(Non)fuzziness of Identity in the Spanish-Portuguese Borderland: The Case of the Linguistic Community of A Fala de Xálima (Spain)

(Non)fuzziness of Identity in the Spanish-Portuguese Borderland: The Case of the Linguistic Community of A Fala de Xálima (Spain)This article analyses the social dynamics observable in a conversation with a minoritized language activist about the neighbouring speech communities. The study demonstrates that the local variety, along with its socially meaningful context, can be an important factor for the interactionally constructed local identity. The interviewee is a member of the community of practice of A Fala de Xálima, a Galician-Portuguese Romance minoritized language with about 5,000 speakers; they live in the Spanish province of Cáceres (on the border with Portugal). The analysis applies the ontological and epistemological principles of sociocultural linguistics in order to identify some indexical interactional orientations, such as stance and ideology. (Nie)ostrość tożsamości na pograniczu hiszpańsko-portugalskim – przypadek społeczności językowej A Fala de Xálima (Hiszpania)Celem artykułu jest analiza dynamik społecznych, które można zaobserwować w konwersacji z aktywistą na rzecz języka mniejszościowego, prowadzonej na temat sąsiednich społeczności językowych. W dalszej kolejności, celem jest ukazanie, że lokalna odmiana językowa, brana pod uwagę wraz ze swoim społecznie znaczącym kontekstem, może znacząco wpływać na lokalną tożsamość językową, budowaną w sposób interakcjonalny. Rozmowa została przeprowadzona z członkiem wspólnoty praktyki A Fala de Xálima – języka mniejszościowego należącego do galicyjsko-portugalskiej grupy języków romańskich – która liczy ok. 5000 użytkowników mieszkających w hiszpańskiej prowincji Cáceres (na granicy z Portugalią). W analizie autor posługuje się zasadami ontologiczno-epistemologicznymi tzw. językoznawstwa społeczno-kulturowego i przy ich użyciu opisuje wybrane orientacje indeksykalne o charakterze interakcjonalnym, takie jak pozycjonowania społeczne (ang. stance) i ideologie.

Islam Is Not Bad, Muslims Are: I’m Done with Islam

The present paper addresses the motives that make some inhabitants of the Spanish province of Granada that converted to Islam leave it after some time. We have approached this reality using grounded theory and conducting nineteen in-depth interviews. Two of the main conclusions are that all interviewees were under great pressure due to the expectations that Muslims they interacted with—partners, family, people from Muslim associations or internet groups, etc.—had of them, and that said expectations were based on interpretations of a fundamentalist nature. Additionally, the fact that these people left Islam makes it evident that their existence is grounded in a ‘self’ under constant construction and open to the possibility of starting to be, continuing to be, or changing depending on their personal choice.

R&D and Innovation Collaboration between Universities and Business—A PLS-SEM Model for the Spanish Province of Huelva

In the last decade we have witnessed a growing amount of interest for developing better ‘exchange’ between universities, research centres and technology parks and companies, governments and other institutions. The biggest aim of those projects is, on the one hand, to make sure that valuable research does not stay hidden in the ivory tower of academia, and, on the other, that there are clear indications for what kinds of solutions are needed in the market. Due to the lack of empirical research in the topic, the focus of this paper is to establish and explain which factors determine the demand for technological services and how they can contribute to the promotion of greater university–business collaboration in R&D and innovation. To achieve that goal, we applied the PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling) method in order to create a theoretical model, which was then verified through the application of the CTA (Confirmatory Tetrad Analysis) with the purpose of evaluating whether the specification of the chosen measurement model based on the theoretical rationale was supported by data. The test run was performed on 96 companies from the Spanish region of Huelva. It showed that only four of the considered factors, namely influence of the environment, market conditions, technology adoption decision and economic characteristics of the company, constituted 65.76% of the variance of the endogenous latent Demand for Technological Services. We believe that thanks to the proposed model and its adaptivity, it is possible to design relevant policies and undertakings aimed at promoting the research-business collaboration at the regional, national and international levels.

The Buenaventura Sector of the San Finx W–Sn Deposit (NW Spain): Ore Mineralogy, Host Rocks and Associated Hydrothermal Alteration

The San Finx W–Sn ore deposit is located in the Spanish province of A Coruña (Galicia, NW Spain). Geologically, it occurs in the Galicia-Trás-os-Montes zone which is one of the innermost zones of the Iberian Variscan collisional belt. This ore deposit is characterized by NE–SW trending quartz-dominated veins with centimeter-size hübnerite and cassiterite. This research focuses on one sector of this deposit known as Buenaventura. The aim of this work is to present a mineralogical and petrological characterization of the ore-bearing veins, their host rocks and associated hydrothermal alteration. The vein mineralogy is mainly quartz, muscovite, K-feldspar, apatite and scarce fluorite. The ore minerals are hübnerite, scheelite and cassiterite with columbite and ilmenorutile-struverite inclusions, together with sulfides, mainly chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite, and, in less abundance, molybdenite, löllingite, pyrrhotite, sphalerite, stannite, pyrite, Bi-Pb-Ag sulfosalts and native bismuth. The main host-rocks are micaschist and paragneiss and two types of pegmatites, homogeneous pegmatites and banded aplite-pegmatites with columbite. The host rocks are affected by four types of hydrothermal alterations: tourmalinization, greissenization, feldspathization and silicification. The more widespread alteration is the feldspathization in which the protolith is replaced by massive albite and K-feldspar with fibrous habit, accompanied by apatite, chlorite, rutile, magnetite, hematite, chalcopyrite and sphalerite. In addition, there are highly deformed areas with a complex alteration rich in K-feldspar and sulfides, mainly chalcopyrite, minerals of the stannite group and sphalerite and, in less abundance, bismuthinite, native bismuth, galena and pyrite. This deposit shares features in terms of geological setting, hydrothermal alteration and ore assemblages with exogreisen systems formed in the cupolas of highly fractionated granites in collisional settings.

The international legal status of Western Sahara

Western Sahara is a territory lying in North-Western Africa. It borders Morocco in the north, Algeria in the north-east, Mauritania in the east and in the south, and its north-western coast borders the Atlantic Ocean. The country was colonized by the Kingdom of Spain following the decisions of the Berlin conference held in 1884. After World War 2, it was a Spanish province. When it won the independence in 1956, Morocco demanded that Western Sahara should be “liberated”, claiming that the territory belonged to it. In 1963,following the passing of the information by Spain, on the basis of Article 73 letter e) of the Charter of the United Nations, the UN entered Western Sahara in the list of areas which were not governed independently. On 14 April 1976, Morocco and Mauritania signed a convention on establishing their frontier line, on the power of which they executed a division of the territory of Western Sahara. Nowadays the western – the larger – part of Western Sahara’s territory is controlled by Morocco. The main aim of this article is to provide an answer to the question of the present condition of the international legal status of Western Sahara.

Non-Chrematistic Indicators and Growth in the Balearic Islands

We analyze the economic evolution of a Spanish province that has become a leading region in mass tourism: The Balearic Islands. Environmental data are provided, which complement conventional macroeconomic variables. We analyze the relationship between economic activity and the consumption of natural resources in the Balearic Islands during the period 2000-2017. We find two clear patterns, one before the Global Crisis, and another one after it. We state that the Balearic economic model has become more sustainable since 2008. It implies that public policies, together with own households’ and enterprises’ initiatives in terms of changing production and consumption patterns have paid off and should be continued and deepened.

Emigration from Teruel, Spain, to California in the Early Twentieth Century

This article examines the pattern of emigration from the Spanish province of Teruel to California during the first third of the twentieth century. It is based on oral interviews and written sources in both Spain and the United States and on significant detective work. The resulting demographic profile of emigrants from Teruel indicates the significance of the emigration phenomenon, and reveals the origins, transportation and admissions challenges, and the destinations of individuals who moved to California for work. In addition, it sheds light on the reasons that motivated hundreds of people from Teruel, known as Turolenses in Spanish, to leave their place of origin and travel thousands of miles by sea and land to California in search of a better future for themselves and their families. This is a timely article, marking the centenary of the largest emigration from Teruel to North America.

Strategic Management of the COVID-19 Crisis in Rural Tourism Settings

This chapter is intended to contribute to filling the gap in the scientific literature on crisis management in small and medium-sized rural tourism enterprises in the occasion of the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking as the object of this study the Spanish province of Huelva, and under a qualitative methodological approach, the research aim was threefold: the measures taken to alleviate the crisis, the lessons learnt during the period of coexistence with the pandemic, and the opportunities for the development of rural tourism in the post-viral scenario. The latter ones were related to key topics such as safety and hygiene, risk of rejection of tourism, destinations governance, marketing policies, compatibility between short-term emergency measures and long-term vision, creativity and innovation, and people-centred organizations. Finally, some practical implications were concluded on this strategic issue.