Ciencias Sociales, Patrimonio y Alimentación

This paper explores the underlying factors behind the collapse of commercial archaeology in Spain, with implications for other international contexts. It contributes to the current global debate about heritage ethics, adding nuance and conceptual depth to critical management studies and cultural heritage management in their approach to business ethics. Similar to other European contexts, Spanish archaeological management thrived during the 1990s and 2000s as a business model based on policies directed at safeguarding cultural heritage. The model had controversial ethical implications at academic, policy and business levels. However, the global financial crisis of 2008 had a huge impact on this sector, and more than 70% of the Spanish archaeological companies closed by 2017. Drawing on the concepts of abstract narratives, functional stupidity and corporatist neoliberalism, this paper illustrates the need to examine ethical issues from a pragmatic standpoint, beyond epistemological and moralistic critiques of profit-oriented businesses in the cultural realm. In doing so, it connects the fields of cultural heritage and management studies, opening up hitherto unexplored strands of research and debate.

Natural wine is a small but rapidly growing sector within the wine industry. Expertise in the field has been advanced by wine experts and professionals, while publications to aid in further understanding the topic lag behind. This manuscript highlights the need to develop more rigorous methodologies to better understand the market segment of natural wine, its consumers, and their composition and behaviour. Moreover, it calls for a deeper theoretical engagement with the notion of natural wine, which positions it among other sustainable and ecological certifications, including organic, biodynamic or sulphite-free. This would allow researchers to advance from the current state of knowledge, which continues to limit our ‘practical’ capacity for advice to policy makers but not to winemakers and marketers. These theoretical and methodological developments would allow scholars to catch up with debates being held by different social actors in the natural wine scene, including winemakers’ and consumer associations, bloggers, writers and professional marketers.

This paper presents the results of a novel study of Vino de Tea (pine heartwood wine) from the island of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain). The aim is to investigate its differential characteristics and contribute to typifying it within the Denomination of Origin ‘Wines of La Palma’. The analysis is based on a mixed approach combining a qualitative ethnographic approach (22 interviews) and quantitative physic-chemical methods in a sample of 16 wines. The ethnographical study revealed the tradition and techniques of elaboration behind Vino de Tea. In turn, the physic-chemical analysis revealed by chromatography a significant presence of α-terpineol due to elaboration in pine barrels or casks. These samples were compared with a Greek Retsina wine, revealing the differences between these two traditional wines. These data suggest that Vino de Tea is a unique product with distinctive characteristics and potential health benefits, owing to its significant content of α-terpineol resulting from its fermentation in Canary pine casks.

The designation of World Heritage Sites (WHSs) by UNESCO strengthens the international and national image of heritage destinations in the growing market of cultural tourism. Understanding how different stakeholders interpret the value of cultural heritage is one of the most important assets for balancing the promotion and protection of WHSs. This study draws on the case of the Altamira Prehistoric Cave WHS (Spain), whose preservation is under threat and constant debate. It explores factors determining the social value of heritage, namely: existence, aesthetic, economic, and legacy value. In doing so, this paper contributes to emerging debates on heritage management and tourist destinations. Data were collected using two surveys, one focused on visitors, with a total of 1047 valid surveys, and another on the Spanish population as a WHS host community, with a total of 1000 valid surveys. The analysis of these surveys shows how the existence, aesthetic, economic and legacy value dimensions of cultural heritage can build up brands around WHSs. The social-value dimension of cultural heritage therefore affects the market potential of WHSs, whose market potential is closely related to the education levels of a given society. These findings provide valuable information and insights for academics, destination managers and policy-makers in the debate about the preservation and tourism branding of Altamira. This will allow different stakeholders to identify opportunities to develop synergies between tourism promotion and heritage preservation, to both strengthen the brand image of a WHS and preserve its heritage.

This paper explores Spanish pesticide policy with a focus on developments during the last decade. Spain is one of the greatest global consumers of conventional pesticides and leader in various related rankings among European Union countries. However, reviews of pesticide policies examining the key plans, facts, strategies and stakeholders are largely lacking. In providing an overview of Spanish responses to the European Directive 2009/128/EC on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides, this article contributes to filling this research gap. Spanish National Action Plans lack measurable quantitative objectives for reduction in the use of conventional pesticides and further implementation of Integrated Pest Management. Spanish National Action Plans also lack strategies for informing citizens about pesticide residues, and efficient means of keeping up to date with the authorisation of new active substances and delivery of pesticide use and sales data, in time and form. Moreover, there are no clear trends in conventional pesticide use reduction and sales, despite a significant reduction in the use of the more toxic active substances. Overall, this paper reveals various important shortcomings and incongruences in Spanish pesticide policy, which deserve further scholarly exploration and should be a matter of concern for public bodies.

Santa Catalina is a Caribbean island in the Colombian archipelago of Providencia y San Andrés, which has been at the center of a recent territorial dispute between Colombia and Nicaragua that has made the islands central to the geostrategic agenda of the Colombian state in its attempt to reaffirm political alliances with the United States. Within this context, our investigation explores recent processes of archaeological research, heritagisation and tourism promotion on Santa Catalina Island that triggered a conflict between the local raizal population (Afro-descendant, Caribbean, Puritan and English-speaking) and the State (white, Andean, Catholic and Spanish-speaking) around the meaning of two key sites of memory—Fuerte Libertad (Fort Warwick) and the Cabeza de Morgan (Morgan's Head). Drawing on long-term ethnography, this paper reveals how the neoliberal, multicultural state of Colombia has functioned as an investment facilitator and a key actor in transforming ethnic-racial differences into class inequalities.