European Interventions Research Articles

Advancing search engine studies: The evolution of Google critique and intervention

In this piece, which frames the special issue, “The State of Google Critique and Intervention,” we provide an overview of research focusing on Google as an object of critical study, fleshing out the European interventions that actively attempt to address its dominance. The article begins by mapping out key areas of articulating a Google critique, from the initial focus on ranking and profiling to the subsequent scrutiny of user exploitation and competitive imbalance. As such, it situates the contributions to this special issue concerning search engine bias and discrimination, the ethics of Google Autocomplete, Google's content moderation, the commodification of engine audiences and the political economy of technical systems in a broader history of Google criticism. It then proceeds to contextualize the European developments that put forward alternatives and draws attention to legislative efforts to curb the influence of big tech. We conclude by identifying a few avenues for continued critical study, such as Google's infrastructural bundling of generative artificial intelligence with existing products, to emphasize the importance of intervention in the future.

The Farm’s Orientation towards Sustainability: An Assessment Using FADN Data in Italy

The new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the period 2023–2027 commits farmers towards achieving ambitious environmental objectives through farm organization and management. This European agricultural policy has adapted to the contemporary challenges faced by the new model of agricultural development. It aims to enhance the contribution of agriculture to the EU’s environmental and climate objectives while providing better targeted support to small-scale farmers to promote farms’ competitiveness. The main objective of this paper is to describe Italian farms and classify them into groups based on their main characteristics, as well as to analyze their performance and behavior in terms of sustainability and competitiveness. The novelty and innovativeness of this study are found in the data used; a 2020 dataset from the Italian Farm Accounting Data Network (FADN) was used. The quality of FADN data in farm sustainability assessment is widely acknowledge in the literature. To achieve the purpose of this study, a multivariate analysis, in particular, the Principal Components Analysis (PCA), and a Cluster Analysis (CA) were applied. These analyses helped us to obtain the factorial axes which then enabled us to identify economic information on farms, and a better interpretation of farmers’ aptitude to undertake environmentally friendly actions. As a result, eight groups of farms were identified, and their characteristics and performance were described at Italian district level. The results of the study reflect the influence of European interventions towards encouraging farmers to use more environmentally friendly agricultural practices. Under this perspective, the findings contribute to the current debate on green architecture pursued by the future European agricultural policy.

Colonial Schemes and African Realities: Vernacular Infrastructure and the Limits of Road Building in German East Africa

AbstractThis article studies infrastructure development in the colony of German East Africa from the early 1890s to 1907. By focussing on questions of continuity and change in the transition phase from the precolonial era to German colonial rule, the article demonstrates that colonial road planning coexisted and often collided with established infrastructure systems. After 1891, colonial authorities sought to transform existing caravan paths into all-weather highways. The analysis applies an actor-centred approach to explain why almost all of these efforts failed. A focus on those actors being expected to construct or maintain (residents) and to use (transport workers) colonial roads reveals the non-compliance of colonial subjects, the persistence of African spatial practices, and the resulting contestation of colonial rule in everyday life. In this way, the article illuminates how Africans responded to European interventions which restructured space and how these responses complicated and frustrated colonial road works. Hence, the article challenges classical narratives of infrastructure as a ‘tool of empire’ and instead highlights the resilience of vernacular structures and their producers under colonial rule.

Spatial justice on the horizon? A combined Theory of Change scenario tool to assess place-based interventions

ABSTRACT This paper presents a methodology to assess the internal and external coherence, and the robustness to future uncertainty, of place-based interventions addressing spatial (in)justice. The methodology merges elements of Theory of Change (ToC) and mechanism mapping with scenario planning. It was designed based on analysis of a range of European interventions (public policies and bottom-up initiatives), selected to highlight the ways spatial injustices have been tackled across different scales. The first phase of the methodology uses a ToC mechanism map to illustrate the logic of the intervention, including its baseline assumptions (internal) and contextual conditions (external). In the second phase, scenarios for the locality are developed based on potential states of global and local macro-trends, revealing how the contextual conditions are expected to change, and whether the intervention's baseline assumptions are likely to hold. This then allows the elaboration of spatial justice trajectories, and for the ToC mechanism map to be updated. To effectively illustrate the methodology, we show how it has been applied using a case study intervention implemented in a territorially disadvantaged area. We present the methodology as a flexible tool allowing detection of more general stylised facts, and spatial comparisons between a broad range of interventions.

Analysis of interventions and social work services in the Psychiatric Hospital “Sadik Dinci” Elbasan, Albania

Recent changes, especially after the 90s in Albania, have marked an important turn in the whole health system and even more so in the field of mental health. With health services, policies and social services were implemented to people with mental health problems, and it in this form that there was a need to bridge these policies and services to beneficiaries, such as social workers in mental health. Now the social worker is one of the key persons in the multidisciplinary team whose purpose is to identify, diagnose, treat, plan and integrate these people into society. The study aims is to identify the support and role of social work in persons with mental health disorders at Psychiatric Hospital “Sadik Dinçi” Elbasan, Albania and in the supported housing in this city. Qualitative method was used for conducting the study, and semi-structured interview with a focus group of 4 social workers of this hospital, 2 social workers of Elbasan Community Mental Health Center and 4 day-care ergo therapists located within the premises of the hospital was used as measuring instruments to this hospital. Also, a survey was conducted with 15 patients of the hospital. According to the study, the role of the social worker is well positioned in the field of mental health, but at the same time the study highlights the need for modern European interventions and models for integrating these individuals away from the walls of psychiatric hospitals, models where these individuals are supported and integrated in society.

Physical activity and health promotion programs in the workplace: A meta-analysis of effectiveness in European organizations

Scientific literature shows numerous examples of the influence of physical activity on people’s health. Other reviews have focused on physical activity in the workplace, but none of them deals exclusively with European companies and interventions. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of physical activity and health interventions conducted within European companies. A meta-analysis was conducted, which assessed 661 relevant studies found through both electronic and manual search. An electronic search was conducted through the use of several databases. A manual search was conducted through the consultation of references from other reviews and experts who are a reference in the field of physical activity, health and companies. Once the main variables were clustered, the effect size of such interventions was calculated. The methodological quality was rated using the PEDro scale, based on the Delphi list. In 18 analyzed studies, a small effect of the programs over the variables, in general, was found (ES = 0.21; CI 95% 0.07–0.35). Additionally, the effect of the interventions on some of the predominant variables was also small. These results suggest a high variability. It would be useful to develop more interventions in the future, as well as to obtain global health indicators that may help clear such variability and move toward designing successful approaches.

Meddling with Medals, Defending the Dead: Late Ottoman Soft Power from South Asia to North America

Before the Ottoman and British empires clashed on the battlefields of World War I, imperial rivalries between Istanbul and London often took more subtle forms. In the diplomatic realm, late Ottoman-British tussles were not limited to disputes over Ottoman territories and populations, but extended to Ottoman interventions in British domains as well. Utilizing archival and museum collections from Istanbul, New Delhi, New England, and Ottawa, this article contributes to a growing literature on late Ottoman extraterritoriality by probing Istanbul’s diplomatic and consular activities within two very different and distant British territories: India and Canada. First, the study examines discord between Istanbul and London over a seemingly innocuous yet increasingly sensitive issue: the Ottoman sultan-caliph’s conferral of honorary medals upon Indian Muslim notables. Second, the article pivots to the western hemisphere to explore Ottoman consular interventions surrounding the estates of Ottoman subjects who died in Canada. By considering examples of Ottoman ‘soft power’ in two far-flung regions of the world, the study contests one-dimensional narratives of extraterritoriality that fixate on European interventions in the Ottoman domains, or frame the Ottomans as passive spectators resigned to Western superiority in the Middle East, eastern Mediterranean, or other conventional geographies associated with Ottoman history.

Lifestyle intervention in the primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. Adherence to ahealthy lifestyle lifelong is capable of significantly reducing the cardiovascular risk by up to 70% and is therefore akey component in primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. According to the European and American guidelines lifestyle interventions include not smoking, daily physical activity of ≥150 min/week at moderate intensity or 75 min/week for higher intensity physical activity, acardioprotective nutrition (high proportion of unsaturated fatty acids, low amounts of saturated fatty acids and low salt intake), normal body weight (body mass index 20-25 kg/m2), arterial blood pressure <140/90 mm Hg (optimum <130/80 mm Hg), low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol target values depending on the cardiovascular risk and a normal glucose metabolism in type2 diabetes mellitus with adjustment of aHbA1c to <7%. Lifestyle measures with weight reduction and intensification of physical activity can improve the cardiometabolic risk factors. In this way reduction of the systolic and diastolic blood pressures by approximately 10-15 mm Hg, reduction of HbA1c by approximately 1 % and reduction of triglycerides by ca. 30-40 % are possible. The LDL-cholesterol and lipoprotein(a) levels cannot be easily influenced. Beyond the recommendations for a cardioprotective lifestyle, additional pharmacological therapy may have to be added depending on the cardiovascular risk profile.

The governance of spectrum: a possible venue of accountability for global telecommunication

PurposeThe paper aims to explore accountability as a virtue and as a mechanism (Bovens, 2010) of global telecommunication operators in the process of governing spectrum and of broadband development. The two concepts of accountability are juxtaposed with operators’ corporate reporting practices and spectrum licensing procedures of European national regulatory authorities (NRAs) and are analysed accordingly. The paper argues that spectrum licensing within the European Union regulatory context offers possible venues for policy intervention, rendering telecom providers to take an account on their global operations. Corruption is the case study to draw connections to public accountability, with a focus on the information and communication technology global market activity.Design/methodology/approachSpectrum bidding processes of European NRAs were analysed according to published documentation of auctions and to answers of NRAs on specific aspects of their licensing practices. Auctioning cases on 800 MHz band frequencies (790-862 MHz, or the “digital dividend”) were selected in countries where telecoms involved in corruption cases were based or where corrupt practices were revealed. Furthermore, a survey was carried out between 08 March and 03 June 2017 – coordinated by the Radio Spectrum Policy Group among its 28 members – on inquiring about licensing practices of NRAs during spectrum trading with respect to identifying beneficial ownership of bidders to spectrum.FindingsFindings show that European NRAs are in possession of regulatory tools that could enforce telecoms’ public accountability; there are strong arguments on the need for European and national-level policy interventions. Spectrum licensing procedures are offering possible and potential venues of accountability. Further legislative action is necessary to adopt a minimum set of criteria applicable in the licensing process. Harmonised implementation by NRAs should further develop new standards fostering transparency.Originality/valueInformation about the ethical behaviour and corruption of European telecom operators is surprisingly scarce and unsystematic, particularly considering the centrality of those actors in advancing a number of the aims of the historical Millennium Development Goals and the new Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Research into the governance of spectrum as a possible venue of accountability, and the findings shed new light on regulatory aspects of telecommunication in a global perspective.

Dynamics and Stability in the Encounters between Asian Buddhists and European Christians

The aim of this paper is to theorize broadly about how cultural encounters between Asian Buddhists and European Christians spurred various efforts to demarcate, systematize, and stabilize religious traditions. It focuses on the dynamics seen in Buddhist responses to contact situations from the sixteenth century onwards in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Japan in order to map out some patterns of interaction among these communities. Theories of cultural imitation and independence do not suffice to theorize interreligious encounters in these cases. Using select examples, this paper will contend that Asian Buddhists often responded to various kinds of European interventions by redefining and reimagining the Buddhist tradition in new ways in order to argue for its continued validity and to secure its stability in the face of external encounters and pressures.

Dollar Diplomacy by Force: Nation-Building and Resistance in the Dominican Republic

American audiences in the twenty-first century are surely familiar with nation building via military means. Just like the contemporary engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, early twentieth-century U.S. occupations in the Caribbean region sometimes produced conditions far worse than before intervention. Ellen D. Tillman shows how this trend unfolded in the Dominican Republic, site of a U.S. occupation from 1916 to 1924. While aims to remake Dominican politics and society in the United States' image fell short, this period of intervention facilitated the rise of Rafael Trujillo, the infamous dictator who would rule for more than thirty years. The specter of Trujillo, however, remains in the background of Tillman's study. Instead, she examines how U.S. influence and local resistance fostered compromises that changed the Dominican Republic from a country long divided by region to one much more centralized—a development that would later enable Trujillo. The first three chapters chronicle deepening U.S. involvement in Dominican affairs during the early twentieth century. Closer commercial ties through the sugar industry compelled U.S. officials to subject the Dominican Republic to closer scrutiny, and the federal government remained concerned about chronic small-scale rebellions, weak central authority, and potential European interventions. Ultimately, the struggling Dominican government's failure to uphold a 1907 customs agreement—allowing the United States to control receivership to balance payments and erase state debts—provided justification for the U.S. military occupation.

Fictions of Race: American Indian Policies in Nineteenth-Century British North American Fiction

This article explores the hemispheric and transatlantic uses of race and empire as tropes of settler-colonial otherness in the novelThe Canadian Brothers(1840) by Canadian author John Richardson. In this pre-Confederation historical novel, Richardson contrasts the imperial British discourse of racial tolerance, and the British military alliances with the Natives in the War of 1812, with the brutality of American Indian policies south of the border, in an effort to craft a narrative of Canadian difference from, and incompatibility with, American culture. At the same time, the author's critical attitude towards all European military and commercial interventions in the New World illuminates the rootedness of both American and Canadian settler colonialisms in British imperialism, and exposes the arbitrariness and constructedness of the political boundaries dividing the continent.

Assessing the ‘added value’ of European policy on new psychoactive substances

BackgroundNew psychoactive substances (NPS) are reported to be on the rise throughout Europe, and are often presented as the latest challenge facing drug-policy makers. At the European level, legislation on NPS has existed since 1998. Several evaluations, however, have suggested that this legislation is not effective and the European Commission has submitted a new proposal on NPS seeking to extend its powers in this area. MethodsThis article critically evaluates the new proposal against its predecessor's three main criticisms: (i) being unable to tackle the large number of NPS because of lengthy European legislative approaches, (ii) being reactive rather than proactive, and (iii) lacking options for regulatory and control measures. Results and conclusionIn determining whether or not European interventions can bring added value to what is being done at the national level, it finds that, while the new proposal is more efficient, it is not necessarily more effective, and that there is a disappointing focus on legal frameworks at the expense of research and harm reduction.

Ordoliberalism Beyond Borders:The EU and Algeria's Human Capital

This working paper studies the Euro-Algerian relationship through the lens of investment in human capital and looks at how European interventions encourage the transformation of Algerian governmentality. In addition to the various policies implemented since the signing of the Association agreement in 2002, the article also interrogates the agendas of local institutions and actors who support or resist this transformative influence. After an introductory section that presents the concept of human capital and its relevance for the Euro-Algerian context, the following sections show how the Euro-Algerian cooperation draws on technologies of standardization, securitization and responsibilization in order to shape a socially integrated, politically and economically moral subject. This empirical analysis serves to understand the ordoliberal character of this intervention. Indeed, the goal of the European Union is not merely to propose a technical intervention in order to promote a stable environment for the modernization of the economy. Instead, the shaping of Algeria's human resources, with the support of diverse segments of the ruling elite, shows the depth of a restructuring that is also political. The relationship between the nation-state and its population is thus affected, as the former is associated with an anthropological process that must foster both economic efficiency and civic awareness.

Do planejamento integral à integração ao território e à paisagem: o Estado e a criação do espaço turístico em ambientes costeiros

Apesar da aparente espontaneidade, o processo de transformação de áreas litorâneas a partir do desenvolvimento turístico é marcado, também, pela realização de esforços de planejamento por parte de governos nacionais ou municipais. Das primeiras atuações europeias dos anos 1950, onde infraestruturas, equipamentos e alojamentos foram criados integralmente à margem de estruturas preexistentes, aos esforços atuais de requalificação de zonas criadas pelo desenvolvimento da atividade, muito foi feito e, gradualmente, novas variáveis foram incorporadas. Este trabalho analisa algumas dessas experiências, no sentido de demonstrar como valores do território, questões ambientais e distintas configurações urbanas têm sido incorporadas pelo planejamento do território turístico. A amostra incorpora os casos do Languedoc-Roussillon, na França e do FONATUR, no México, exemplos de atuação integral do Estado, bem como atuações de planejamento ocorridas a partir dos anos 1990, na Espanha, que sintetizam buscas contemporâneas de requalificação de estruturas turísticas criadas pelo mercado em décadas anteriores.

European Co-production Funds and Latin American Cinema: Processes of Othering and Bourgeois Cinephilia in Claudia Llosa's La teta asustada

AbstractLatin American women's filmmaking has an unprecedented international profile thanks to the films of the Peruvian director Claudia Llosa, and the Argentine directors Lucía Puenzo and Lucrecia Martel. What is frequently unacknowledged when discussing the work of these award-winning filmmakers is the fact that all of their films are co-productions with Europe, and that programmes such as Cinéfondation, a programme aligned with the Cannes film festival, the Hubert Bals Fund, the World Cinema Fund and Ibermedia have been instrumental in their production. This article will tell this story through a discussion of the work of Claudia Llosa with an introduction to the issues raised by her award winning festival film Madeinusa (2006), and a focus on La teta asustada/The Milk of Sorrow (2009). It will consider the arguments of theorists who critique what they see as neo-colonial European interventions in ‘world cinema’, and those who celebrate the enabling work of the funding bodies. The chapter asks where can we place the cultural production of Llosa within these paradigms? Does the film confirm the critical positions by being subject to a process of othering for a European cinephile festival audience? Does it create its protagonist Fausta, an Andean migrant to Lima, from racist, neo-colonial stereotypes as some critics claim? Or, does it raise important questions relating to class and ethnic divisions within contemporary Peruvian society? The article ends with a discussion of how Llosa's second film, that presents the urban poor and the colonial class from a bourgeois point of view, compares with the films of Lucrecia Martel and Lucía Puenzo which provide a bourgeois point of view on the bourgeoisie itself.

Western Interventions and Formation of the Young Turks' Siege Mentality

This study is a preliminary attempt at understanding the correlation between the formation of the Young Turk mindset and the European interventions toward the Ottoman Empire in light of the documents written by the Young Turk generation. The Young Turk movement emerged in the period when the European powers were penetrating into Ottoman geography more strongly than ever. The Young Turks witnessed numerous territorial losses, the rise of nationalist sentiments among the imperial subjects and more importantly, the increasing political dependency of the Ottoman Empire. This article argues that modern Turkey's nationalism is deeply rooted in ‘siege mentality’ that evolved during the late nineteenth to early twentieth century Ottoman experiences. This ‘siege mentality’ is understood as a conviction among Young Turks that the state was on the eve of an enemy siege and thus engaged in a struggle for its very survival. Consequently, anti-Western reactions and survival anxieties among the Young Turk generation shaped and affected the nascent Turkish nationalist discourse and identity, both as an organic process through the experiences of the Young Turks as well as a social construction.

Decent work and indecent trade agendas: the European Union and ACP countries

The European Commission has promised to promote decent work in the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries through pro-poor direct investment and livelihood-creating trade deals. Aligning with the discourse of the International Labour Organisation, the European Commission seeks to achieve ‘fair globalisation’ in which economic growth is translated into decent jobs. Applying a moral economy perspective, however, the article argues that there is a disjuncture between the norms espoused under the Decent Work Agenda and the tangible implications of European interventions in ACP economies. Specifically, Economic Partnership Agreements will have deleterious consequences for the lives of many poorer producers and workers in ACP countries. The provision of Aid for Trade for decent work, moreover, may not deliver meaningful decent work opportunities in ACP countries. In this analysis, the article explores the emergent normativity-outcomes gap in this sphere of European Union external relations.

Exploring subgroup effects by socioeconomic position of three effective school-based dietary interventions: the European TEENAGE project

The aim of this study was to explore subgroup effects by high and low socioeconomic position (SEP) of three previously conducted, effective European interventions. Reanalyses stratified by SEP were conducted by the research groups of each study. All studies were school-based: two multi-component interventions targeting intake of fat or fruit and vegetables (FV), and a free breakfast initiative. Computer-tailored advice affected fat intake among low, but not high SEP girls after 1year. A multi-component intervention affected the total FV intake in both SEP groups, vegetable intake in low SEP and fruit intake in high SEP across three countries after 1year, whereas free fruit affected total FV and fruit intake equally in both SEP groups in one country after 2years. Providing a free healthy breakfast increased consumption of healthy food items only in the low SEP group. Reanalysing intervention studies by SEP is a quick and easy way to explore patterns in effects by SEP across interventions. Providing healthy food might be a promising strategy for decreasing social inequalities.

The Decent Work Agenda and ACP-EU Relations

The European Commission has promised to promote decent work in the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries through facilitation of pro-poor direct investment and livelihood-creating trade deals. Aligning with the discourse of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the European Commission seeks to ensure that ‘globalisation works for the poor’ and that economic growth is translated into decent jobs and poverty reduction. The paper argues, however, that there is disjuncture between the norms of the European Commission as espoused under the Decent Work Agenda and the tangible implications of European interventions in ACP economies. The implementation of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) will have deleterious consequences for the lives of many poorer producers and workers in ACP agricultural and manufacturing sectors. The provision of Aid for Trade for Decent Work, moreover, may not deliver meaningful decent work opportunities in ACP countries.