Joan Font

Participation, Representation and Expertise: Citizen Preferences for Political Decision-Making Processes

In this article, it is shown that citizen process preferences are complex and include several dimensions. The argument relies on data from a representative sample of Spanish citizens (N = 2,450) to assess these dimensions. Using confirmatory factor analysis as well as Mokken analysis, it is shown that citizen process preferences capture support for three different models: participatory, representative and expert-based. The relationships between these dimensions (where the opposition between representation and participation stands as the clearest result) and the substantive and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.

An improved method for statistical studies of the internal kinematics of H II regions: the case of M83

The understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies will not be complete until we understand the physical processes that trigger and regulate starformation in them. This work is about star formation on several size scales. It includes the kinematic study of 157 H II regions in the spiral galaxy M83, in order to test the relation, if any, between luminosity (L) and velocity dispersion(s), indicative of virialization. We found that there is no strong correlation between the mentioned variables, but only an upper envelope with a maximum luminosity for a given velocity dispersion. We demonstrated that this envelope has a slope that is strongly dependent on an accurate correction of instrumental broadening. Using our experience in H II regions, we moved to star formation at larger scales. Thus, the bulk of this thesis is on starburst galaxies and their evolutionary descendants, the postburst galaxies. A starburst is a galaxy that is suddenly creating large amounts of stars, at a rate that is not sustainable for long periods.We performed a kinematic study of a sample of 11 such objects, showing that they are, in general, not supported by rotation and that many of them are consistent with a recent merger which affected their morphology and kinematics.Furthermore, from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) we extracted a robust sample of 1006 starbursts and 240 postbursts at redshift 0.010<z<0.083. We performed a comparative study of their structural parameters, such as effective radius, sersic index, asymmetry and absolute magnitude. We have found that the majority of starbursts and postbursts in the nearby Universe are disky galaxies, with a tendency for starbursts to have shorter effective radii and larger asymmetries.

Bar pattern speed and position of the circumnuclear ring in NGC 1097

Active galactic nuclei and bursts of star formation are two distinct phenomena that amply change their host environments. They are present in a significant number of galaxies at all redshifts. In this thesis, we aim toward a better understanding of the physical processes that allow for the formation and maintenance of these two phenomena. We focus on the study of the physical conditions of the interstellar gas in the central kiloparsec region of the barred active galaxy NGC 1097 (Paper I). In Paper I we present different CO transitions and the consequent analysis realized in order to derive the molecular gas content together with the molecular mass inflow toward the centre of the galactic gravitational potential well. To completely understand the physical processes that drive such gas rearrangement, a coherent picture for a dynamical system has to be considered. We have developed a code, Paper II, in order to model the dynamics of a predominantly rotating system with an arbitrary mass distribution. The formalism we have used is based on analytical solutions of the first order approximation of the equations of motion of a smooth medium that may be subject to dissipation. The most important free parameter to constrain the boundary conditions of the model is the angular frequency of the perturbing pattern, which may be assumed virtually invariant over significant ranges of galactocentric radii. We constrain the pattern velocity using the Tremaine-Weinberg method (Paper III). Hence, we have prepared all procedures needed to comprehend the physical processes that sustain the nuclear activity and bursts of star formation: the amount of gas in the region and the dynamics of the system. In Paper IV, we model the neutral and ionized gas kinematics in NGC 1097 and apply a combination of the methods described in Paper II and Paper III to comprehend the rearrangement of gas in the galaxy. In order to observationally discern the gas inflow in the nuclear region at a higher resolution, we apply the methods developed and used in this thesis to Cycle-0 ALMA observations of our target galaxy, and we confirm that we are able to follow the streaming of gas from 20 kiloparsec distances down to 40 parsecs from its central central supermassive black hole (Paper V).

The ratio of pattern speeds in double-barred galaxies

We have obtained two-dimensional velocity fields in the ionized gas of a set of eight double-barred galaxies, at high spatial and spectral resolution, using their H alpha emission fields measured with a scanning Fabry-Perot spectrometer. Using the technique by which phase reversals in the non-circular motion indicate a radius of corotation, taking advantage of the high angular and velocity resolution, we have obtained the corotation radii and the pattern speeds of both the major bar and the small central bar in each of the galaxies; there are few such measurements in the literature. Our results show that the inner bar rotates more rapidly than the outer bar by a factor between 3.3 and 3.6.

Retos metodológicos para el estudio cuantitativo de las experiencias participativas locales. Combinación de métodos y bases de datos

In this article we analyse the effects of different data collection strategies in the study of local participatory experiences in a region of Spain (Andalusia). We examine the divergences and similarities between the data collected using different methods, as well as the implications for the reliability of the data. We have collected participatory experiences through two parallel processes: a survey of municipalities and web content mining. The survey of municipalities used two complementary strategies: an online questionnaire and a CATI follow-up for those municipalities that had not answered our first online contact attempt. Both processes (survey and data mining) were applied to the same sample of municipalities, but provided significantly different images of the characteristics of Andalusia’s participatory landscape. The goal of this work is to discuss the different types of biases introduced by each data collection procedure and their implications for substantive analyses. KeyworDs Citizen participation; Data collection procedures; Internet data mining; Local participation; Participatory experiences; Survey administration mode. resumen En este artículo analizamos los efectos de diferentes estrategias para la recolección de datos en el estudio de las experiencias participativas andaluzas. Examinamos para ello las diferencias y similitudes entre los datos recogidos mediante diferentes métodos, así como las implicaciones para la fiabilidad de los datos. Para ello, hemos utilizado dos procedimientos paralelos. En primer lugar, una encuesta a municipios y la minería de datos en Internet. La encuesta se realizó utilizando dos modos de administración diferentes, un cuestionario online y un cuestionario telefónico de seguimiento a los municipios que no respondieron al primer intento de contacto vía correo electrónico. Tanto la encuesta como la minería de datos fueron aplicados a la misma muestra de municipios, aunque arrojaron diferencias significativas en cuanto a las características del panorama participativo en Andalucía. El objetivo de este trabajo es discutir los diferentes tipos de sesgos introducidos por cada procedimiento de recogida de datos y sus implicaciones para posteriores análisis sustantivos. Palabras Clave Experiencias participativas; Minería de datos online; Modo de administración de encuestas; Participación ciudadana; Participación local; Procedimientos de recogida de datos. revista internaCional De soCioloGía (ris) Special issue on methodological challenges in participation research Vol. 70, extra 2, 65-87, diciembre 2012 ISSN: 0034-9712; eISSN: 1988-429X DOI:10.3989/ris.2012.04.04 66 • CAROLINA GALAIS, JOAN FONT, PAU ALARCÓN and DOLORES SESMA RIS, VOL. 70. EXTRA 2, 65-87, DICIEMBRE 2012. ISSN: 0034-9712. DOI: 10.3989/ris.2012.04.04 introDuCtion1 Most previous attempts at providing a general picture of local participation activity have used self-administered surveys sent to municipalities (DETR 1998; Birch 2002; FEMP 2002; Ajángiz and Blas 2008). Is this a reliable strategy that can provide a good overall picture of reality? Are there other alternatives that could provide better information? In this paper we try to answer these questions through an analysis of the data collection process regarding participatory experiences completed at a local level in Andalusia, a region of Spain. To do so, we examine the divergences and similarities that arise from the comparison of two different methods (one of them with two modes of administration, making three different data sources) of collecting and coding information regarding a few hundred participatory experiences. The first main goal of this paper is to discuss the virtues and limitations of two contrasting strategies of data collection. The first strategy used was the more traditional one, a survey of municipalities. The second was a data mining strategy using the Internet. With this aim, we conducted two parallel data collection processes that tried to capture the same reality. In addition, the survey faced a common problem related to this methodology: dealing with refusals and with the resulting moderate response rates. To address this, the first mode of administration (Computer Assisted Self Interview, CASI) was complemented with a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) survey. This allowed us to address two subsequent research questions. First, we asked whether the differences between our surveys were a product of comparing two different sets of municipalities (the larger and more engaged with the research topic, which answered our online survey in the first place versus the remaining ones that answered the telephone survey) or whether some of the differences were the result of using two different modes of administration (CATI vs. CASI). Second, once we aggregated these two sources of data, we were able to compare them with the results from our data mining approach to learn more about the biases each of them produced on the pictures of the reality obtained. The structure of the paper is as follows. In the next section we justify why making these comparisons is important and present the research design and data collection procedures we have used. Section 3 makes the first comparison between the two stages of the survey (CASI vs. CATI). In this first comparison, our two universes were different and, as a result, we also expect to find important differences in the characteristics of the experiences collected. We discuss whether all differences were compositional (i.e., caused by the fact that we are measuring two different parts of our final universe). The complementary explanation is that some of these differences may be the result of the 1 A previous version of this paper was presented at the Conference “Methodological challenges in participation research”, IESA (CSIC), Córdoba, November 4-5, 2011. We thank the session discussant, the participants and Donatella della Porta for helpful comments. METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES FOR THE LARGE N STUDY OF LOCAL PARTICIPATORY EXPERIENCES • 67 RIS, VOL. 70. EXTRA 2, 65-87, DICIEMBRE 2012. ISSN: 0034-9712. DOI: 10.3989/ris.2012.04.04 two modes of administration used. Section 4 moves to the comparison of the final results of both data collection procedures (survey vs. Internet-collected information). We follow the same logic as in section 3, showing the differences in a few important variables and analysing to what extent they are due to the data collection mode. Section 5 briefly presents three potential future research strategies to continue exploring the causes of the remaining differences. theoretiCal FrameworK anD researCh DesiGn This paper stems from the decisions and challenges faced when gathering information on participatory experiences at the local level for the MECPALO project2. One of the main goals of the project is to build several regional databases of participatory experiences developed at the sub-regional level3. This is aimed at making a description of the characteristics of these experiences, as well as answering a series of questions related to the origins, democratic qualities and attitudinal consequences of those experiences. We have argued elsewhere about the need to build close to local participation realities that go beyond the prevalent case study strategy (Font et al. 2011; Font and Galais 2011)4. However, drawing such a picture is not an easy task. Three different approaches are found in previous research. First, the selection of a limited subset of experiences that share some common organisational or territorial characteristics (“focused mappings” e.g., Schattan 2006; Sintomer et al. 2008). Second, the gathering of several varied experiences that try to capture the maximum diversity regarding those processes (Subirats et al. 2001; Della Porta and Reiter 2009). Third, the development of a survey of municipalities to obtain a list of the municipalities’ responses (DETR 1998; Birch 2002; FEMP 2002). Since the first approach allows building a more reliable but also more incomplete picture of reality, we wanted to assess the advantages and problems of the two remaining strategies. It should be noted that we lack a census of experiences. That is, there is no sampling frame with which to start. Bearing this in mind, we started by designing a representative sample of Andalusian municipalities. Andalusia has 770 municipalities, from which we selected a sample of 400. These 400 municipalities are representative of the municipa2 MECPALO is the Spanish acronym for the project Local participation processes in Southern Europe: causes and consequences. The project’s principal investigator (PI) is Joan Font and the research team includes researchers from three Spanish institutions, as well as a French team (PI: Yves Sintomer) and an Italian team (PI: Donatella della Porta). 3 The universe of analysis is formed by any participatory process (from a 2 hour consultation to a stable and periodical mechanism) whose aim is to discuss local policies or issues and which has either been promoted or has gained recognition from local authorities. 4 A similar argument has also been developed by other authors (e.g., Baiocchi et al. 2011). 68 • CAROLINA GALAIS, JOAN FONT, PAU ALARCÓN and DOLORES SESMA RIS, VOL. 70. EXTRA 2, 65-87, DICIEMBRE 2012. ISSN: 0034-9712. DOI: 10.3989/ris.2012.04.04 lities with more than 1000 inhabitants5. The sample was stratified by province and city size (Font et al. 2011). Our main unit of observation comprises experiences and not municipalities. Sampling Andalusian municipalities (those that develop participatory experiences as well as those that do not) allows us to answer additional research questions (e.g., why some councils conducted few or no participatory practices while others undertook quite a few), but this is not the aim of our particular research. In addition, our sampling strategy guarantees acceptable variability among the contextual explanatory factors. We then

Cherry-picking participation: Explaining the fate of proposals from participatory processes

What happens to the proposals generated by participatory processes? One of the key aspects of research on public participation that has been the subject of rare systematic analysis and comparison is the fate of the output from participatory processes: their proposals. Which specific factors explain whether proposals are accepted, rejected or transformed by public authorities? Thisxa0paper contributes to this gap in our understanding in two steps. First, we identifyxa0contextual, process and proposal related factors that are likely to affect the prospect ofxa0proposals being implemented, generating a set of testable hypotheses. Second, we test the explanatory power of these hypothesesxa0through multilevel analysis on a diverse set of 571 policy proposals. Our findings offerxa0evidence that while there is no effect for contextual factors, both process and proposal related variables have significant explanatory power. The designxa0of participatory processes affects the degree of implementation, with participatory budgeting and higher quality processes being particularly effective. But most significantxa0for explaining implementation are proposal level economic and political factors: a proposalsxa0cost, the extent to which it challenges existing policy and the degree of support it hasxa0within the municipality all strongly affect the chance of implementation.

Balmer Filaments in Tycho’s Supernova Remnant: An Interplay between Cosmic-ray and Broad-neutral Precursors

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Direct coupling of detergent purified human mGlu 5 receptor to the heterotrimeric G proteins Gq and Gs

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Remesas e inclusión financiera: Análisis de una encuesta de migrantes de América Latina y el Caribe en España

spectroscopic observations and detailed modelling of the Balmer filaments in the supernova remnant Tycho. We used Galaxy H

Las encuestas en las administraciones públicas españolas: evidencias preliminares de un escenario multinivel

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