This note illustrates some of the new roles that armed forces are taking on in developed countries, highlighting the structure, capabilities, and missions developed by the Spanish Military Emergency Unit (UME). The note describes some of these new roles assumed by UME, such as its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and shows, using official temporal and georeferenced data, the growing use of the military to support civilian authorities in response to natural disasters, man-made disasters, and other emergencies alike. In addition, we also analyze public opinion survey data to argue that this is helping to improve society’s perception of the armed forces even in a country like Spain where, due to its recent history, a significant part of its population is reluctant to the military. In short, the military is taking on more emergency roles as needs arise and these new roles can help to improve its perception by citizens.
The gender gap in political knowledge is a classical problem of Western democracies. In the 21st century, political knowledge is still unequally distributed between men and women, as many cross-section studies have shown. This is an indicator of women’s disempowerment and the distance which remains to be covered to achieve an inclusive and sustainable society. Could public policies and gender equality laws change the situation? Using a longitudinal database in which 600,000 survey responses are analysed from 1996 to 2017, this case study of Spain aims to shed some light on this question. It combines sociological and political approaches in line with the development theory of the gender gap of Inglehart and Norris (2000, 2003), whose core argument is that modernization changes cultural attitudes toward gender equality. From this perspective, this paper proposes the following hypothesis: the modernization process of Spain (from a dictatorship to a democracy) has given rise to changes in traditional sex roles, driving women‘s access to political knowledge and diminishing the gender gap. This is a step towards achieving objective number 5 of the 2030 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development (gender equality and empowerment of women and girls), according to which gender equality is not only a fundamental human right but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the fear experienced by some of the population, along with the lack of mobility due to the restrictions imposed, has modified the social behaviour of Spaniards. This has had a significant effect on the hospitality sector, viewed as being an economic and social driver in Spain. From the analysis of data collected in two of our own non-probabilistic surveys (N ~ 8400 and N ~ 2000), we show how, during the first six months of the pandemic, Spaniards notably reduced their consumption in bars and restaurants, also preferring outdoor spaces to spaces inside. The restaurant sector has needed to adapt to this situation and, with the support of the authorities (regional and local governments), new terraces have been allowed on pavements and public parking spaces, modifying the appearance of the streets of main towns and cities. This study, focused on the city of Madrid, analyses the singular causes that have prompted this significant impact on this particular city, albeit with an uneven spatial distribution. It seems likely that the new measures will leave their mark and some of the changes will remain. The positive response to these changes from the residents of Madrid has ensured the issue is being widely debated in the public arena.
2020 was a year marked by COVID-19, an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Since the official beginning of the pandemic (March 2020), the authorities in Spain have been imposing significant restrictions (mainly on mobility) to stop the spread of the disease. In October 2020, the research group GIPEyOP (Elections and Public Opinion Research Group from the University of Valencia) conducted a survey to analyse whether the Spanish population has maintained or modified their habits and customs once the strict measures imposed in Spain during the onset of the pandemic were relaxed. This article describes the dataset collected, which is provided as an attachment. The dataset is made up of 196 variables, following elimination of those variables that could potentially identify the respondents to ensure their anonymity. Over 22 days, from September 23 to October 14, 2020, GIPEyOP collected 1755 valid responses. Respondents were contacted by chain or snowball sampling via email and social media and answered a self-administered web questionnaire consisting of 40 questions. amongst other uses, the resulting dataset can be (re)used to analyse whether the period of home confinement that Spaniards experienced between March and June 2020 has caused them to change their habits and customs, such as how often they do sport or go to bars or restaurants. The data also permit the study of whether there have been changes in the distribution of household chores by comparing three clearly differentiated moments (before confinement, during confinement and after confinement), what type of work (telework or face-to-face) the respondents would prefer or to know how the management of the crisis by govern authorities impacted on their votes preferences.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.