by effectively ‘buying‐out’ a proportion of the Catalan electorate with a funding agreement favourable to Catalonia. If, given the current economic circumstances, the buying‐out strategy is too expensive, a pro‐independence vote is likely to pass. Our model predicts an agreement in which Spain and the EU accommodate Catalan independence in exchange for Catalonia taking a share of the Spanish debt. If Spain and the EU do not accommodate, Spain becomes insolvent, which in turn destabilises the EU. The current economic woes of Spain and the EU both contribute to the desire for Catalan independence and make it possible.     

The Anthropogenic Use of Firewood During the European Middle Pleistocene: Charcoal Evidence from Levels XIII and XI of Bolomor Cave,Eastern Iberia (230–160 ka)

Human control of fire is a widely debated issue in the field of Palaeolithic archaeology, since it involved significant technological innovations for human subsistence. Although fire evidence has been the subject of intense debate regarding its natural or anthropogenic nature, most authors agree that combustion structures represent the most direct evidence of human control of fire. Wood charcoal fragments from these contexts represent the fuel remains that result from humans’ collection of firewood, which means they can reveal significant behavioural and palaeoenvironmental information relevant to our understanding of Middle Palaeolithic societies. In this work, we present anthracological data derived from combustion structure 2 (level XIII, ca. 230?ka, MIS 7) and combustion structure 4 (level XI, ca. 160?ka, MIS 6) from Bolomor Cave, which are chronologically among the earliest combustion structures found in Europe. The present work discusses how the presence of black pine and / or scots pine in both levels sheds light on the characterisation of the local landscape. Additional analyses focussing on the pre- and post-depositional processes affecting charcoal preservation point to biodegradation patterns. The aim of this work is to provide the first discussion concerning the anthracological data derived from Bolomor Cave in order to contribute to the general debate regarding the use of fire during the European Middle Pleistocene.     

The role of music in the development of children with Down syndrome: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

Music is commonly used in special education to achieve developmental and therapeutic aims, often in people with special needs. The present article conducts a systematic review of results from previous studies that explore the role of music in the development of children with Down syndrome (DS). It analyses a sample of 19 articles, in English and Spanish, from several databases (ERIC, Scopus, SciELO, Dialnet, Web of Science, CSIC and Pubmed). The results show that music has positive effects in the treatment and progress of the four main areas of development (social-emotional, motor, cognitive and communication) in children with DS. Nevertheless, the review reveals a lack of detail in the methodologies used and in the specific development areas, which call for further clarification in future research. These aspects are discussed in order to gain more conclusive results from future studies.     

Selection and Exploitation of Macro‐Vertebrate Resources During the Upper Palaeolithic in Northern Spain. New Evidence from Coímbre Cave (Peñamellera Alta,Asturias)

The exploitation of ungulates in the Cantabrian region during the Upper Palaeolithic is characterized by the appearance of progressively specialized hunting strategies, especially during the Magdalenian. This specialization focused on either Iberian ibex or red deer, depending on environmental or topographic features. Red deer, for instance, was hunted mostly on the plains while ibex and/or chamois was hunted in rocky and mountainous areas. Here we present new zooarchaeological and taphonomic evidence from Coímbre cave (northern Spain), a site located in the rugged region between the Picos de Europa and Sierra del Cuera (Asturias) which has evidence for specialized ibex hunting. We discuss the possible reasons for such a selective hunting pattern. While the predominance of mountain species such as Iberian ibex or chamois in the Magdalenian levels suggests prey selection based on topographic or environmental criteria, the predominance of large bovids in the Gravettian level could imply that other alternatives were available. We also provide evidence of a pattern of rabbit exploitation which is unusual by comparison with other Upper Palaeolithic sites of northern Spain, and which taphonomic evidence suggests was due to human activity.