The energy system in Spain can be characterized as being high energy intensive when compared to the rest of Europe and because of its high dependence on imported resources (around 84%). The focus of this document is to explore a novel approach to describe, as part of this energy system, the electricity system in Spain since 2005 and the economic potential for renewable energy technologies (RET) to replace the electricity generated from fossil resources by 2050. The heart of the design and implementation of any RET policy should be the reduction or elimination of fossil fuel dependency. This document aims at describing the evolution of the Spanish electricity system in the last decade, and addressing the possible influence of certain factors in the design and implementation of the electricity system by using modern modeling technologies to evaluate the potential of RET. This will represent a novel approach to bridge the results from modeling technologies to policy makers. To ensure the credibility and reliability of the data researched, validation criteria has been used which includes the accuracy of information, the content (whether factual or opinion), time (limited to certain periods), format (validity of internet sources, journals, etc), authority (reputable authors and sources), objective reasoning, currency and links to other resources, and the quality of writings and its review among others. The proposed research approach follows a methodology where the first step is to understand the electricity system in Spain, followed by the definition of the model of interest (optimization models) and the design of three different scenarios (Business as Usual, FIT and High fossil prices) for the evaluation of the potential of RET, finishing with the analysis of the results from the model and data collected from the perspectives of what has been done in previous RET policies and plans, and the possible influence of factors such as organizations and corporations on those policies and plans. The results obtained from the model are analysed and compared to the Business as Usual scenario. The amount of electricity generated from fossil resources and to be replaced by RET is calculated using the scenarios, as well as the evolution of primary energy, imports, final energy consumptions and CO2 emissions. In order to test the applicability of this approach, the results of the model have been compared with the current situation of the Spanish electricity system. Calculations using capacity factors of the RET and their share in the current electricity generation are performed in order to identify the final amount of power (MW) to be installed in order to replace the electricity generated (GWh) by fossil resources by 2050. Based on the conclusions, RET has the potential to replace the generation of electricity from fossil fuels but improvements in the efficiency of RET will be needed. In addition, it is recommended that significant considerations in RET policy like the energy and electricity systems should be a strategic component of the Spanish policy system, be done in order to set the Spanish electricity system in a more sustainable path .

This thesis focuses on the Mid/Upper Palaeolithic Transition in the Iberian Peninsula, and questions whether this process took place as hitherto widely claimed, by testing the validity of the traditional characteristics said to portray this event throughout Europe. Research was carried out at different levels: old archaeological collections from two transitional sites (Abric Romani and Reclau Viver), previously unstudied, were systematically analysed and specific organic components (perforated shells) were radiocarbon dated. A thorough bibliographic database including information on these and all other Iberian sites was complied, in order to extend the study. The theoretical perspective of the topic was also investigated, to assess epistemological factors which are so often overlooked in this field of study. The socio-political events that have marked Spain and Portugal's contemporary histories, were also studied, since they played a crucial role in shaping Palaeolithic Research in both countries. The so-called '40,000 BP Crisis', specifically located in northern Iberia, was revisited by studying not only the traditional sites which have produced chronometric readings around that date, but also others in the same region whose transitional layers have yielded much younger dates, to see if that phenomenon really existed or has been created by generalisations that have masked vital - but ultimately uncomfortable - information. The study of this event is also placed into the peninsular and the wider European contexts, an exercise that has disclosed the vast complexity of the Transition, in terms of both the actual archaeological record and the theoretical interpretations that have been presented so far. Ultimately, this research calls for a revision of some of the theoretical perspectives of Palaeolithic archaeologists, as well as far more careful site and regional-level research, in order to redress the abundant misconceptions that distort our understanding of the Transition process.

Finally, it is suggested that the divergent viewpoints on tourism which are often found may be related to the social positions and environments of the people concerned. Thus, in general, the effects of tourism on Ibiza have been disliked by some local and non-local people belonging to the non-commercial branches of the middle- and upper-classes - particularly by those local people whose relative wealth and status have tended to decline as a result of tourism, and by those outsiders or local people who distastefully associate the current changes with urban-industrial development elsewhere and with the rise of "vulgarity". In complete contrast, the overwhelming majority of Ibizans (including - interestingly - the older generations of country-people) associate the past with economic "misery" and with socio-cultural "backwardness"; and they are actively (though not uncritically) assisting in the transformation of their own society which has been made possible by mass tourism.

This is a study of government and governance in the Audiencia of Santa Fe during the last two decades of Habsburg rule and the first two decades of Bourbon rule, a period largely neglected by historians of New Granada and of Spanish America in general. However, it is not simply an administrative history. Rather than focus primarily on the structure of government and formal mechanisms of power and authority, this study aims, as the title indicates, to examine the political activity contained within the formal structure of institutions and laws. It looks at the ways in which institutions of government actually functioned within the society they were designed to govern and control, in other words the workings of government. These are themes which have been little studied by historians of the region, despite the importance which has been attached to the colonial state as a force which played a primary role in shaping New Granada's history. Studies of the colonial state have tended to portray it as a hierarchy of institutions, closely controlled from the centre, which developed as Spain's monarchs sought to legitimise their dominion and impose their control over the vast territories of the Americas. They have presented royal institutions of government in the Indies, the audiencia and provincial governors in the case of New Granada as the tools of an absolutist monarchy, employed by the Spanish crown to expand royal power over Spanish American subjects. The present study thus aims to challenge this picture by making detailed reference to contemporary documentation and taking into account recent research on early modern government and governance in areas outside New Granada. We will attempt to show that government in the Audiencia of Santa Fe was not a rigid structure but very political in nature.

Old industrial areas have made broad use of new strategies as the means to overcome the difficulties created by the restructuring of their former economic foundation. The attempt to provide an appropriate environment for both fostering economic growth and attracting new investment in the face of heightened inter-urban competition has been the target of much new urban governmental activity. Apart from this general goal, these exercises are often presented as an indirect means to alleviate situations of unemployment and social decline. In Glasgow and Bilbao, the search for local solutions has been inspired in the predominant pattern of entrepreneurial discourses which underline the importance of the creation of a not very well defined service-based economy and the reconstruction of the cities' image. Glasgow and Bilbao illustrate the failure of these practices, beyond the limited benefit brought to a few selected locations and a very limited group of people. Despite this neglect, the comparative insight provides evidence on the extent to which common patterns for renewal efforts, notwithstanding political, economic and social differences, are repeatedly used.

In a period of apparent new economic, political, social and cultural configurations in Western cities, a general diminution of belief in the ability of local government itself to affect significant policy change in response to the global restructuring of the economy has facilitated the emergence of new forms of urban governance in the post or neo-Fordist era, often following American models. Despite the fact that there are some differences in the interpretations of which new forms of urban governance are emerging, there appears to be a general recognition of the need for policy solutions represented by the development of partnerships and coalitions of interests ('regimes') in urban contexts, involving not only local authorities but also a range of private and semi-public actors. The rise of the entrepreneurial model among city governments also forms part of the socalled new urban politics of the post-Fordist era. Similarly, it is commonly argued that there is a growing inter-urban competition between cities for prominence as centres of consumption as one means to replace those traditional urban industrial activities which have gone into decline. This 'post-modern' strategy, including the use of a wide range of prestigious urban projects in areas of consumption such as sports, culture and leisure, has recently become commonplace in the restructuring of many Western cities. In Britain and Spain as elsewhere, some cities are using sport and leisure to drive the regeneration of their cities. Focusing on two European cities subject to large-scale deindustrialisation, Bilbao (Spain) and Sheffield (Great Britain), this thesis applies an urban regime analysis to evaluate the emergence and operation of public-private partnerships in a process of urban regeneration. This comparative study of urban politics also examines the role of sport and leisure in urban regime or coalition construction and the role of urban regimes or coalitions in the development of a sports strategy in the case of Sheffield and a cultural strategy in the case of Bilbao. Following an introductory chapter, the second chapter examines new practices and forms of urban governance, using traditional and 'new wave' urban theories, in particular the formation and operation of urban regimes and their implication for sports policy changes. The contribution of this thesis is to examine the applicability and validity of American models of urban change to the analysis of two different Western European cities that may help to understand how contemporary cities respond to contemporary urban problems. In addition, this thesis expects to expand the analysis of the role of sport in urban regime construction and the role of urban regimes in the development of sports or cultural strategies. The choice of regime theory has implications for both methodology and the subsequent interpretation of events. Thus, the third chapter addresses the general description of the ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions underpinning regime theory. The fourth and fifth chapters review how urban planning and sport policies have evolved in Spain since the Spanish Civil War and in Britain since the World War II. This provides a context to the core of the thesis, which evaluate urban regime formation and operation and their implications in the development of sports strategies in Bilbao and Sheffield. The concluding chapter seeks to summarise the findings of the empirical research and relates the examples of Bilbao and Sheffield coalitions or urban regimes for economic regeneration to the nature and characterisation of contemporary urban and sports politics.

This dissertation explores Christian-Jewish relations in the decades prior to the watershed of 1391, when Christian mobs throughout Castile and the Crown of Aragon killed or, more often, forcibly converted many Jews. My research indicates that the explosive violence of 1391 was not the predictable, inevitable result of growing interfaith animosity in the Crown of Aragon but was sparked by developments in Castile. Because of the resultant converso problem many historians consider 1391 to be a turning point in Iberian history. Yet historians have not closely explored Jewish-Christian interaction in the crucial later fourteenth century, particularly not in the Crown of Aragon, and have assumed, wrongly I believe, that the period following the Black Death (1348) saw a steady deterioration in the Jews’ relations with Christians. The first three chapters of the dissertation deal with the “crises” that marked late fourteenth-century Catalonia and Aragon. In the first chapter I outline the long-term precedents - the Black Death and successive wars – of the economic crisis that would follow. The second chapter focuses on economic matters – the Jewish contribution to the economy as well as the impact of growing debt and the development of new credit mechanisms. Chapter three, in turn, focuses on the impact of increasing taxation on Jewish communities. The final three chapters explore ways in which Jews and Christians coped with crises: chapter four deals with sources of conflict within Jewish communities, chapter five with conflict between Jews and Christians, while the last chapter looks at conversion as a way of coping with the crises of the fourteenth century. Throughout, my research shows how Jews and their Christian neighbours and rulers developed strategies and means of coping with the effects of epidemic disease, famine, and frequent warfare. I pay particular attention at how the law became a mechanism for coping with the worsening of economic conditions.

This dissertation explores Christian-Jewish relations in the decades prior to the watershed of 1391, when Christian mobs throughout Castile and the Crown of Aragon killed or, more often, forcibly converted many Jews. My research indicates that the explosive violence of 1391 was not the predictable, inevitable result of growing interfaith animosity in the Crown of Aragon but was sparked by developments in Castile. Because of the resultant converso problem many historians consider 1391 to be a turning point in Iberian history. Yet historians have not closely explored Jewish-Christian interaction in the crucial later fourteenth century, particularly not in the Crown of Aragon, and have assumed, wrongly I believe, that the period following the Black Death (1348) saw a steady deterioration in the Jews’ relations with Christians. The first three chapters of the dissertation deal with the “crises” that marked late fourteenth-century Catalonia and Aragon. In the first chapter I outline the long-term precedents - the Black Death and successive wars – of the economic crisis that would follow. The second chapter focuses on economic matters – the Jewish contribution to the economy as well as the impact of growing debt and the development of new credit mechanisms. Chapter three, in turn, focuses on the impact of increasing taxation on Jewish communities. The final three chapters explore ways in which Jews and Christians coped with crises: chapter four deals with sources of conflict within Jewish communities, chapter five with conflict between Jews and Christians, while the last chapter looks at conversion as a way of coping with the crises of the fourteenth century. Throughout, my research shows how Jews and their Christian neighbours and rulers developed strategies and means of coping with the effects of epidemic disease, famine, and frequent warfare. I pay particular attention at how the law became a mechanism for coping with the worsening of economic conditions.

A work of architecture holds the observations of the architect, an accumulation of images, feelings and sensations. These remain largely detached and invisible to the casual observer, occasionally becoming apparent as an idea is glimpsed through an external point of observation. The research has looked to redefine the paradigms of observation, that define the way architecture is seen and interpreted, by exploring attachments to places and belief systems. It has followed a journey within practice. Part of this journey has been about locating the aesthetic and metaphysical experience of architecture within its physical and operational realities. The research is an observation of the architect experiencing, as an observer, himself, his place in the world, and of the cities and spaces that occupy his imagination. By observing the interface between things that have defined career and identity, an architectural narrative has been developed to describe how an architect' s persona, what he lives through and the memories that he carries with him have been and can continue to be condensed into his work. Beauty resides in the interface between these things and ultimately, the fixed reality of the work. The search is characterised by the appearance of The Blue Room. It is a metaphorical place representing both the present and the un-created future. The Blue Room is a metaphor for all of the emotions that rest behind the evolution of an architectural idea and which remain embedded within it as a finished work. It is a metaphor for beauty and a metaphor for loss and sadness, all of the things that exist in-between the idea and the representation of that idea; between the visible and the invisible. It also represents the inherent paradox of the architectural work in that the idea is never the same as it is first imagined; in its finished form it is both the space of the architect and the client.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2003. / Adviser: Jose Alvarez-Junco. Submitted to the Dept. of History. Includes bibliographical references. Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;