In A History of Spanish Institutions the evolution of Spanish institutions from the first human settlements on the Peninsula to the present day is offered in a succinct and appropriately contextualised manner. To this end, each chapter combines a description of the historical context of a period with the description of its most characteristic institutions. These are complemented by an explanation of the main “symbols” of Spain and their history. The importance of institutions and their historical evolution as a determining factor in economic and socio-political development has been proved by numerous studies. Hence, the knowledge of the main national institutions from a historical, legal and economic perspective is essential for those who wish to operate in the Spanish market. The modular structure of the handbook, together with the differentiated presentation of the content according to its level of relevance,will allow the readers to adapt and combine the texts that make up this book according to their specific needs and interests, thus optimising the outcome of their study. This revised and expanded second edition has added a selection of empirical works to the introductory chapter, reflects the latest historiographical developments, updates the bibliography, includes new examples of symbols, and expands on the main historical milestones and their institutional impact up to the time of going to press. Table of Contents Foreword to the second edition.- Foreword to the first edition.- Preliminary note: On the structure and use of this handbook.- Introduction: Why institutions (and their history) matter.- Institutions of the origins of the historic age in Iberia (from the first human settlements on the Peninsula to the Celtiberian culture.- Phoenician, Greek and Roman institutions in Spain.- Institutions of Visigothic Spain.- Interlude: Muslim Spain and its institutions.- Institutions of Christian Medieval Spain.- Institutions of the Spanish Empire I: The major Habsburgs.- Institutions of the Spanish Empire II: The minor Habsburgs and the early Bourbons.- The long road to the Constitution I: Institutions and their development from 1808 to 1869.- The long road to the Constitution II: Institutions and their development from 1876 to 1936.- Institutions of Francoist Spain.- The Constitutional System of 1978.- Anex. The long road of Spanish Constitutionalism.- General references.

In A History of Spanish Institutions the evolution of Spanish institutions from the first human settlements on the Peninsula to the present day is offered in a succinct and appropriately contextualised manner. To this end, each chapter combines a description of the historical context of a period with the description of its most characteristic institutions. These are complemented by an explanation of the main “symbols” of Spain and their history. The importance of institutions and their historical evolution as a determining factor in economic and socio-political development has been proved by numerous studies. Hence, the knowledge of the main national institutions from a historical, legal and economic perspective is essential for those who wish to operate in the Spanish market. The modular structure of the handbook, together with the differentiated presentation of the content according to its level of relevance,will allow the readers to adapt and combine the texts that make up this book according to their specific needs and interests, thus optimising the outcome of their study. This revised and expanded second edition has added a selection of empirical works to the introductory chapter, reflects the latest historiographical developments, updates the bibliography, includes new examples of symbols, and expands on the main historical milestones and their institutional impact up to the time of going to press.

Emigrant Dreams, Immigrant Borders: Migrants, Transnational Encounters, and Identity in Spain offers a new approach to the cultural history of contemporary Spain, examining the ways in which Spain’s own self-conceptions are changing and multiplying in response to migrants from Latin America and Africa. In the last twenty-five years, Spain has gone from being a country of net emigration to one in which immigrants make up nearly 12 percent of the population. This rapid growth has made migrants increasingly visible in both mass media and in Spanish visual and literary culture. This book examines the origins of media discourses on immigration and takes the analysis of contemporary Spanish culture as its primary framework, while also drawing insights from sociology and history. Emigrant Dreams, Immigrant Borders introduces readers to a wide range of recent films, journals, novels, photography, paintings, and music to reconsider contemporary Spain through its varied encounters with migrants. It follows the stages of the migrant’s own journey, beginning outside Spanish territory, continuing across the border (either at the barbed-wire fences of Ceuta and Melilla or the waters of the Atlantic or the Strait of Gibraltar), and then considers what happens to migrants after they arrive and settle in Spain. Each chapter analyzes one of these stages in order to illustrate the complexity of contemporary Spanish identity. This examination of Spanish culture shows how Spain is evolving into a new space of imagination, one that can no longer be defined without the migrant—a space in which there is no unified identity but rather a new self-understanding is being born. Vega-Durán both places Spain in a larger European context and draws attention to some of the features that, from a comparative perspective, make the Spanish case interesting and often unique. She argues that Spain cannot be understood today outside the Transatlantic and Mediterranean spaces (both real and imaginary) where Spaniards and migrants meet. Emigrant Dreams, Immigrant Borders offers a timely study of present-day Spain, and makes an original contribution to the vibrant debates about multiculturalism and nation-formation that are taking

This volume considers the Arabic and African diasporas through the underexplored Afro-Hispanic, Luso-Africans, and Mahjari (South American and Mexican authors of Arab descent) experiences in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. Utilizing both established and emerging approaches, the authors explore the ways in which individual writers and artists negotiate the geographical, cultural, and historical parameters of their own diasporic trajectories influenced by their particular locations at home and elsewhere. At the same time, this volume sheds light on issues related to Spain, Portugal, and Latin American racial, ethnic, and sexual boundaries; the appeal of images of the Middle East and Africa in the contemporary marketplace; and the role of Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American economic crunches in shaping attitudes towards immigration. This collection of thought-provoking chapters extends the concepts of diaspora and transnationalism, forcing the reader to reassess their present limitations as interpretive tools. In the process, Afro-Hispanic, Afro-Portuguese, and Mahjaris are rendered visible as national actors and transnational citizens.

A comprehensive exploration of the several subaltern types and social groups that were placed at the margins of national narratives in Spain during the nineteenth century. Una mirada profunda a los diversos tipos y grupos sociales que fueron relegados a los márgenes del relato nacional en la España decimonónica.

Building on the growing field of Afropean Studies, this interdisciplinary and intermedial collection of essays proposes a dialogue on Afro-Spanishness that is not exclusively tied to immigration and that understands Blackness as a non-essentialist, heterogeneous and diasporic concept. Studying a variety of twentieth- and twenty-first-century cultural products, some essays explore the resilience of the colonialist paradigms and the circulation of racial ideologies and colonial memories that promote national narratives of whitening. Others focus on Black self-representation and examine how Afro-Spanish authors, artists, and activists destabilize colonial gazes and constructions of national identity, propose decolonial views of Spain and Europe’s literature and history, articulate Afro-Diasporic knowledges, and envision Afro-descendance as an empowering tool.

Signs of Science: Literature, Science, and Spanish Modernity since 1868 traces how Spanish culture represented scientific activity from the mid-nineteenth century onward. The book combines the global perspective afforded by historical narrative with detailed rhetorical analyses of images of science in specific literary and scientific texts. As literary criticism it seeks to illuminate similarities and differences in how science and scientists are pictured; as cultural history it follows the course of a centuries-long dialogue about Spain and science.