The attitudes of French and Spanish winegrowers towards the use of cover crops in vineyards

Vineyards are an intensive cultivation system and expose the soil to long-lasting stress. Many vineyard areas already show high degrees of soil degradation. To prevent further soil erosion, cover crops, which have various positive effects on the environment, are highly recommended. But, depending on the climatic conditions, cover crops can reduce grape yields and are sometimes more work intensive than bare soil management. In some areas cover crops are already widespread while in others bare soil is dominant. In this qualitative study, we explore the attitudes of European winegrowers towards cover crops and determine the background for differences in the adoption of greened vineyards. Thus, we conducted focus groups with winegrowers in two different regions, namely Coteaux du Layon in France and Montilla-Moriles in Spain. In this setting, the transregional differences are mainly based on the climatic conditions but also on different business structures and knowledge levels. Direct sellers seem to be more attentive to the environment and use cover crops more often than farmers which sell their grapes to cooperatives.     

Quo Vadis public television? Market position of selected Western European countries

The liberalization of television markets and the emergence of commercial channels has changed the position of public television, bringing an end to monopolies. Public television now competes for audiences with private television. In this paper, the authors analyze the changes to the market position of public television in Germany, Spain, France, the United Kingdom (UK), and Italy between 1995 and 2019. In this 25-year period, all of these countries have had a liberalized TV market. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the ways in which public television competes with commercial television, assessing the consequences of this on market power. This analysis allows us to detect similarities and dissimilarities between public television and television markets in large Western European countries. The results show the decline of the market share of public television in all countries, except Germany. Furthermore, public television has remained market leading in all countries, with the exception of Spain. One of the ways to compete with commercial television is to start new public channels and acquire a large audience.     

Measuring quality of government in EU regions across space and time

A wave of recent cross-national research has pointed to the positive consequences for countries with high levels of “quality of government” (QoG), broadly defined, such as corruption, impartiality, and quality of public services. Yet the question of how QoG varies at the sub-national level is still widely overlooked, in particular with measures that are available over time. To address it, we present the third round of data from the regional European Quality of Government Index (EQI) survey corruption (D73), Europe (N44) governance (H11); sub-national (R50), time series (C22), collected in 2017 and built upon the opinions of 78,000 respondents in 193 regions from 21 European countries. The data provides several contributions to the literature. First, while the majority of QoG-type indices rely on expert assessments, the EQI relies on the assessments of citizens, who are the on-the-ground consumers of public services. Second, the data begins to show trends on QoG variation over time, as well as across European regions. Consequently, this data is the most comprehensive sub-national data to date; mapping of QoG within and across EU countries over the past decade. Building on previous rounds of data collected in 2010 and 2013, the 2017 EQI, which is published free for scholarly use, builds on both perceptions and experiences of citizens in public service areas such as health care, education, and law enforcement. This paper presents the results of the latest survey, improved with respect to the previous ones, discussion of trends across space and over time, as well as interesting avenues for future research that we detect across European regions.     

以弗莱堡市为例看当今欧洲城市新区发展趋势

通过对德国弗莱堡市在不同历史阶段的城市发展分析,展现了欧洲城市的几个典型阶段的发展特征及其空间构成特点;并以此为背景来分析建于20世纪90年代的城市新区Rieselfeld的设计思想、建设阶段和城市空间及建筑单体构成特色。     

欧洲多层面控制建筑高度的方法研究

建筑的高度是城市在不断发展的过程中沉积下来、表征人与空间关系的体现之一,也是各个城市凸显自我风貌特征的重要载体.对建筑高度进行合理的控制和引导,是塑造城市风貌特色和整体景观的重要手段.英国、法国、德国等欧洲国家在城市历史保护地区,出于景观、美学的要求,对建筑高度进行总体上的控制,并针对不同规划层面的保护对象和风貌景观,采用不同的建筑高度控制方法,以从建筑体量角度保护城市发展的整体性.     

Pan-European landscapes

As a supplement to the western European typology from Landscape and Urban Planning, 18 (3–4): 289–352 (Meeus et al., 1990), a survey is made of the landscapes of northern and eastern Europe. Thirty landscapes are identified on a continental scale. This pan-European landscape typology is based on the integration of landscape formation factors. The basis for a regionally differentiated geography, morphology and scenery of the man-made landscape is provided by land form, soil and climate on the one hand and regional culture, habits and history on the other. This typology can be used as a reference for a discussion about the actual appearance of the landscape. The map of European landscapes is only a reconnaissance and is therefore not intended as a blueprint for action, but rather as a way of looking at landscape heterogeneity, a set of principles to stimulate the discussion of landscape development throughout the continent.     

木之建构——关于国际当代木构建筑的发展

当今国际木构建筑的新发展要求我们对世界木建构文化重新认识。事实上，木材作为建材的许多优点我们并没有认识清楚，国际上，尤其是欧洲当代木构建筑的新发展正是以这种思想为基础的，欧洲的木构建筑传统实际上也是很深厚的，并且分布很广，经过社会和理论上的准备，一些具有先进意识的建筑大师们或功地探索了当代木构建筑的发展，主要集中在欧洲的阿尔卑斯山地区和北欧地区。我们在接受潮流影响的同时，有必要理解木建构文化在人类不同文明历史发展阶段的意义。尤其是在现阶段作为后工业文明阶段的木建构文化的特性，以及该建筑潮流的建造规律和造型表现力。     

The Territorial Impact Assessment of transport: the case of the Egnatia motorway system in the cohesion potential of Southeast Europe

Territorial Impact Assessment (TIA) is proposed as a critical tool in order to investigate the way policies affect spatial development and hence territorial cohesion. The paper introduces a TIA methodological model in relation to transport sector. The design of the methodological model is based on a quantitative evaluation framework that comprises a set of selected indicators applied in a cross-border area of southeast Europe, influenced by the operation of the Greek motorway system of Egnatia and its vertical axes. The indicators are grouped into three main fields of TIA, i.e. transport intermodality, polycentric spatial organization and cross-border territorial cooperation. The TIA’s indicators are approximated by quantitative analysis. The procedure concludes to an overall composite indicator measuring the ‘level of territorial cohesion’ along with some core results and the expected added value. It also highlights some key technical aspects about the routines used and proceeds to suggestions for further refinement.     

Technology adoption in employee recruitment: The case of social media in Central and Eastern Europe

Social technologies are increasingly used in several organizational functions, including human resource management. The focus of this study is on social media adoption in employee recruitment and selection in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The theoretical lens used in this study is the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), extended to include the impact of the recruiters' managerial position and educational level on technology adoption. Results obtained from partial least squares path modeling, using cross-sectional data collected from 224 recruiters, showed that the core hypotheses of the UTAUT were supported, namely the positive impact of performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence on behavioral intention, as well as the positive impact of facilitating conditions and behavioral intention on usage behavior. As expected, the recruiters' characteristics triggered many interaction effects, but none of them impacted facilitating conditions. Managerial implications are discussed and future research suggestions are provided.