Alfonso Herranz Loncán

Una aproximación al stock de infraestructuras español (1844-1935)

En este articulo se presenta una serie anual del stock de infraestructuras espanol entre 1844 y 1935 y se analiza su mayor o menor adecuacion a las necesidades de la economia espanola. La comparacion con otras economias europeas de la epoca, tanto en terminos monetarios como fisicos, indica una situacion de escasez relativa de infraestructuras en el caso espanol, que se fue agravando con el tiempo y que pudo actuar como factor restrictivo del crecimiento economico durante el periodo estudiado.

Infrastructure finance in Europe. Insights into the history of water, transport, and telecommunications

Manchester (Gilmore et al.), Liverpool (Benneworth), and another chapter dedicated to analysing the mobility of creative graduates at a national level (Comunian et al.). This is, however, balanced by an equal number of chapters with an empirical focus outside the UK – respectively on Antwerp (Schramme), Leipzig (Jacobi), Singapore (Purushothaman), the United States (Frenette and Tepper), Australia (Brook), and another examining the career biographies of creative workers based in different countries (Bennett and Burnard). These international chapters are especially interesting in demonstrating the wider relevance of the subject matter in a range of geographical settings and illustrating how their varying economic and institutional contexts influence the form taken by the processes under study. So, for instance, Purushothaman’s chapter discusses recent large-scale state investment in arts higher education in Singapore as part of an economic policy to grow the cultural and creative industries. By contrast, Brook details how a corresponding expansion of the creative arts in the Australian university sector has been driven less by this kind of instrumentalist discourse than by mostly unintended consequences of government restructurings of the higher education system as a whole. The only non-empirical contribution to the book, from Sebastian Olma, provides a more philosophical reflection on the changes needed in the disciplinary structure and working of universities to help engender creative citizenship in future generations. These chapters, like a number of others in the volume, resonate with contemporary questions about the public and private value of arts and humanities study and research in an increasingly marketized higher education environment (e.g., Hazelkorn, Benneworth, & Gulbrandsen, 2016). Although not all the contributors in this interdisciplinary collection are from a geography or related background, the importance of place runs strongly throughout the majority of chapters and points towards a richer conception of how localities can derive (often intertwined) social and economic benefits from higher education institutions through a shared cultural infrastructure of physical spaces and facilities, boundary spanning organizations and networks, and communities of people with creative skills. This line of analysis, as well as elucidating the regional development processes at play, shows promise as an original contribution to these wider debates about the societal roles of creative higher education. In a brief concluding chapter the editors highlight three priorities for future research in this area that in different ways speak to this issue: a greater concern with power relationships in collaboration between academia and the creative economy; a better understanding of the value of creative education and human capital; and more reflection on higher education engagement with marginalized local communities through cultural activities. It should be hoped, therefore, that this book, in addition to being an essential work on a previously understudied topic, goes on to become an early landmark in the development of a productive strand of international and interdisciplinary research building on these concerns.This volume brings together the main results of an international project on the history of infrastructure finance in Europe. The main question addressed is, as stated on p. 2: ‘How can socio-econom...