Transnational Challenges and Twenty-First-Century Dilemmas

This chapter assesses where the region stands in the early twenty-first century, as Latin American democracies exhibit a tug of war between executive policies and strong participatory trends, with countries joining multiple yet segmented intergovernmental organizations that have failed to reach institutional integration and express a voice in unison. These tensions have never been as poignant as in the current scenario, as the region faces transnational challenges and dilemmas, exacerbated by the health pandemic and economic contraction.

Conclusions: What Innovations Resulted from University–School Collaborations During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Based on a cross-case analysis of the studies presented in this book, this study concludes that during the COVID-19 pandemic, universities engaged with school systems and school networks to sustain educational opportunity. They did so through entrepreneurial educational innovation in ways which helped integrate their research, teaching, and outreach functions. This finding speaks to the nature of universities as learning organizations, open to their external environment, not just to respond to changes in it, but to shape it.This chapter identifies seven innovations that universities advanced in their collaborations with schools: Research and analysis to support decision-makers in formulating strategies of educational continuity (outreach and research). Advancing knowledge based on research in schools in the context of the pandemic (research). Instructional and technological resources and online platforms for students and teachers, including efforts to support connectivity (outreach and teaching). Professional development for teachers, education administrators, and parents (outreach). Highlighting the importance of attention to socio-emotional support for students (outreach). Organizational learning and innovation (synergies among research, teaching, and outreach). Innovations in teaching: Engaging university students in these collaborations with schools (teaching). These seven innovations include products, solutions, processes, and managerial improvements, and for the most part they are evolutionary innovations and, in some cases, revolutionary.These collaborations were facilitated by and, in turn, reinforced three institutional processes supportive of outreach: University mission and strategy Collaboration and institutional integration Structures and preexisting collaborations with schools

Biodiversity policies, opportunities for restoring the economy

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the strategic and legal framework of the various areas directly dependent on the protection of biodiversity and the ecosystem approach in the funding programmes related to them. Data were collected by consulting a variety of sources, including articles, project results, European and national legislation, strategies and funding programs in the fields of Water, Forestry, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Agriculture and Rural Development, Energy and Regional Development. The results showed that, in the areas analyzed, there are no efficient tools for the integration of ecosystem services and natural capital. The level of integration of the ecosystem approach in the analyzed areas compared to the state of ecosystems in Romania indicates that there are not enough measures to protect natural capital through sustainable management. Both inter-institutional integration and coordination are needed to streamline the management of natural capital and the correct analysis and implementation of a payment system for ecosystem services.

UNDERSTANDING EMU ASYMMETRIES AND THEIR ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS

The Covid-19 emergency makes the seriousness of the unsolved political and economic issues that emerged during the European sovereign debt crisis even more evident. Today more than ever it is necessary to answer questions related to the fragility of the EMU architecture: why was the EMU created with an asymmetric structure? What was the role of EMU architecture and European policies during the crisis? Do EMU asymmetries threaten the survival of the Eurozone? The European integration process took place on the basis of a permissive consensus determined by the expectation of successful economic outcomes, without a true democratic legitimacy. Under such conditions, a fiscal and political union was not possible. The EMU proved to be a competitive arena, within which economic and political asymmetries were difficult to manage. An analysis of these asymmetries allows conclusions to be drawn regarding the risks associated with further economic and institutional integration.

The “Digital Facilitator”: An Extended Profile to Manage the Digital Transformation of Swiss Vocational Schools

Digital transformation requires the field of education to increasingly deal with the interplay between the teachers’ individual development of digital competence and institutional integration and adoption of digital technology. This is especially crucial in the vocational education context, which is closer to the world of work and, therefore, more sensitive to the disruptive changes of digitalisation. This chapter addresses this issue by proposing the result of a project that aimed to identify a new professional profile in the context of dual vocational education in Switzerland. The Digital Facilitator is a new term that refers to a teacher with advanced digital competency who is an expert in facilitating digital innovation adoption within educational institutions. Thus, it constitutes a possible concrete way to address the issue of integrating the individual and the organisational perspectives related to digital transformation. The profile is discussed by presenting an analysis of acknowledged existing frameworks and by considering the specificities of the context in which it was developed. The opportunities and challenges associated with introducing the profile are also critically addressed.

A Parliament for the People? – The European Parliament’s Activism in the Area of Social Policy From the Early 1970s to the Single European Act

The formal powers of the European Parliament (EP) prior to the Single European Act (SEA, 1986) were marginal. However, this limited formal role did not correspond to the perception of the early Members of the EP (MEPs) as to what role the EP should play in Community policy-making. Predominantly driven by pro-integrationist ideas of ever-closer union - and of an ever-stronger Parliament - MEPs became activists for deeper political as well as institutional integration from the institution’s beginnings in the 1950s. This article studies the EP’s emerging legislative influence through the lens of Community social policy, a policy area with a particularly strong ideational dimension. Perceiving a lack of public support for and identification with the Community project, MEPs invested considerable time and effort prior to the SEA into attempts of creating a broad Community social policy. In so doing, the delegates hoped to convince the member states’ citizens of the added value of closer European integration whilst simultaneously enhancing their own institution’s position. Based on an extensive collection of EP archival documents, this article contributes to a deeper understanding of the EP’s gradual empowerment at a time when the Treaties foresaw little more than a consultative assembly.