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Hemos perdido con la mayoría absoluta del Partido Popular y el apoyo de CIU, el consenso político y social imprescindible para que la Ley el reglamento de extranjería permitiesen por lo menos poner la base para la integración de los inmigrantes sin papeles que sigan llegando. Los cupos presentados como la solución son un engaño, fomentan el racismo y consideran al inmigrante no una persona sino un elemento de producción, un ciudadano de segunda categoría. La administración local sufre sus consecuencias; sin recursos, con manifestaciones de xenofobia y graves riesgos de ghetto en sus barrios periféricos, tienen que afrontar los efectos del problema global y luchar por una difícil integración social y ciudadana. ; Thanks to the absolute majority of the Partido Popular and the support of CIU we have lost the political and social consensus thas is indispensable for the law and the regulations governing foreigners to at least make it possible to lay the foundations for the integration of the paper-less immigrants who continue to arrive. The quotas submitted as the solution are a lie, they foster racism and look upon the immigrant as an element of production, not as a person, but a second-class citizen. Local goverments are suffering the consequences of this; bereft of resources, with outbreaks of xenophobia and a major risk of ghettos appearing in the peripheral neighbourhoods, they have to face up to the effects of the overall problem and fight for a difficult social and civic integration. ; .

With their concept of securitization ; the Copenhagen School has introduced an ontological ; epistemological ; and methodological turn in the academic field of security studies that produced a wide body of literature by broadening ; widening ; and deepening the discourse. Especially more sociological scholars have stressed the importance of social contexts and illustrated how the inclusion of those allows for a better understanding of securitizing processes. Yet ; despite the enormous increase and prominence of postcolonial works ; securitization scholars have failed to properly incorporate and adapt to this postcolonial turn. This article sets out to bridge this missing link between securitization ; social contexts ; and the concept of the postcolonial. Combining a wide range of secondary literature ; this article proposes an analytical framework of the postcolonial context that functions as an intersectional site which encompasses the interconnectedness of discursive ; material ; and power structures (socio-linguistic and socio-political dimensions of context) and that includes a temporal (pre-colonial ; colonial ; and post-independent) as well as spatial (local ; national ; regional ; global) dimension. The securitization of homosexuality in Uganda functions as a helpful case to illustrate both the benefit and necessity of applying the underlying conceptualization of the postcolonial context to securitization theory. Not only does it help to better understand matters of homosexuality in the Ugandan context ; but it also offers an innovative contribution to the general discourse on securitization and facilitates to extend its application to non-European settings.

Treballs Finals del Màster del Màster de Sociologia: Transformacions Socials i Innovació, Facultat d'Economia i Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2020-2021, Tutora: Tutora:Marisol García Cabeza ; [spa] Este trabajo de investigación desarrolla un marco de análisis desde la perspectiva de la innovación social y su relación en el ámbito púbico, enfocándose particularmente en las transformaciones que dan origen a nuevos modelos de gobernanza colaborativa a nivel local y su proceso de institucionalización. El marco se centra en aquellas dimensiones de la innovación social que permiten analizar el cambio en las prácticas y relaciones sociales entre los actores a nivel institucional a través de la implementación de instrumentos públicos de prácticas participativas y conformación de redes intra e inter locales, como medios para la satisfacción de necesidades y la generación de valor para los actores en el entorno público. Para esto se utiliza una aproximación cualitativa, donde las técnicas de recolección de información y análisis son a través de entrevistas semi-estructuradas y análisis documental. Se examinan y comparan dos experiencias de innovación en la gobernanza pública a nivel local en Chile; "La Fábrica", iniciativa de la municipalidad de Renca e "Independencia Ciudadana", iniciativa de la municipalidad de Independencia, poniendo en relación el contexto social e histórico que dan origen a la iniciativa, sus objetivos y las posibles brechas existentes con los mecanismos institucionales que soportan el nuevo modelo de gobernanza [cat] Aquest treball de recerca desenvolupa un marc d'anàlisi des de la perspectiva de la innovació social i la seva relació en l'àmbit públic, enfocat particularment en les transformacions que donen origen a nous models de governança col·laborativa en l'àmbit local i el seu procés d'institucionalització. El marc se centra en aquelles dimensions de la innovació social que permeten analitzar el canvi en les pràctiques i relacions socials entre els actors a escala institucional a ...

The development of local communities, the future of the Republic of Poland is a matter requiring the integration of hands, hearts and minds, a sense of rights and obligations of all citizens. With this awareness and the need for action to rebuild ties in local communities, the General Meeting of the Beskidy Association of Ecological Production and Tourism BEST PROEKO in 2014 adopted a resolution on statutory actions to counteract the spreading social pathology and social exclusion of the unemployed and disadvantaged people, which resulted in the creation of the first Social Integration Centre in the district of Żywiec in Jeleśnia. It is a coherent, integrated and coherent measure that fits into the Development Strategy of the Silesian Voivodeship "Śląskie 2020+" in the area of social economy and fulfils the mission to create a necessary platform for cooperation for local partnership in order to improve the quality of life of persons in need of comprehensive support on the way to return to decent living and to social and professional activity. The Beskidzki Congress of Social Economy had the task of bottom-up evaluation of the activity of social economy entities of the Polish Social Economy and analysis of conditions and needs in terms of legal and organizational changes to improve their functioning in a coherent and integrated local partnership in the space of socio-economic life of the inhabitants of the Podbeskidzie region.

[ita] La presente tesi di dottorato approfondisce l'immigrazione e, precisamente, le politiche delle amministrazioni locali per l'accoglienza e l'integrazione sociale degli stranieri. La ricerca non affronta un argomento nuovo ma, visto il gran numero di cittadini stranieri comunitari ed extracomunitari che raggiungono ogni anno l'Italia e la Spagna, le politiche per l'integrazione sociale degli immigrati (immigrants politics) hanno acquistato un significato sociale e culturale che le ha trasformate in un tema di speciale rilevanza e interesse dal punto di vista sociologico, politologico e giuridico. Nello specifico, la ricerca si concentra sulle politiche implementate nelle città di Roma e Barcellona, con il fine di comprendere le analogie e le differenze che soggiacciono al modello di politica locale specifico di ognuna di esse. I primi capitoli della tesi sono il frutto di un ampio lavoro di ricerca bibliografica orientata a ricostruire i principali approcci teorici che nell'ambito delle scienze sociali studiano lo straniero e l'immigrazione, tanto nella sua articolazione quanto nel suo impatto con la società di accoglienza. Nel primo capitolo è presentato il dibattito sulla figura dello straniero e i contributi degli autori che all'interno delle scienze sociali, hanno contribuito alla definizione dello straniero come categoria sociologica. In questa parte della ricerca lo sforzo è stato quello di collegare le riflessioni dei classici della sociologia come G. Simmel, N. Elias e W. Sombart, a quelle di autori più recenti quali Z. Bauman, A. Touraine, con lo scopo di far "dialogare" tra loro autori di differenti epoche storiche. Nel secondo capitolo è esaminata la letteratura sui discorsi politici sull'immigrazione e si approfondisce il ruolo dei mezzi di comunicazione nella diffusione di un'immagine dell'immigrazione come problema sociale e nazionale. Nello specifico, sono ricostruiti i processi che hanno contribuito a diffondere una rappresentazione dell'immigrazione legata alla criminalità e all'irregolarità degli stranieri. In questa parte del lavoro si approfondisce l'origine del discorso securitario al cui interno l'immigrazione è rappresentata come problema collegato alla sicurezza. La seconda parte della ricerca si concentra sugli aspetti interpretativi del fenomeno migratorio attraverso la ricostruzione di due casi nazionali: l'Italia e la Spagna. A questo proposito, il terzo capitolo è dedicato all'analisi delle leggi sull'immigrazione, italiane e spagnole, e alla ricostruzione delle tappe della loro evoluzione, un percorso che ha complessificato la gestione dell'immigrazione e stabilito un sistema di governance multilevel, dove le istituzioni locali e le associazioni del Terzo Settore diventano "partner" della Pubblica Amministrazione nella prestazione di servizi alle persone immigrate. In seguito, è presentata la raccolta e l'analisi del materiale empirico, attraverso una metodologia di analisi qualitativa. Nello specifico, si presenta uno studio comparativo delle politiche locali per gli immigrati delle città di Roma e Barcellona. In entrambe le città sono state realizzate interviste-semistrutturate con testimoni privilegiati appartenenti al settore pubblico e al Terzo Settore (in totale 50), operanti a livello regionale, comunale e territoriale, con il fine di individuare le peculiarità delle politiche locali per gli immigrati (reti di attori, relazioni, programmi di intervento, risorse, ecc.) implementate in ognuno dei due casi di studio. Nel capitolo quinto sono esposti i dati raccolti con le interviste, mentre i risultati dell'analisi comparativa sono presentati nel capitolo finale, mostrando analogie e differenze tra i due modelli i immigrants policy osservati nel caso di Roma e in quello di Barcellona. ; [spa] La presente tesis doctoral se centra en la inmigración, precisamente, en las políticas de las administraciones locales relacionadas a la acogida y a la integración social de los ciudadanos extranjeros. La investigación no se enfrenta a un problema nuevo en sí, sin embargo dado el gran número de ciudadanos comunitarios y no comunitarios que cada año llegan a Italia y España, las políticas locales para la integración social de las personas recién llegadas han adquirido un significado social y cultural que las convierte en un tema de especial relevancia e interés desde el punto de vista sociológico, polito1ógico y jurídico. Concretamente, el estudio se centra en las políticas implementadas en las ciudades de Roma y Barcelona, con el fin de comprender las similitudes y las diferencias que subyacen detrás del modelo de política local específico de cada una de ellas. Los primeros capítulos de la tesis son el fruto de un amplio trabajo de investigación bibliográfica con el fin de reconstruir los principales enfoques teóricos que en el ámbito de las ciencias sociales estudian el extranjero y la inmigración, tanto en su articulación cuanto en su impacto en la sociedad receptora. En el primer capitula se presenta el debate sobre la figura del extranjero, así como las contribuciones de los autores que, dentro de las ciencias sociales, han contribuido a la definición del extranjero coma una categoría sociológica. Esta parte de la investigación consiste en conectar la reflexión y los aportes de los clásicos de la sociología como Simmel, Elias y Sombart a las de autores más recientes como Bauman y Touraine, en el intento de hacer "dialogar" a los autores de diferentes épocas históricas. En el segundo capitula se examina la literatura sobre los discursos políticos en torno a la inmigración profundizando el papel de los medios de comunicación en la difusión de una imagen de la inmigración como problema social. En concreto, se han reconstruido los procesos que han contribuido a la propagación de una representación de la inmigración relacionada a la criminalidad y a la irregularidad de los extranjeros. En esta parte del trabajo, se ha profundizado en el origen del discurso securitario en el que la inmigración está representada coma problema social enlazado a la seguridad. La segunda parte del trabajo de tesis se concentra en la cuestión interpretativa del fenómeno migratorio mediante la reconstrucción de dos casos nacionales: Italia y España. A este propósito, se ha dedicado el tercer capitula al análisis de las leyes de extranjería, italiana y española, hallando las etapas de un recorrido que ha vuelto más compleja la gestión de la inmigración y ha establecido un sistema de gobernanza multinivel en la que las instituciones locales y las entidades del Tercer Sector Social se convierten en "aliados" de las administraciones públicas en la prestación de servicios a las personas inmigradas. Posteriormente, se ha recopilado y analizado el material empírico a través de metodologías de análisis cualitativas. En concreto, se lleva a cabo un estudio comparativo entre las políticas locales para los inmigrantes de la ciudad de Roma y las de la ciudad de Barcelona. En ambas ciudades se han realizado entrevistas semiestructuradas con actores clave tanto públicos, cuanto del Tercer Sector Social (en total 50), operativas tanto a nivel autonómico como municipal y territorial, con el objetivo de reconstruir las peculiaridades de las políticas locales para los inmigrantes (redes de actores, recursos, relaciones, programas de intervención). En el capítulo siguiente se exponen los datos recopilados con las entrevistas, mientras que los resultados del análisis comparativo se muestran en el capítulo de conclusiones, destacando similitudes y diferencias entre los dos modelos de política inmigratoria observados.

I've been reading a lot of macro lately. In part, I'm just catching up from a few years of book writing. In part,  I want to understand inflation dynamics, the quest set forth in "expectations and the neutrality of interest rates," and an  obvious next step in the fiscal theory program. Perhaps blog readers might find interesting some summaries of recent papers, when there is a great idea that can be summarized without a huge amount of math. So, I start a series on cool papers I'm reading. Today: "Tail risk in production networks" by Ian Dew-Becker, a beautiful paper. A "production network" approach recognizes that each firm buys from others, and models this interconnection. It's a hot topic for lots of reasons, below.  I'm interested because prices cascading through production networks might induce a better model of inflation dynamics. (This post uses Mathjax equations. If you're seeing garbage like [\alpha = \beta] then come back to the source  here.) To Ian's paper: Each firm uses other firms' outputs as inputs. Now, hit the economy with a vector of productivity shocks. Some firms get more productive, some get less productive. The more productive ones will expand and lower prices, but that changes everyone's input prices too. Where does it all settle down? This is the fun question of network economics. Ian's central idea: The problem simplifies a lot for large shocks. Usually when problems are complicated we look at first or second order approximations, i.e. for small shocks, obtaining linear or quadratic ("simple") approximations. On the x axis, take a vector of productivity shocks for each firm, and scale it up or down. The x axis represents this overall scale. The y axis is GDP. The right hand graph is Ian's point: for large shocks, log GDP becomes linear in log productivity -- really simple. Why? Because for large enough shocks, all the networky stuff disappears. Each firm's output moves up or down depending only on one critical input. To see this, we have to dig deeper to complements vs. substitutes. Suppose the price of an input goes up 10%. The firm tries to use less of this input. If the best it can do is to cut use 5%, then the firm ends up paying 5% more overall for this input, the "expenditure share" of this input rises. That is the case of "complements." But if the firm can cut use of the input 15%, then it pays 5% less overall for the input, even though the price went up. That is the case of "substitutes." This is the key concept for the whole question: when an input's price goes up, does its share of overall expenditure go up (complements) or down (substitutes)? Suppose inputs are complements. Again, this vector of technology shocks hits the economy. As the size of the shock gets bigger, the expenditure of each firm, and thus the price it charges for its output, becomes more and more dominated by the one input whose price grows the most. In that sense, all the networkiness simplifies enormously. Each firm is only "connected" to one other firm. Turn the shock around. Each firm that was getting a productivity boost now gets a productivity reduction. Each price that was going up now goes down. Again, in the large shock limit, our firm's price becomes dominated by the price of its most expensive input. But it's a different input.  So, naturally, the economy's response to this technology shock is linear, but with a different slope in one direction vs. the other. Suppose instead that inputs are substitutes. Now, as prices change, the firm expands more and more its use of the cheapest input, and its costs and price become dominated by that input instead. Again, the network collapsed to one link.  Ian: "negative productivity shocks propagate downstream through parts of the production process that are complementary (\(\sigma_i < 1\)), while positive productivity shocks propagate through parts that are substitutable (\(\sigma_i > 1\)). ...every sector's behavior ends up driven by a single one of its inputs....there is a tail network, which depends on \(\theta\) and in which each sector has just a single upstream link."Equations: Each firm's production function is (somewhat simplifying Ian's (1)) \[Y_i = Z_i L_i^{1-\alpha} \left( \sum_j A_{ij}^{1/\sigma} X_{ij}^{(\sigma-1)/\sigma} \right)^{\alpha \sigma/(\sigma-1)}.\]Here \(Y_i\) is output, \(Z_i\) is productivity, \(L_i\) is labor input, \(X_{ij}\) is how much good j firm i  uses as an input, and \(A_{ij}\) captures how important each input is in production. \(\sigma>1\) are substitutes, \(\sigma<1\) are complements. Firms are competitive, so price equals marginal cost, and each firm's price is \[ p_i = -z_i + \frac{\alpha}{1-\sigma}\log\left(\sum_j A_{ij}e^{(1-\sigma)p_j}\right).\; \; \; (1)\]Small letters are logs of big letters.  Each price depends on the prices of all the inputs, plus the firm's own productivity.  Log GDP, plotted in the above figure is \[gdp = -\beta'p\] where \(p\) is the vector of prices and \(\beta\) is a vector of how important each good is to the consumer. In the case \(\sigma=1\) (1)  reduces to a linear formula. We can easily solve for prices and then gdp as a function of the technology shocks: \[p_i = - z_i + \sum_j A_{ij} p_j\] and hence \[p=-(I-\alpha A)^{-1}z,\]where the letters represent vectors and matrices across \(i\) and \(j\). This expression shows some of the point of networks, that the pattern of prices and output reflects the whole network of production, not just individual firm productivity. But with \(\sigma \neq 1\) (1) is nonlinear without a known closed form solution. Hence approximations. You can see Ian's central point directly from (1). Take the \(\sigma<1\) case, complements. Parameterize the size of the technology shocks by a fixed vector \(\theta = [\theta_1, \ \theta_2, \ ...\theta_i,...]\) times a scalar \(t>0\), so that \(z_i=\theta_i \times t\). Then let \(t\) grow keeping the pattern of shocks \(\theta\) the same. Now, as the \(\{p_i\}\) get larger in absolute value, the term with the greatest \(p_i\) has the greatest value of \( e^{(1-\sigma)p_j} \). So, for large technology shocks \(z\), only that largest term matters, the log and e cancel, and \[p_i \approx -z_i + \alpha \max_{j} p_j.\] This is linear, so we can also write prices as a pattern \(\phi\) times the scale \(t\), in the large-t limit \(p_i = \phi_i t\),  and  \[\phi_i =  -\theta_i + \alpha \max_{j} \phi_j.\;\;\; (2)\] With substitutes, \(\sigma<1\), the firm's costs, and so its price, will be driven by the smallest (most negative) upstream price, in the same way. \[\phi_i \approx -\theta_i + \alpha \min_{j} \phi_j.\] To express gdp scaling with \(t\), write \(gdp=\lambda t\), or when you want to emphasize the dependence on the vector of technology shocks, \(\lambda(\theta)\). Then we find gdp by \(\lambda =-\beta'\phi\). In this big price limit, the \(A_{ij}\) contribute a constant term, which also washes out. Thus the actual "network" coefficients stop mattering at all so long as they are not zero -- the max and min are taken over all non-zero inputs. Ian: ...the limits for prices, do not depend on the exact values of any \(\sigma_i\) or \(A_{i,j}.\) All that matters is whether the elasticities are above or below 1 and whether the production weights are greater than zero. In the example in Figure 2, changing the exact values of the production parameters (away from \(\sigma_i = 1\) or \(A_{i,j} = 0\)) changes...the levels of the asymptotes, and it can change the curvature of GDP with respect to productivity, but the slopes of the asymptotes are unaffected....when thinking about the supply-chain risks associated with large shocks, what is important is not how large a given supplier is on average, but rather how many sectors it supplies...For a full solution, look at the (more interesting) case of complements, and suppose every firm uses a little bit of every other firm's output, so all the \(A_{ij}>0\). The largest input  price in (2) is the same for each firm \(i\), and you can quickly see then that the biggest price will be the smallest technology shock. Now we can solve the model for prices and GDP as a function of technology shocks: \[\phi_i \approx -\theta_i - \frac{\alpha}{1-\alpha} \theta_{\min},\] \[\lambda \approx  \beta'\theta + \frac{\alpha}{1-\alpha}\theta_{\min}.\] We have solved the large-shock approximation for prices and GDP as a function of technology shocks. (This is Ian's example 1.) The graph is concave when inputs are complements, and convex when they are substitutes. Let's do complements. We do the graph to the left of the kink by changing the sign of \(\theta\).  If the identity of \(\theta_{\min}\) did not change, \(\lambda(-\theta)=-\lambda(\theta)\) and the graph would be linear; it would go down on the left of the kink by the same amount it goes up on the right of the kink. But now a different \(j\) has the largest price and the worst technology shock. Since this must be a worse technology shock than the one driving the previous case, GDP is lower and the graph is concave.  \[-\lambda(-\theta) = \beta'\theta + \frac{\alpha}{1-\alpha}\theta_{\max} \ge\beta'\theta + \frac{\alpha}{1-\alpha}\theta_{\min} = \lambda(\theta).\] Therefore  \(\lambda(-\theta)\le-\lambda(\theta),\) the left side falls by more than the right side rises. Does all of this matter? Well, surely more for questions when there might be a big shock, such as the big shocks we saw in a pandemic, or big shocks we might see in a war. One of the big questions that network theory asks is, how much does GDP change if there is a technology shock in a particular industry? The \(\sigma=1\) case in which expenditure shares are constant gives a standard and fairly reassuring result: the effect on GDP of a shock in industry i is given by the ratio of i's output to total GDP. ("Hulten's theorem.") Industries that are small relative to GDP don't affect GDP that much if they get into trouble. You can intuit that constant expenditure shares are important for this result. If an industry has a negative technology shock, raises its prices, and others can't reduce use of its inputs, then its share of expenditure will rise, and it will all of a sudden be important to GDP. Continuing our example, if one firm has a negative technology shock, then it is the minimum technology, and [(d gdp/dz_i = \beta_i + \frac{\alpha}{1-\alpha}.\] For small firms (industries) the latter term is likely to be the most important.  All the A and \(\sigma\) have disappeared, and basically the whole economy is driven by this one unlucky industry and labor.   Ian: ...what determines tail risk is not whether there is granularity on average, but whether there can ever be granularity – whether a single sector can become pivotal if shocks are large enough.For example, take electricity and restaurants. In normal times, those sectors are of similar size, which in a linear approximation would imply that they have similar effects on GDP. But one lesson of Covid was that shutting down restaurants is not catastrophic for GDP, [Consumer spending on food services and accommodations fell by 40 percent, or $403 billion between 2019Q4 and 2020Q2. Spending at movie theaters fell by 99 percent.] whereas one might expect that a significant reduction in available electricity would have strongly negative effects – and that those effects would be convex in the size of the decline in available power. Electricity is systemically important not because it is important in good times, but because it would be important in bad times. Ben Moll turned out to be right and Germany was able to substitute away from Russian Gas a lot more than people had thought, but even that proves the rule: if it is hard to substitute away from even a small input, then large shocks to that input imply larger expenditure shares and larger impacts on the economy than its small output in normal times would suggest.There is an enormous amount more in the paper and voluminous appendices, but this is enough for a blog review. ****Now, a few limitations, or really thoughts on where we go next. (No more in this paper, please, Ian!) Ian does a nice illustrative computation of the sensitivity to large shocks:Ian assumes \(\sigma>1\), so the main ingredients are how many downstream firms use your products and a bit their labor shares. No surprise, trucks, and energy have big tail impacts. But so do lawyers and insurance. Can we really not do without lawyers? Here I hope the next step looks hard at substitutes vs. complements.That raises a bunch of issues. Substitutes vs. complements surely depends on time horizon and size of shocks. It might be easy to use a little less water or electricity initially, but then really hard to reduce more than, say, 80%. It's usually easier to substitute in the long run than the short run. The analysis in this literature is "static," meaning it describes the economy when everything has settled down.  The responses -- you charge more, I use less, I charge more, you use less of my output, etc. -- all happen instantly, or equivalently the model studies a long run where this has all settled down. But then we talk about responses to shocks, as in the pandemic.  Surely there is a dynamic response here, not just including capital accumulation (which Ian studies). Indeed, my hope was to see prices spreading out through a production network over time, but this structure would have all price adjustments instantly. Mixing production networks with sticky prices is an obvious idea, which some of the papers below are working on. In the theory and data handling, you see a big discontinuity. If a firm uses any inputs at all from another firm,  if \(A_{ij}>0\), that input can take over and drive everything. If it uses no inputs at all, then there is no network link and the upstream firm can't have any effect. There is a big discontinuity at \(A_{ij}=0.\) We would prefer a theory that does not jump from zero to everything when the firm buys one stick of chewing gum. Ian had to drop small but nonzero elements of the input-output matrix to produces sensible results. Perhaps we should regard very small inputs as always substitutes? How important is the network stuff anyway? We tend to use industry categorizations, because we have an industry input-output table. But how much of the US industry input-output is simply vertical: Loggers sell trees to mills who sell wood to lumberyards who sell lumber to Home Depot who sells it to contractors who put up your house? Energy and tools feed each stage, but don't use a whole lot of wood to make those. I haven't looked at an input-output matrix recently, but just how "vertical" is it? ****The literature on networks in macro is vast. One approach is to pick a recent paper like Ian's and work back through the references. I started to summarize, but gave up in the deluge. Have fun. One way to think of a branch of economics is not just "what tools does it use?" but "what questions is it asking?  Long and Plosser "Real Business Cycles," a classic, went after idea that the central defining feature of business cycles (since Burns and Mitchell) is comovement. States and industries all go up and down together to a remarkable degree. That pointed to "aggregate demand" as a key driving force. One would think that "technology shocks" whatever they are would be local or industry specific. Long and Plosser showed that an input output structure led idiosyncratic shocks to produce business cycle common movement in output. Brilliant. Macro went in another way, emphasizing time series -- the idea that recessions are defined, say, by two quarters of aggregate GDP decline, or by the greater decline of investment and durable goods than consumption -- and in the aggregate models of Kydland and Prescott, and the stochastic growth model as pioneered by King, Plosser and Rebelo, driven by a single economy-wide technology shock.  Part of this shift is simply technical: Long and Plosser used analytical tools, and were thereby stuck in a model without capital, plus they did not inaugurate matching to data. Kydland and Prescott brought numerical model solution and calibration to macro, which is what macro has done ever since.  Maybe it's time to add capital, solve numerically, and calibrate Long and Plosser (with up to date frictions and consumer heterogeneity too, maybe). Xavier Gabaix (2011)  had a different Big Question in mind: Why are business cycles so large? Individual firms and industries have large shocks, but \(\sigma/\sqrt{N}\) ought to dampen those at the aggregate level. Again, this was a classic argument for aggregate "demand" as opposed to "supply."  Gabaix notices that the US has a fat-tailed firm distribution with a few large firms, and those firms have large shocks. He amplifies his argument via the Hulten mechanism, a bit of networkyiness, since the impact of a firm on the economy is sales / GDP,  not value added / GDP. The enormous literature since then  has gone after a variety of questions. Dew-Becker's paper is about the effect of big shocks, and obviously not that useful for small shocks. Remember which question you're after.My quest for a new Phillips curve in production networks is better represented by Elisa Rubbo's "Networks, Phillips curves and Monetary Policy," and Jennifer La'o and  Alireza Tahbaz-Salehi's "Optimal Monetary Policy in Production Networks," If I can boil those down for the blog, you'll hear about it eventually.  The "what's the question" question is doubly important for this branch of macro that explicitly models heterogeneous agents and heterogenous firms. Why are we doing this? One can always represent the aggregates with a social welfare function and an aggregate production function. You might be interested in how aggregates affect individuals, but that doesn't change your model of aggregates. Or, you might be interested in seeing what the aggregate production or utility function looks like -- is it consistent with what we know about individual firms and people? Does the size of the aggregate production function shock make sense? But still, you end up with just a better (hopefully) aggregate production and utility function. Or, you might want models that break the aggregation theorems in a significant way; models for which distributions matter for aggregate dynamics, theoretically and (harder) empirically. But don't forget you need a reason to build disaggregated models. Expression (1) is not easy to get to. I started reading Ian's paper in my usual way:  to learn a literature start with the latest paper and work backward. Alas, this literature has evolved to the point that authors plop results down that "everybody knows" and will take you a day or so of head-scratching to reproduce. I complained to Ian, and he said he had the same problem when he was getting in to the literature! Yes, journals now demand such overstuffed papers that it's hard to do, but it would be awfully nice for everyone to start including ground up algebra for major results in one of the endless internet appendices.  I eventually found Jonathan Dingel's notes on Dixit Stiglitz tricks, which were helpful. Update:Chase Abram's University of Chicago Math Camp notes here  are also a fantastic resource. See Appendix B starting p. 94 for  production network math. The rest of the notes are also really good. The first part goes a little deeper into more abstract material than is really necessary for the second part and applied work, but it is a wonderful and concise review of that material as well.  

La relevancia del espacio urbano en las transformaciones globales actuales es indudable. Las ciudades, entendidas estas en un sentido amplio, se convierten en espacios privilegiados donde tiene lugar el fenómeno de la transnacionalización de la economía, la política, la cultura, e indudablemente, también el derecho. Los procesos migratorios contemporáneos son, al mismo tiempo, las principales causas y consecuencias de tal fenómeno. Por tanto, consideramos la necesidad de analizar el fenómeno de las migraciones y las ciudades desde la óptica de la confluencia de múltiples órdenes normativos. En concreto, resulta relevante concentrarse en aquellos discursos y prácticas jurídicas protagonizadas por sujetos localizados en los márgenes del sistema, como son los inmigrantes indocumentados o "sin papeles". El caso más representativo de nuestro entorno, son los episodios de encierros, huelgas y manifestaciones en los años 2001, principalmente, que tuvieron lugar en el área metropolitana de Barcelona. Tomando como "campo de acción" el espacio urbano y como distintas escalas jurisdiccionales como fuente de legitimación de las reivindicaciones, sujetos, no reconocidos por el ordenamiento como interlocutores político-jurídicos, incidieron en la producción normativa en materia de extranjería, y pusieron de manifiesto la posibilidad de hacer realidad un nuevo concepto de ciudadanía. ; La rellevància de l'espai urbà en les transformacions globals actuals és indubtable. Les ciutats, enteses aquestes en un sentit ampli, es converteixen en espais privilegiats on tenen lloc el fenomen de transnacionalització de l'economia, la política, la cultura, i indubtablement, també el dret. Els processos migratoris contemporanis són, al mateix temps, les principals causes i conseqüències de tal fenomen. Per tant, considerem la necessitat d'analitzar el fenomen de les migracions i les ciutats des de l'òptica de la confluència de múltiples ordres normatives. En concret, resulta rellevant concentrar-se en aquells discursos i pràctiques jurídiques protagonitzades per subjectes localitzats als marges del sistema, com són els immigrants indocumentats o sense papers. El cas més representatiu del nostre entorn són els episodis de tancaments, vagues i manifestacions durant l'any 2001, principalment que van tindre lloc a l'Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona. Agafant com a camp d'acció l'espai urbà i com diferents escales jurisdiccionals com a font de legitimació de les reivindicacions, subjectes, no reconeguts per l'ordenament com a interlocutors políticojurídics,van incidir en la producció normativa en matèria d'estrangeria, i van posar de manifest la possibilitat de fer realitat un nou concepte de ciutadania. ; The relevance of urban space in the current global transformations is undeniable. Cities, in a broad sense, are privileged spaces where occurs the process of economy trans-nationalization, politics, culture, and unquestionably Right. Contemporary immigration flows are, at the same time, source and consequence of such process. For this reason, in this paper I consider convenient to analyze this multiple-level process from the perspective of the different normative orders. Specially it is important to analyze the discourse and practices of people that is on the system fringe such as illegal immigrants or "sinpapeles". In our urban context the most important events are those related to immigrant protests of 2001 year in Barcelona. In such events the "action ground" were public spaces, at the same time that not legal-recognized interlocutors mediated the conflict. Such process proposed the possibility that a new concept of citizenship became reality. ; Peer Reviewed

This paper looks at the integration of regions and nations through the prism of the merger of populations (societies). The paper employs a particular index of social stress. Stylized examples of the merging of two populations suggest that with integration, the social stress index will increase. The examples form the basis for the development of new formulas for calculating the social stress of an integrated population as a function of the levels of social stress of the constituent populations when apart. The formulas reveal that the social stress of an integrated population is higher than the sum of the levels of social stress of the constituent populations when apart. This raises the distinct possibility that the merging of populations may be a social liability: integration may fail to give the populace a sense of improved wellbeing.

The thesis consists of an introductory part and three self-contained papers. Paper [I] studies the determinants of the differences in expenditure on services for functionally impaired individuals among municipalities in Sweden. A spatial autoregressive model is used in order to test whether the decisions on the expenditure level in a neighboring municipality affect the municipality's own expenditure. The results show of spatial interaction among neighbors, possible due to mimicking. However, when controlling for differences among counties there is no evidence of spatial interaction. Therefore, the positive interaction first found can be interpreted either as a result of differences in the way county councils diagnose individuals or due to interaction among the neighbors in the same county. Paper [II] takes advantage of a new intergovernmental grant in two ways. First, the grant is used to study the effect on municipal spending related to the grant. Second, the grant is used to test a hypothesis of spatial interaction among municipalities due to mimicking behavior. The data used pertains to the periods before and after the introduction of the grant. A fixed-effects spatial lag model is used to study the spatial interactions among municipalities. The results show that before the grant, municipalities interact with their neighbors when setting the expenditure level, while there is no evidence of interaction in the second period. This would support the hypothesis that the grants provide information to the municipalities and the need for mimicking diminishes with the grant. Paper [III] examines whether local public expenditures on services to functionally impaired individuals crowd out other local public expenditures in Sweden. The hypothesis is tested on five different spending areas using a two-stage least squares (2SLS) fixed-effects model. While the results give no support for crowding out in the areas of social assistance, culture & leisure, and childcare & preschool, a negative relationship on spending for elderly & disabled care and on spending for education is found, suggesting that crowding out indeed occurs within the municipal sector. The negative relationships are significant both in a statistical and an economic sense.

This paper shows how contemporary believers are negotiating a new identity of Islamic piety in Bulgarian Muslim communities. Driven by communal memory of repression and contemporary Islamophobia, Bulgarian Muslims have created communities of practice (Wenger 1998), participatory groups that share a common interest in learning more about their faith. Communities function on multiple levels: there are small pockets of Islamic activity at the local level, and at a broader level, an imagined community of Bulgarian-speaking Muslims connected to an imagined global Islamic community, the ummah. The practices examined here include face-to-face activities, such as learning to read the Qur'an and prayers in Arabic, learning Islamic principles and practice, and talking about faith in mosques and homes in Bulgaria. This paper also examines virtual practices, such as discussing faith on social media. The article focuses on women's and girls' Qur'an reading groups and discussions about wearing hijab, and it examines an online mixed-gender discussion of daily prayers. Such grassroots practice of Islam fosters a newly articulate and participatory version of religion, embracing and encouraging believers' literacy and knowledge, activism, and agency. The mutual goals, repertoires, and activities of this community of practice create a sense of commonality and cohesiveness, while leaving room for some diversity of focus.

La presente tesi di dottorato approfondisce l'immigrazione e, precisamente, le politiche delle amministrazioni locali per l'accoglienza e l'integrazione sociale degli stranieri. La ricerca non affronta un argomento nuovo ma, visto il gran numero di cittadini stranieri comunitari ed extracomunitari che raggiungono ogni anno l'Italia e la Spagna, le politiche per l'integrazione sociale degli immigrati (immigrants politics) hanno acquistato un significato sociale e culturale che le ha trasformate in un tema di speciale rilevanza e interesse dal punto di vista sociologico, politologico e giuridico. Nello specifico, la ricerca si concentra sulle politiche implementate nelle città di Roma e Barcellona, con il fine di comprendere le analogie e le differenze che soggiacciono al modello di politica locale specifico di ognuna di esse. I primi capitoli della tesi sono il frutto di un ampio lavoro di ricerca bibliografica orientata a ricostruire i principali approcci teorici che nell'ambito delle scienze sociali studiano lo straniero e l'immigrazione, tanto nella sua articolazione quanto nel suo impatto con la società di accoglienza. Nel primo capitolo è presentato il dibattito sulla figura dello straniero e i contributi degli autori che all'interno delle scienze sociali, hanno contribuito alla definizione dello straniero come categoria sociologica. In questa parte della ricerca lo sforzo è stato quello di collegare le riflessioni dei classici della sociologia come G. Simmel, N. Elias e W. Sombart, a quelle di autori più recenti quali Z. Bauman, A. Touraine, con lo scopo di far "dialogare" tra loro autori di differenti epoche storiche. Nel secondo capitolo è esaminata la letteratura sui discorsi politici sull'immigrazione e si approfondisce il ruolo dei mezzi di comunicazione nella diffusione di un'immagine dell'immigrazione come problema sociale e nazionale. Nello specifico, sono ricostruiti i processi che hanno contribuito a diffondere una rappresentazione dell'immigrazione legata alla criminalità e all'irregolarità degli ...

"Place Peripheral examines community and regional development in rural, island, and remote locales from a place-based approach. This is a timely edited collection, addressing themes that are receiving considerable attention in Canada and internationally as local communities, scholars, researchers and public policy analysts strive to better understand and apply place-based strategies in rural and remote regions. The volume and its contributors examine place-based economic development strategies, recognizing the broader and deeper significance, meanings, and attachments often associated with place and also interrogating such relationships as may exist between sense of place, cultural and social development, and environmental stewardship."--

The present collection of papers is a joint effort aimed at making sense of the changes that Russia's war against Ukraine ushered into the region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We have invited a team of authors working on the two subregions, the Visegrád Four and the Baltic Three, to share their reflections on how the full-scale invasion has impacted the transformations in the respective countries' regional outlook. The "kidnapping" as an overarching theme of our forum is an image that refers us to the Cold War and the history of forceful subjugation of CEE countries to foreign imperial domination as a result of aggressive wars and the spheres of influence politics in Europe. As we now clearly see, that is a part of European history that, for the moment, refuses to become history tout court.

"This paper deals with the local politics of transnational development cooperation and codevelopment in Spain. Since only a few years migrant organizations and local authorities started to engage in development cooperation in a more structured and institutionalized way. Local authorities provide specific funding for migrant organizations projects in this sense, and migrant organizations to a growing degree are willing and able to apply for them. In the context of the (re)discovery of the migration-development-nexus, migrants and migrant organizations are being identified as agents of development. There are conceived of as ideal partners and actors in the overcoming of 'under-development' in their countries of origin, which they once had left in need of at least personally overcoming the difficult economic, social and political situations often existing there. On that background, migrant organizations often not only engage in projects concerning their situation where they reside, but also up hold strong ties to their countries and localities of origin. They support their families and towns by financial means, know-how, political engagement and other manifold activities. Some - obviously to a growing degree - carry out projects in the realm of development cooperation investing in infrastructure, school and other educational activities, nutrition, capacity building etc. Increasingly, sub-national levels of governance are engaging in the promotion of transnational relations and ties of migrants between their sites of residence and origin. Most evidence in sociological and political sciences research is provided by Mexican regional and local governments' policies towards their co-citizens residing in the United States. Scholars observe a wide range of measures directed to the promotion especially of migrants´ loyalties and financial contributions. But whereas these transnational politics have been investigated from the side of the emigration countries and localities, research on the side of the immigration country does hardly exist. This paper focuses on the processes on the side of the localities where the migrants live. It explores the activities of the migrant organizations and the local authorities in two Spanish cities, Madrid and Barcelona. And it puts a special focuses on their interaction since for both parts these transnational projects are of very recent nature. By doing so, the paper makes a contribution to the new local engagement in migration and development emerging in Europe and discusses its meanings." (author's abstract)

Guest editors: Joanne Lehrer (Université du Québec en Outaouais), Christine Massing (University of Regina), Scott Hughes (Mount Royal University), and Alaina Roach O'Keefe (University of Prince Edward Island)Not only is professional learning conceptualised as critical for increasing educational quality and enhancing children's learning and developmental outcomes (e.g. Lazarri et al., 2013; Munton et al., 2002; Penn, 2009; Vandenbroeck et al., 2016), but specific elements of professional learning (in both initial and continuing education, or preservice and in-service learning) have been identified as essential to transforming early childhood educators' and preschool teachers' professional identities and practice. For example, critical and supported reflection (Thomas & Packer, 2013), learning experiences that target entire teams (Vangrieken, Dochy, & Raes, 2016), collaborative and empowering practice (Helterbran & Fennimore, 2004), and competent leadership (Colmer et al., 2008) have all been found to be effective means of supporting professional learning.While there appears to be consensus in the literature around what needs to be done, and even around how it should be done, numerous constraints prevent the implementation and maintenance of sustainable and transformational professional learning in ECEC. Vandenbroeck and colleagues (2016) go beyond the focus on individuals and childcare teams, identifying two further levels necessary for competent systems of professional learning: partnerships between local early childhood programs and social, cultural, and educational institutions (such as colleges and universities); and governance regarding vision, finance, and monitoring. In the Canadian context, the Canadian Child Care Federation has also stressed the importance of a system-wide strategy to strengthen the child care workforce (CCCF, 2016). However, early childhood services in Canada are under the purview of the provincial and territorial governments and, therefore, the conditions, regulations, certification requirements, curriculum documents, and educational systems vary widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The educational requirements for certification, for example, may include no formal training (in NWT and Nunavut), one entry-level short course, one-year certificates, or two-year diplomas. This complicates efforts to define who the early childhood professional is and what opportunities are constitutive of professional learning (Prochner, Cleghorn, Kirova, & Massing, 2016). While these disparities within the field may impede the development of a cohesive strategy, Campbell et al. (2016) recently asserted that much can be learned from sharing and appreciating the rich diversity of approaches to professional learning both within and across provinces and territories. In addition, examples from other countries serve to broaden the discussion and expand our understanding of what is possible (Vandenboreock et al., 2016).This special issue, then, is dedicated to sharing stories of hope and coordinated action, linking theory with practice. We seek Canadian and international submissions related to professional learning practices that extend beyond individual programs, showcasing partnerships and community mobilization efforts within and across various settings for young children (child care, Kindergarten, drop-in centres, etc.) in relation to philosophical, practical, critical, transformative, personal, and/or hopeful themes. Each submission will respond to one or more of the key questions, including, but not limited to:How can professional learning be conceptualised?How do we build and maintain effective partnerships to foster professional learning?What strategies for transformative community mobilization might be shared?How can innovative strategies be applied on a wider scale?How might taken-for-granted professional learning and evaluation practice be disrupted?What story about professional learning do you need (or want) to tell?How has your community been transformed through a particular activity, event, or practice?How might the lives and futures of children be positively shaped by engagement in partnerships and mobilization?Where might we be in 5, 10, or 15 years through such endeavours?We welcome submissions in multiple formats, including research articles, theoretical papers, multimedia pieces, art work, book reviews, and so forth. These may be submitted in English, French, or in any Canadian Indigenous language. Submissions are due August 1, 2017 and should be submitted as per Journal of Childhood Studies submission guidelines. ReferencesCampbell, C., Osmond-Johnson, P., Faubert, B., Zeichner, K., Hobbs-Johnson, A. with S. Brown, P. DaCosta, A. Hales, L. Kuehn, J. Sohn, & K. Steffensen (2016). The state of educators' professional learning in Canada. Oxford, OH: Learning Forward.Canadian Child Care Foundation [CCCF], (2016). An Early Learning and Child Care Framework for Canada's Children. Retrieved from: http://www.cccf-fcsge.ca/wp-content/uploads/CCCF_Framework-ENG.pdfColmer, K., Waniganayake, M. & Field, L. (2014). Leading professional learning in early childhood centres: who are the educational leaders?, Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 39(4), 103-113.Helterbran, V.R. & Fennimore, B.S. (2004). Early childhood professional development: Building from a base of teacher investigation. Early Childhood Education Journal, 31(4), 267-271.Lazarri, A., Picchio, M., & Musatti, T. (2013). Sustaining ECEC quality through continuing professional development: systemic approaches to practitioners' professionalization in the Italian context. Early Years: An International Research Journal, 33(2), 133-145.Munton, T., Mooney, A., Moss, P., Petrie, P., Calrk, A., Woolner, J. et al., (2002). Research on ratios, group size, and staff qualifications and training in early years and childcare settings. London: University of London.Penn, H. (2009). Early childhood education and care: Key lessons from research for policy makers. Brussels: Nesse.Prochner, L., Cleghorn, A., Kirova, A., & Massing, C. (2016). Teacher education in diverse settings: Making space for intersecting worldviews. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.Thomas, S., & Packer, D. S. (2013). A Reflective Teaching Road Map for Pre-service and Novice Early Childhood Educators. International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education, 5(1), 1-14.Vandenbroeck, M., Peeters, J., Urban, M. & Lazzari, A. (2016). Introduction. In M. Vandenbroeck, M. Urban & J. Peeters (Eds.) Pathways to Professionalism in Early Childhood Education and Care, (pp. 1-14). London: Routledge.Vangrieken, K., Dochy, F., & Raes, E. (2016). Team learning in teacher teams: team entitativity as a bridge between teams-in-theory and teams-in-practice. European Journal Of Psychology Of Education - EJPE (Springer Science & Business Media B.V.), 31(3), 275-298. doi:10.1007/s10212-015-0279-0