The book shows how teachers struggled to liberate their country's education system from the legacy of dictatorship, combining a general evaluation of the phenomenon with intimate glances at the people who drove it forward. By vindicating the importance of democratic professionals it illuminates the Spanish transition to democracy from a new angle.

The slogan that launched the tourist industry in the 1960s, Spain is different, has come to haunt historians. This book tackles a number of key themes in modern Spanish history: liberalism, nationalism, anticlericalism, the Second Republic, the Franco dictatorship and the transition to democracy.

The present book analyzes the relationship between internal migration, urbanization and democratization in Spain during the period of General Francisco Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975) and Spain's transition to democracy (1975-1982). Specifically, the book explores the production and management of urban space as one form of political and social repression under the dictatorship, and the threat posed to the official urban planning regimes by the phenomenon of mass squatting (chabolismo). The growing body of recent literature that analyzes the role of neighborhood associations within Spain's transition to democracy, points to the importance and radicalism of associations that formed within squatters' settlements such as Orcasitas in Madrid, Otxarkoaga in Bilbao or Somorrostro and el Camp de la Bota in Barcelona. However, relatively little is known about the formation of community life in these neighborhoods during the 1950s, and about the ways in which the struggle to control and fashion urban space prior to Spain's transition to democracy generated specific notions of democratic citizenship amongst populations lacking in prior coherent ideological commitment.

Fulfilling the need for English-source material on contemporary Spain, this book supplies readers with an in-depth, interdisciplinary guide to the country of Spain and its intricate, diverse culture. Far from a usual reference book, Modern Spain takes the reader through the country's history, economy, and politics as well as topics that address Spain's popular culture, such as food, sports, and sexuality. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of its content, this book differs from the average typical English manuals that very rarely cover in depth the whole array of interesting issues that define Spain in the 21st century. The vast amount of information makes this book the perfect companion for any reader wishing to learn more about Spain. Packed with current facts and statistics, this book offers an unbiased view of a modern country, making it an ideal source for undergraduate students and scholars.

This book offers a remarkable range of research that emphasises the need to analyse the shaping of curricula under historical, social and political variables. Teachers’ life stories, the Cold War as a contextual element that framed curricular transformations in the US and Europe, and the study of trends in education policy at transnational level are issues addressed throughout. The book presents new lines of work, offering multidisciplinary perspectives and provides an overview of how to move forwards. The book brings together the work of international specialists on Curriculum History and presents research that offers new perspectives and methodologies from which to approach the study of the History of Education and Educational Policy. It offers new debates which rethink the historical study of the curriculum and offers a strong interdisciplinary approach, with contributions across Education, History and the Social Sciences. This book will be of great interest for academics and researchers in the fields of education and curriculum studies. It will also appeal to educational professionals, teachers and policy makers.

Transnational Socialist Networks in the 1970s argues that western European socialist parties' transnational cooperation across national borders significantly influenced politics and policy-making in what was the European Communities (EC). It focuses on the network-like informal structures that characterised transnational cooperation between the party members and leaders of different socialist parties involved in European affairs. Taking the example of two case studies, namely EC development aid policy and EC southern enlargement policy, the book demonstrates that the socialist parties strengthened their informal transnational network structures for the purposes of debating ideological and programmatic issues and finding policy solutions to common challenges in both policy fields. Moreover, it shows that the networks developed various functions to influence European governance. Against this background, the analysis in this book makes not only a significant contribution to the study of transnational networks of western European socialist parties and the history of European integration, but also adds to the understanding of the role of transnational networks in European politics and policy-making.