Western Europe

Many social theorists have suggested that we are currently living in a period in which the identities of the past are becoming increasingly irrelevant and in which new identities, and new identity formations, are being created. The major identity colossus forged in the nineteenth century, and subsequently spread over much of the globe - nation-state identity - has been the subject of particular debate; and theorists have attempted to identify alternative, post-national (in the sense of post-nation-statist) identity constructions. The proliferation of museums in the nineteenth century was undoubtedly closely bound up with the formation and solidification of nation-states in, and subsequently beyond, Western Europe. A crucial question for museums today concerns their role in a world in which nation- statist identities are being challenged. Are they too inextricably entangled in ‘old’ forms of identity to be able to express ‘new’ ones?
How and why museums are able to act as manifestations of identity or sites for the contestation of identities requires a ‘denaturalizing’ of the concept of ‘identity’. That is, we need to be able to see our notions of particular identities, including ‘national identity’, not as universal but as historically and culturally specific. What is entailed in even ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’ ‘the nation’ or ‘the public’? And what role have museums played in such ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’? What is it about museums that makes them suitable - and sometimes not so suitable - for certain identity ‘work’?
The article proceeds as follows. I begin with a brief outline of the identity work of the nineteenth-century museum and with a focus on the articulation of ‘the nation-state’ and ‘the public’. My concern here is with the relationship between the museum as a cultural form with particular technologies of representation, and with the kinds of identities that this form helped not only to express but also to constitute. The second part of the article turns to arguments by social theorists that many former identities are in the process of radical transformation, of fragmentation and disembedding and considers their implications for museums. If the nation-state and the kind of ‘public’ with which it was associated are on the brink of obsolescence, then what future is there for museums? Are museums perhaps too intimately linked up with material- and place- rooted, homogeneous and bounded, conceptions of identity to be able to address some of the emerging identity dilemmas of the ‘second modern age’ or ‘late modernity’? Of course, this account of identity transformation may be wrong or exaggerated, and there are social theorists who would argue thus. Rather than address this problem directly, however, what I suggest here is that museums - because of their longstanding and central roles in the articulation of identity - are significant sites in which to examine such claims. In the third part of the article I discuss one example of an attempt to articulate a post- national, trans-cultural identity complex. The final part of the article draws upon this to reconsider the potential of museums for articulating new, postnational and transcultural identities in late modernity or the second modern age.

This paper focuses on the specific role of mid-range universities in knowledge transfer and explores the knowledge flows from these mid-range universities which face a number of additional constraints in transitional Central Eastern European (CEE) regions. The first part focuses on the theoretical framework of knowledge transfers and on the types of university–industry linkages involving knowledge transfer in the case of mid-range universities. The next section examines the development path and specific trajectories of universities in post-communist countries. The following sections draw on the findings of the ERAWATCH research and focus on cases from the non-metropolitan regions of Hungary and the Czech Republic in order to examine the specific barriers to knowledge transfer and explain the reasons behind the traditionally weaker role of mid-range universities. The paper argues that ambitious university-based developmental models have to be revised in CEE regions and the future development role of universities has to be reconsidered from a more realistic perspective.

The discovery of a huge gas deposit in North Siberia in the 1980s changed somewhat western Europe economy, because an abundant and low cost energy source allowed to alleviate the burden of the 'energy crisis' and, above all, paved the way to a large geopolitical argument: could western companies provide to the USSR, although enduring a new wave of political “thaw”, money, equipment and engineering to develop that deposit? The USA endeavoured to stem these agreements, to invoke the texts of the COCOM and the spirit of NATO. But western-Europe states helped the firms of their countries, which concluded important contracts with URSS.

- After the exceptional influx of Booted eagles Hieraaetus pennatus from Western Europe in October 2004, we reviewed thespecies’ presence in Italy over the period December 2004 - February 2005 and during spring 2005. We documented the size of the spe-cies’ wintering population by gathering the sightings from various regions of Italy. We surveyed the spring migration of the speciesthrough simultaneous raptor counts at several sites (mostly in Sicily and Sicilian islands). The remarkable wintering population of 2004-2005 (estimated range: 173 - 202 individuals) was related to the unusual migratory influx that took place in the previous autumn and itagrees with an apparent trend towards an increasing number of birds wintering in southern Italy, particularly in Sicily (estimated range :132 – 157 individuals). The northward spring migration observed from the southern regions of Italy along the Tyrrhenian coast (towardsFrance), validates the hypothesis of a West European origin of the ind...

On November 1, 1755, the city of Lisbon was completely devastated by the combined effect of a tremendous earthquake, tsunami waves, and fire. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake was the most destructive cataclysm recorded in western Europe since the Roman Republic, with an estimated earthquake magnitude Mw∼ 8.5 [Martins and Mendes Victor, 1990] and estimated tsunami magnitude of Mt= Mw= 8.5. The earthquake was felt as far away as Great Britain and Finland. The tsunami hit many coastal cities along southwest Iberia and North ...

Lowland heath is an internationally important habitat type that has greatly declined in abundance throughout Western Europe. In recent years this has led to a growing interest in the restoration of heathland on agricultural land. This generally requires the use of chemical treatments to return soil chemical conditions to those appropriate for the support of heathland ecosystems. However, the potential

The information society has developed with differing levels of success in Western Europe and the United States, as well as in Eastern Europe. E-government – a significant element of the information society – has an important and leading role in some countries, while elsewhere it lags well behind the development level seen in the private sector, non-governmental organisations, and even among citizens. Different strategies and action plans have been adopted in many countries, with different results being achieved against a backdrop of optimistic forecasts and hopes. Though Slovenia has become a new member of the European Union, Slovenian public administration still retains many characteristics of the old political system and is attempting to successfully apply egovernment in practice, both in terms of back-office and front-office operations. Its development has been underway for just a few years, and includes some areas that match the national strategy and plans, and some areas that d...

This article shows how the presence of an election campaign affects the way in which the main political leaders of 18 countries communicate on Facebook. Findings indicate the presence of robust qualitative and quantitative differences between campaign and peace-time periods. More specifically, this comparative analysis points out that election campaigns have a positive effect on the frequency with which political leaders update their Facebook pages and on the personalization of political communication, while a negative effect is associated with the publication of posts about policy issues and with a negative rhetorical strategy. No effect has been discovered concerning the privatization of political communication on Facebook. Finally, independent t-test analyses and bivariate correlations denote a generalized process of homogenization, whereby there is no single main impulse which governs the different communicative choices taken by political leaders on Facebook as an Election Day approaches.

Este artículo es una refl exión sobre los estereotipos y la realidad intercultural sur/norte en esta era contemporánea. El propósito de este escrito es contribuir tanto a la demolición de los aparatos fabricadores de otredades estigmatizadas como a la instauración de valores fundamentales para la construcción de una sociedad global
autocrítica e intercultural. Haciendo hincapié en el factor medios de comunicación, se  analizará  el  papel  que  juegan  tres  elementos  fundamentales  (la  historia,  los medios de comunicación y el sistema educativo) en la demolición y/o difusión del discurso ideológico y de  la concepción estereotipada que la ciudadanía española tiene sobre África.

Historical records of sand drift and dune-building along the coastline of Western Europe provide insights into the natural processes of sand dune accretion and both the impacts of, and human responses to, sand incursions. The analysis of documentary records, instrumental data and proxy records over the last 1,000 years indicates that this period, which included the Little Ice Age (AD 1570–1900), featured numerous episodes of sand drift and dune development driven by strong winds associated with Atlantic storms. It is estimated that sand drift affected over a quarter of a million hectares of coastal land in Western Europe. The widespread use of vegetation to stabilise coastal dune systems and prevent sand drift is documented across Europe from AD 1100 and by the start of the 20th century all of the larger coastal dune systems in Portugal, France, Britain and Denmark were comparatively inactive. Given that Atlantic storminess has remained more or less unchanged over the last 200 years, modern dune management strategies which consider dune devegetation, driven by an increasing focus on ‘naturalness’, may give rise to a recurrence of sand drift problems. Predictions of increased storm frequencies by the end of the 21st century, coupled with sea level rise and potential changes in sand supply will present further challenges for the more ‘dynamic’ dune management strategies.

We did a systematic search and synthesis of evidence on the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease, symptomatic disease, and circulating Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes in western Europe. Using data from studies published between 1992 and 2005 we calculated a weighted mean invasive pneumococcal disease and pneumococcal meningitis incidence rate per 100 000 children aged 2 years or younger within 95% confidence intervals, together with the prevalence of S pneumoniae serotypes and resistance to penicillin. Invasive pneumococcal disease incidence was 27·03 cases per 100 000 children under 2 years (95% CI 2·85–33·43). Heptavalent conjugate vaccine serotypes account for 43·18–75·32% of isolates among people aged under 18 years of age. 11% of isolates in individuals aged under 18 years were penicillin resistant. The incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease appeared consistently lower in western European countries compared with studies from the USA. Thus the use of studies of vaccine effectiveness based on the US population may lead to an overestimation of the benefits of its introduction in Europe.

It is one of the great ironies of the history of fascism that, despite their fascination
with ultra-nationalism, its adherents understood themselves as members of a
transnational political movement. While a true “Fascist International” has never been
established, European fascists shared common goals and sentiments as well as
similar worldviews. They also drew on each other for support and motivation, even
though relations among them were not free from misunderstandings and confl icts.
Through a series of fascinating case studies, this expansive collection examines
fascism’s transnational dimension, from the movements inspired by the early example of Fascist Italy to the international antifascist organizations that emerged in
subsequent years.

Over the last thirty years, many national higher education systems (HESs) in Europe have undergone structural changes following domestic pressure or international prescriptions. These changes have mainly been intended to enhance the overall university performance – conceived as students' access, quality of teaching and excellence in research. Almost all countries have decided to address these changes by adopting a similar policy design, fostering more organizational autonomy and differentiation, and promoting greater managerial steering. However, despite similar policy patterns being replicated nearly everywhere, indicators of performance still reveal remarkable variation across Western European countries. This leads to our main research question: what are the determinants of performance improvement in higher education? Thus far, neo-liberal economists and policy analysts have stressed the role of institutional autonomy, competitive funding mechanisms and the assessment of the quality of research and teaching in improving HESs' performance; however, this explanation seems to be an oversimplification of reality. Assumed causal explanations need to be refined specifically because similar methods have produced different outputs in different countries. We argue that differences in performance across national HESs depend on the mix of different types of policy instruments. We test this expectation with respect to eleven HESs in Western Europe:. Utilizing a large dataset containing all the changes in policy instruments undertaken in the last 25 years, we turn to qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to unravel conjunctural causation.

This article argues that both socio-economic disadvantage and political factors, such as foreign policy of the West about the Muslim world, along with historical grievances, play a part in the development of Islamic radicalized collective action in Western Europe. We emphasize the role of group identity-based individual behaviour in organizing collective action within radicalized Muslim groups. Inasmuch as culture plays