Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This paper explores editorials and opinion columns published in four Chilean mainstream newspapers and analyzes how China is represented within the context of Chinese economic advances in the region and the contextual narratives surrounding bilateral relations. Through a content analysis of editorials and opinion pieces of elite media between 2018 and 2021, this study allows an understanding of how China and its growing influence are perceived locally. Ultimately, despite an overall alignment with China’s public diplomacy centered around an economic-commercial dimension, there are still nuances in how China is represented in Chilean op-eds.

Book Review

   

  

This article explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism sector in the city of Malaga. The main objective of the study is to analyse the effects that the pandemic has had, as well as the responses that have been given to rebuild the tourism system in the city of Malaga. The study uses a qualitative and descriptive methodology, prioritising the search for primary sources (institutional) to measure the impact of the pandemic on tourism in Malaga. There are two main conclusions of the study: firstly, the Malaga tourism industry has shown such a level of dynamism and resilience that it has been able to initiate a slow but vigorous recovery of the tourism productive fabric; secondly, the actions of the public administrations have generally been diligent, efficient, rapid, and flexible, although the level of interpenetration and synergy between public administrations, tourism operators and residents is still insufficient.

Soil degradation conditions in mediterranean areas make sustainable agricultural activity difficult, especially in a context of global change, where soil loss rates are increased by changes in rainfall dynamics. Thus, the territory designated as an «Important Agricultural World Heritage System» (GIAHS) dedicated to raisins in Axarquía (Malaga) is identified as an area of special vulnerability to these processes. This research aims, on the one hand, to determine the susceptibility to soil erosion and, especially, to find out what role Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are playing in the adaptive capacity of this region. For this purpose, the rainfall dynamics have been statistically analysed, soil erosion rates have been determined using the RUSLE model and, finally, a qualitative methodology for the evaluation of NbS has been developed. The results show a clear decrease in annual rainfall and a concentration of rainfall in higher intensity events, leading to higher rainfall erosivity and high soil loss rates. Nevertheless, agricultural practices and the different structures identified are considered sustainable adaptation strategies to these types of natural risks, qualifying as NbS.  

The present work has four objectives: 1) to document the existence of a place called La Barrosa (barro= mud) on the ancient coast of Doñana, 2) to locate it spatially, 3) to hypothesise about its origin, and 4) to describe its uses over time. To this end, written and cartographic sources from the 15th to 18th centuries have been analysed and contrasted with the geomorphological and archaeological information available for the area. The analysis of documentary sources has made it possible not only to determine the spatial location of La Barrosa, but also to appreciate its temporal evolution in relation to the dune dynamics and its changes of use. La Barrosa must have disappeared during the first half of the 17th century with the set in motion of the dunes and coastal progradation. However, the presence of mud appears in the description of the Doñana coast in 1743 with a new place name, El Guerrero. The description of the existence of different materials suggests that a Roman settlement may have existed at the site of La Barrosa/El Guerrero.

Although the pre-pandemic tourism debate was led by Overtourism, when the pandemic erupted, the increasing literature on this topic was still in an initial stage. The mobility restrictions derived from Covid-19 stopped Overtourism, but the problem is still far from being eradicated. There is an increasingly need for a solid body of knowledge on which to build recovery to avoid making past mistakes. A comprehensive pre-pandemic literature review is carried out, by proposing an overtourism conceptual framework that integrates its causes and consequences. How the pandemic could become an opportunity to transition to a responsible tourism model is discussed.

Emotional intelligence is becoming more and more relevant in a multitude of fields, including business. This current prominence has led different currents of work to suggest that emotional intelligence is an important factor for effective leadership in organisations. Our study focused on the analysis of the emotional intelligence of university students for two reasons: on the one hand, the task of leadership is a complex task, both because of the functions developed in themselves, and because of the skills and requirements needed. On the other hand, university students, particularly those related to management studies, may potentially be involved in future selection processes for positions of responsibility. The process carried out to find out the degree of such intelligence, to predict their leadership abilities and their possibilities of adapting to relevant roles, has been instrumented through an adaptation of the Petrides Self-Report questionnaire in its short form. Similarly, we sought to identify the main dimensions that make up emotional intelligence, based on an initial research proposal by the aforementioned author. The results found regarding the self-assessment of university students show a very small standard error of the mean, meaning that the responses collected are fairly accurate with respect to reality. Therefore, in conclusion, in the questions posed regarding self-assessment of competences and emotional intelligence to assume positions of responsibility, it can be affirmed that the students show a medium-high level of EI. This reflects a clear tendency to offer a high level of self-assessment, showing a significant level of self-confidence and security. In addition, among the final considerations, different possible lines of future research have been suggested, seeking alternatives to implement measures to mitigate the subjectivity in the assessments, through the questionnaires themselves or the design of the questions, or proposing to design new teaching methodologies to develop the dimensions of students’ emotional intelligence identified through this study.

In recent years there has been a gradual depopulation of rural areas due to a limited supply of essential services: consequences of this are general ageing and marginalization of the resident population. This paper intends to focus attention on Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) as a solution to public transport issues in these territories: for this purpose, through web research by keywords and the analysis of Regions’ Project Framework Agreements and sector agency websites, 35 rural DRT services implemented in Italy have been identified to analyse their technical characteristics and status of technological innovation. In order to compare DRT services within the same historical and technological context, the study focused on case studies implemented from 2010 onwards: the results obtained were then classified based on the distance from major centres (outlying, intermediate and peripheral/ultra-peripheral areas) with the addition of a fourth category pertaining to extra-urban tourist services. Selected DRT services, evaluated on the basis of their main technical characteristics (booking system, service cost, itinerary, stops, app availability), were then assigned a respective flexibility score based on the service model used. The results show that achievement of the highest service flexibility levels is possible only through huge public funding (74% of the DRT cases analysed show an average degree of flexibility), the ticket cost of DRT services must be limited (in 49% of cases is equal to the cost of traditional public transport) in order to attract users, most of the transit providers offer only one booking option to reduce costs and the use of innovative booking tools is still limited.