Search results for " Cohesion"

Religion and Civil Society: Theoretical Reflections

2013

Using World Values Survey data, this chapter begins with the global distinctiveness of European societies in terms of both religious vitality and support for the public role of religion. They exhibit a secularity that has been challenged in recent years by an unexpected return of religion as a contentious public issue. The chapter then asks, which theories in the social sciences can help to think constructively through the challenges of religion and civil society in such media-rich, religiously diverse, consumer-oriented secularised societies? It begins with sociology of religion, arguing that while secularisation and rational choice theories shed light on some developments, their conceptua…

LE AREE INTERNE PER LO SVILUPPO DEL TERRITORIO E LA COMPLEMENTARITÀ DI PROGRAMMI E STRUMENTI FRA LE POLITICHE EUROPEE DI SVILUPPO RURALE E DI COESIONE

Le Aree Interne rappresentano un tema particolarmente importante per la programmazione e la spesa dei fondi comunitari nel periodo 2014-2020 perché costituiscono il più grande esempio di complementarità fra le Politiche europee di sviluppo rurale e di coesione. Per lo sviluppo di queste Aree è stata creata una Strategia Nazionale per le Aree Interne (SNAI) che mira alla valorizzazione ed al recupero di tutti quei territori (rurali, montuosi, svantaggiati) dal carattere marginale rispetto alla disponibilità e all’offerta di servizi essenziali. La peculiarità di tale Strategia è quella di promuovere lo sviluppo di aree che sono uniformemente distribuite in tutto il comprensorio nazionale a di…

Recommendation of RILEM TC237-SIB on cohesion test of recycled asphalt

2018

This recommendation describes how to evaluate the presence of potentially active bitumen in recycled asphalt (RA) materials through the cohesion test. The experimental protocol is designed according to the research performed by the RILEM Technical Committee 237-SIB ‘‘Testing and characterization of sustainable innovative bituminous materials and systems’’ with the purpose, to develop a new, simple and fast method for the characterization of RA while limiting the need for conventional rheological tests. The guidelines in this recommendation focus on the testing procedure including specimen preparation, data analysis and provide information on the preparation of a tests report.

Were we stressed or was it just me – and does it even matter? Efforts to disentangle individual and collective resilience within real and imagined st…

2020

Although resilience is a multi-level process, research largely focuses on the individual and little is known about how resilience may distinctly present at the group level. Even less is known about subjective conceptualizations of resilience at either level. Therefore, two studies sought to better understand how individuals conceptualize resilience both as an individual and as a group. Study 1 (N = 123) experimentally manipulated whether participants reported on either individual or group-based responses to real stressors and analysed their qualitative responses. For individual responses, subjective resilience featured active coping most prominently, whereas social support was the focus for…

Entrepreneurship Training and Self-Employment among University Graduates

2012

In economies characterized by low labor demand and high rates of youth unemployment, entrepreneurship training has the potential to enable youth to gain skills and create their own jobs. This paper presents experimental evidence on a new entrepreneurship track that provides business training and personalized coaching to university students in Tunisia. Undergraduates in the final year of licence appliquee were given the opportunity to graduate with a business plan instead of following the standard curriculum. This paper relies on randomized assignment of the entrepreneurship track to identify impacts on labor market outcomes one year after graduation. The analysis finds that the entrepreneur…

Beyond material factors? Identity, culture and the foreign and security policy of the EU

2015

The evolution of European integration in the field foreign, security and defence policy and the coordination practices established by EU member states cannot be fully explained by looking at material factors only. The chapter adds to the picture the importance of identity, and, in particular, the we-feeling typical of belonging to a security community and security culture in the evolution of the practices adopted for the international projection of the EU and its member states. In consideration of the importance that support to the UN has acquired since the 2003 ESS, both as a strategic priority and as a constitutive element of the EU identity, the chapter focuses on the coordination practi…

Unequal Attainments: Ethnic educational inequalities in ten Western countries

2014

Western countries have become increasingly diverse in recent decades and these demographic trends are certain to continue. The resulting ethnic diversity is a major challenge to policy-makers, who need to tackle issues of social justice and social integration. Education plays a pivotal role since it is the major stepping stone for the children of immigrants to successful economic integration and also plays a major role in social and political integration more generally since education gives access to the skills, resources and contacts which enable individuals to participate fully in the life of their society. Our central research questions are: Do the descendants of migrants experience equa…

Economic conditions and populist radical right voting: The role of issue salience

2021

Contains fulltext : 245174.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) In this article, we show with the European Election Study from nine Western European countries that issue salience of the economy and immigration contributes to our understanding of the puzzling relation between economic conditions and populist radical right support. In countries with relatively weak or worsening economic conditions, the economy is considered more salient, whereas immigration loses salience – also compared to other issues. Voters who perceive the economy as most important problem are less likely to opt for the populist radical right than people who perceive immigration or even other issues as most important…

Regional inequalities, economic crises and policies: an international panel analysis

2021

This paper examines the effects of economic downturns on regional inequalities. In a sample of 25 OECD countries for 1990–2014 period, we show that economic downturns are associated with a significant and long-lasting reduction in regional inequalities. Expansionary fiscal policy as well as higher share of the European development (cohesion) funds facilitate the response of lagging regions to negative nation-wide shocks, contributing to further stimulate the reduction in regional disparities. Additional evidence suggests that the effect of downturns tends to be larger in economies with a higher initial level of regional disparities in unemployment and human capital endowment.

Frictional effects in structural behavior of no-end-connected steel-jacketed RC columns: Experimental results and new approaches to model numerical a…

2017

Steel jacketing of reinforced concrete (RC) columns is a common retrofitting technique used to restore bearing and deformation capacity of buildings presenting structural deficiencies. For practical reasons, steel angles are in several cases arranged leaving a gap with the end beams or slabs. Despite this disconnection, the angles are still able to support a non-negligible portion of load because of the frictional forces developed along the column-angle contact interface. In these cases, the definition of computational numerical and analytical models for the assessment of reinforced cross sections becomes more complex and must be handled with care. The actual load-carrying capacity of the a…