Article gazette 2520–3619

The European Union and the Constitutional Treaty

Dalla Convenzione alla Costituzione ; rapporto 2005 della Fondazione Istituto Gramsci sul‐l'integrazione europea / a cura di Giuseppe Vacca. ‐ Bari : Dedalo, c2005. ‐ 325 p. ‐ (Nuova biblioteca Dedalo ; 283). ‐ISBN 88–220–6283–3

European foreign policy: from rhetoric to reality? / Dieter Mahncke, Alicia Ambos and Christopher Reynolds, eds.. ‐Bruxelles : P.I.E.‐Peter Lang, c2004. ‐381 p. ‐ (College of Europe studies,‐ 1). ‐ ISBN 90–5201–247–4

European neighbourhood policy : political, economic and social issues / edited by Fulvio Attinà and Rosa Rossi. ‐ Catania: Jean Monnet Centre “Euro‐Med”, 2004. ‐168 p.

European political economy : political science perspectives / Leila Simona Talani. ‐Aldershot : Ashgate, c2004. ‐ xii, 235 p. ‐ ISBN 0–7546–3651–8

European regulatory agencies / Giacinto della Cananea (ed.). ‐ [Paris] : ISUPE Press, 2004. ‐ XX, 219 p.

La Grande Europe / edité par Paul Magnette. ‐ Bruxelles : Editions de L'Université di Bruxelles, c2004. ‐ 403 p. ‐ (Etudes européennes). ‐ ISBN 2–8004–1332–8

Il rilancio dell'Europa : il progetto di Jacques Delors / Claudio Giulio Anta. ‐ Milano : Franco Angeli, c2004. ‐ 250 p. ‐(Collana “Gioele Solari” / Dipartimento di studi politici dell'Università di Torino ; 41). ‐ ISBN 66–464–5549–5

Al servicio de Europa : innovation y crisis en la Comisión Europea / Ángel Viñas. ‐Madrid : Editorial Complutense, c2004. ‐ XXIV, 572 p. ‐ IBN 84–7491–778–6

Storia dell'integrazione europea : dalla guerra fredda alla Costituzione dell'Unione / Bino Olivi, Roberto Santaniello. ‐ Bologna : il Mulino, c2005. ‐ 347 p. ‐ (Le vie della civiltà). ‐ ISBN 88–15–10479–8

Trattato che adotta una costituzione per l'Europa : firmato a Roma il 29 ottobre 2004 / Servizio Affari internazionali del Senato della Repubblica. ‐ Roma : Senato della Repubblica, 2004. ‐ XCII, 510 p.

LA costituzione europea: riflessioni sul contribu‐to italiano / a cura di Francesco Tufarelli. ‐ Roma Philos Edizioni, c2004. ‐ 175 p. ‐ (La cittadinanza europea. Quaderni ; 3). ‐ ISBN 88–86589–43–3

Il progetto di trattato‐costituzione : verso una nuova architettura dell'Unione Europea / a cura di Lucia Serena Rossi. ‐ Milano : Giuffrè Editore, c2004. ‐ XVI, 314 p. ‐ISBN 88–14–10925–7

Un popolo per l'Europa unita : fra dibattito storico e nuove prospettive teoriche e politiche / a cura di Corrado Malandrino. ‐Firenze : Leo S. Olschki editore, 2004. ‐ X, 251 p. ‐ (Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. studi ; 44). ‐ ISBN 88–222–53620

L'Unione Europea tra processo di integrazione e di allargamento / a cura di Giorgio Bosco, Francesco Perfetti, Guido Ravasi. ‐ Milano : Edizioni Nagard, c2004. ‐ 341 p. ‐ (Fondazione europea Dragàn ; 21). ‐ISBN 88–85010–79–2     

Measuring Quality of Life in Spanish Municipalities

Abstract

Measuring quality of life in municipalities entails two empirical challenges. First, collecting a set of relevant indicators that can be compared across the municipalities in the sample. Secondly, using an appropriate aggregating tool in order to construct a synthetic index. This paper measures quality of life for the largest 237 Spanish municipalities using Value Efficiency Analysis (VEA) to derive comparative scores by combining the information contained in 19 partial indicators. VEA is a refinement of DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) that imposes some consistency in the weights of the indicators used to construct the aggregate index. The indicators cover aspects related to consumption, social services, housing, transport, environment, labour market, health, culture and leisure, education and security. The results show that the Northern and Central regions in Spain attain the highest levels of quality of life, while the Southern regions report low living conditions. Education is the variable that requires the largest improvement in low performing municipalities, followed by health and culture facilities, pollution and crime. Population density, growth and ageing seem to relate positively to quality of life.     

Crossing the boundary: Peasants,shepherds, and servants in a western Alpine community

In the historical and anthropological literature, western Alps servants were widely assumed to be few in number, and the importance of the institution of service therefore negligible. This study combines historical-demographic and ethnographic methods to investigate whether this was true of a community in the Italian western Alps with a mixed population of peasants and transhumant shepherds. Surprisingly, a valuable 1951 census reveals that seemingly small numbers hide what was actually a normal phase in the life course of peasant sons whom shepherds recruited to work as servants. Distinct patterns of life-cycle and lifetime service seem to have coexisted in the same community. The evidence also confirms that in southern Europe, as some recent studies have pointed out, the institution of service often was not just the circulation of young men and women between households but an asymmetrical exchange between different socioeconomic groups. Otherwise rigid social and cultural boundaries were thereby crossed.