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The purpose of this paper is to assess the change in the Italian and Spanish wage polarization degree in a time of economic crisis, taking into account the factors affecting labor force heterogeneity. Gender differences in the evolution of social fractures are considered by carrying out the analysis separately for males and females.

The approach by Palacios-Gonzánlez and García-Fernández (2012) on polarization is applied to the microdata provided by the EU Living Conditions Surveys (2007, 2010 and 2012). According to Palacios-Gonzánlez and García-Fernández’s approach, polarization is generated by two tendencies that contribute to the generation of social tension: the homogeneity or cohesion within group and the heterogeneity between groups. The following labor force characteristics are considered: gender, level of education, type of contract, occupational status and job status.

The results for Italy reveal a higher increase of polarization for women than for men from the perspective of the type of contract. In Spain, the wage polarization of women also increases more intensively compared to men from the perspectives of level of education, job status and occupational status, while in Italy the reduction of the wage polarization index by level of education can be related, above all, to an increase in overqualification of women.

While the empirical literature on polarization has made considerable investigation into employment and job polarization, this paper explores the rather less explored matter of wage polarization. Furthermore, particular attention is paid to the impact on polarization of the Great Recession.

This study aims to contribute to the professional competency approach in Education for Sustainability (ES) from the perspective of complexity and to the assessment of these competencies.

A qualitative research process was used, which consisted of two main phases: a documentary analysis of the internationally accepted frameworks about professional competencies in ES and complexity and a case study. The context was the Learning Camp of Cistercian Monasteries (Catalonia, Spain), and two educators participated in this camp.

The main outcomes are: a framework of professional competencies in ES from a complexity perspective, called CESC, and a rubric, as an assessment tool for professional competences in ES.

Based on the results, the author’s can state that this research is a contribution to the ES competency approach and it rectifies the lack of assessment tools in this area. The CESC is a theoretical contribution that facilitates educators’ development of ES competencies based on complexity. The design of the rubric with a high level of applicability and transferability is a methodological contribution which facilitates the assessment of these competencies by educators, as individuals, and educational teams. Related to the case study, several guidelines are proposed regarding the need for educator training to advance in the mobilisation of competencies in ES.

The global economic crisis and the housing bubble meltdown have had a significant impact on the Spanish property market. As a result, the homeownership–tenancy dichotomy has become a matter of discussion, and efforts are made to discover formulas that provide affordable, stable and flexible housing access. Taking this background into account, the Catalan lawmaker has implemented the so-called “intermediate tenures” (temporal ownership and shared ownership) into the Catalan Civil Code, which are conceived as a middle ground between ownership and renting. This paper aims to explores how these “intermediate tenures” work.

These tenures are conceived as a middle ground between ownership and renting and may be used for a variety of purposes. As the Catalan lawmaker has fragmented the right of ownership on the basis of English law, which is a great breakthrough regarding the long-standing conception of the right of ownership in continental legal systems, the paper explores how these “intermediate tenures” work, as regulated in Act 19/2015, in a comparative perspective.

The paper offers an overview of how these “intermediate tenures” are regulated and which are the problems arising from legislation and the potential uses.

As the temporal ownership confers on the titleholder the domain of an asset for a specifically defined period of time, it does not conform to the right of ownership as it is currently conceived in continental European legal systems, given that it is based on the English leasehold; shared ownership confers on the buyer a property share in the thing, entitling him to the full possession, use and exclusive enjoyment of the thing and to gradually acquire the remaining share. Both are based on the English shared ownership scheme and leasehold, and are legal transplants worth to be analysed.

The current economic crisis has significantly increased unemployment, showing higher persistence than expected. However, since microdata from household surveys are issued with delay, they do not allow a prompt analysis of the impact of the economic cycle on households’ living conditions. The purpose of this paper is to propose a microsimulation methodology to achieve an evaluation of the impact of economic shocks in terms of household’s living conditions to guide policy makers.

The microsimulation technique developed in this paper is based on a nowcasting approach by using different sources of data and by taking into account a whole set of potential transitions across the different statuses of the labour market and the related changes in income. To validate this microsimulation method, the authors apply it to Italy, a country that has been deeply affected by the crisis.

Data have been drawn from the European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey for Italy (IT SILC) and from the Labour Force Survey for Italy. The latter data allow us to take into account the changes in the labour market status of individuals due to economic shocks. The validation results support the capability of the model to simulate the effect of the cycle before actual data on income are available.

The results obtained would encourage the use of the suggested methodology to anticipate the effect of the economic cycle on household’s income therefore enabling the design of effective policies to sustain household income with positive practical and social implications.

Distinct from other microsimulation techniques the methodology proposed in this paper allows us to take into account behavioural effects and the change in the composition of employment and unemployment. Moreover, the authors contribute to the existing literature by considering a whole set of transitions across different labour market statuses and the related changes in income.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

This paper aims to study the competition problems and market failures in the Canary Islands and propose an alternative management model for the telecommunication transmission network. This model is based on a wholesale-only open-access transmission network, available to all the retail service providers of this region, and managed by a unique entity subject to regulation with cost-based prices. The proposal hopefully will help to debate about the implementation of certain regulatory models in the network industries, concerning telecommunication submarine cables connecting archipelagos.

An empirical approach has been used, based on the observation and analysis of the regulatory policies applied to the wholesale transmission networks in the Canary Islands, Azores and Madeira archipelagos.

Results show a persistent margin squeeze situation on the retail broadband market in the Canary Islands, due to the pricing strategy on the Spanish mainland-Canaries wholesale market, which is, in turn, delaying the entry of alternatives and the level of development and efficiency of competition. The risk of duopoly collusion is also present on this wholesale market. Additionally, public aids will be needed to replace the systems connecting with the non-capital islands and to provide redundancy to El Hierro. The alternative proposal might help preventing the above. Eventually, several insights are considered for further investigation.

Little attention has been paid to this topic in the literature, regarding the analysis of regulatory policies applied over fiber optic submarine cable infrastructures in fragmented territories like archipelagos. Consequently, an empirical analysis has been accomplished to emphasize this research work, based on the regulatory policies adopted.

This paper seeks to define a theoretical model for the urban regeneration of mass housing areas based on citizen initiative, self-management and self-financing in the form of the neighbourhood cooperative. This paper aims to identify mechanisms for economic resource generation that enable the improvement of the urban surroundings and its buildings without assuming disproportionate economic burdens by the local residents based on two principles, the economies of scale and service provision.

The research is structured in three phases: a literature review of the different trends in self-financing for urban regeneration and the conceptual framework for the definition of a cooperative model; the definition of theoretical model by analysing community ecosystem, neighbourhood-based services and the requirements for its economic equilibrium; and the discussion of the results and the conclusions.

The results show the potential of the cooperative model to generate a social economy capable of reducing costs and producing additional resources to finance the rehabilitation process. The findings show not only the extent of economic advantages but also multiple social, physical and environmental benefits. Its implementation involves the participation of multiple actors, which is one of its significant advantages.

The main contribution is to approach comprehensive urban rehabilitation from a collaborative understanding, overcoming the main financing difficulties of the current practices based on public subsidy policies. The model also allows an ethical relationship to be built with supplier companies by means of corporate social responsibility.