Beyond nationalism: Three visions of the European Union and their implications for the linguistic regime of its institutions

The linguistic diversity in the European Union is generally viewed as an essential component of the European identity, but the linguistic regime of the EU institutions (with eleven official and working languages) is not undisputed. In addition, the upcoming enlargements will complicate greatly the continuation of the present practices as new Member States bring new official languages. As a result, the debate about possible reforms is likely to be boosted by the necessity to prepare EU institutions for further enlargment. The present regime of institutional multilingualism is criticised from different angles, resulting in three options for the future. In this paper the linguistic regime of EU institutions is discussed in relation to general ideas about the nature of this supranational political system. Supranationalism is treated here as a program to supersede nationalism. Three variants are distinguished: pacified nationalism, neo-nationalism and post-nationalism. The paper examines how these different visions of Europe shed different lights on the issue of multilingualism (in terms of communication, identity and power) and its institutionalisation in the linguistic regime of the core instituions of the European Union. Although the three models are compatible with several arrangements, they support or oppose them for different reasons. Besides, they differ regarding the significance of the linguistic regime of the EU institutions for the whole polity and their ability to steer linguistic practices.     

Grid-group cultural theory: an introduction

This article offers an introduction to grid-group cultural theory (also known as grid-group analysis, Cultural Theory or theory of socio-cultural viability), an approach that has been developed over the past thirty years in the work of the British anthropologists Mary Douglas and Michael Thompson, the American political scientist Aaron Wildavsky, and many others. This assessment begins with a presentation of the main claims of the theory, distinguishing two characteristic breads of grid-group cultural theory, in the one it is conceived as a heuristic device, in the other it is seen as a full explanatory theory. This brief is followed by a discussion of the typology generated by the theory. This includes a presentation of the two dimensions of sociality it posits, the cultural map they produce, as well as the four (or five) cultural types derived from them and their designations. The article proceeds with a discussion of key issues including the incorporation of other typologies (such as the one developed to analyse myths of nature), the relations between cultures or rationalities and several methodological issues. Finally the article introduces the contributions to this special issue of the GeoJournal. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The European level in EU governance: territory, authority and trans-scalar networks

This article offers an analysis of the emerging scalar configuration of the governance of the European Union. It discusses how European integration stands for a move from a collection of territorially homogenous systems of rule towards a new assemblage of territories, authorities and rights. The paper first questions the stretchy territoriality of the seemingly obvious European level. Second it analyses the sectoral differences in the evolution of the width and the depth of integration, measured as the transfer of competencies to the EU level between the Rome Treaty (1958) and the Lisbon Treaty (200y). Third it turns to the day-to-day decision-making to assess the relations between players in EU governance and finally it looks more closely at the administrative wheels of the EU machinery.     

In situ Measurement of H2O and CH4 with Telecommunication Laser Diodes in the Lower Stratosphere: Dehydration and Indication of a Tropical Air Intrusion at Mid-Latitudes

Telecommunication laser diodes emitting near 1.39 m and 1.65 m in combination with direct-differential absorption spectroscopy are efficient tools to monitor in situ stratospheric H₂O andCH₄ with a good precision error (a few percents), a high temporal resolution (ranging from 10 ms to 1 s), a large dynamic range in the concentration measurements (four orders of magnitude) and a high selectivity in the analyte species. To illustrate the capability of laser probing technique, we report balloonborne H₂Oand CH₄ simultaneous measurements obtained on October 2001 atmidlatitudes (43° N). The H₂O vertical profile achieved with the lasersensor in the lower stratosphere is compared with the H₂O data yielded by a balloonborne frost-point hygrometer. The total hydrogen mixing ratio in the lower stratosphere, 2[CH₄] + [H₂O], appears to beconstant at 7.5 ± 0.1 ppmv. Nevertheless, an unexpected largedehydration of 0.5 ppmv was detected by both the laser sensor and thehygrometer between 16 km and 23 km. We suspect the occurrence of a tropicalair intrusion into mid-latitudes. We support this interpretation using a high-resolution advection model for potential vorticity.     

The fate of nitrogen and sulfur in hard-rock aquifers as shown by sulfate-isotope tracing

Stable SO₄ isotopes (δ³⁴S_-SO4 and δ¹⁸O_-SO4), and more occasionally δ¹⁵N_-NO3 were studied in groundwater from seven hard-rock aquifer catchments. The sites are located in Brittany (France) and all are characterized by intensive agricultural activity. The purpose of the study was to investigate the potential use of these isotopes for highlighting the fate of both SO₄ and NO₃ in the different aquifer compartments. Nitrate-contaminated groundwater occurs in the regolith; δ³⁴S fingerprints the origin of SO₄, such as atmospheric deposition and fertilizers, and δ¹⁸O_-SO4 provides evidence of the cycling of S within soil. The correlation between the δ¹⁸O_-SO4 of sulfates and the δ¹⁵N_-NO3 of nitrates suggests that S and N were both cycled in soil before being leached to groundwater. Autotrophic and heterotrophic denitrification was noted in fissured aquifers and in wetlands, respectively, the two processes being distinguished on the basis of stable SO₄ isotopes. During autotrophic denitrification, both δ³⁴S_-SO4 and δ¹⁸O_-SO4 decrease due to the oxidation of pyrite and the incorporation of O from the NO₃ molecule in the newly formed SO₄. Within wetlands, fractionation occurs of O isotopes on SO₄ in favour of lighter isotopes, probably through reductive assimilation processes. Fractionation of S isotopes is negligible as the redox conditions are not sufficiently reductive for dissimilatory reduction. δ³⁴S_-SO4 and δ¹⁸O_-SO4 data fingerprint the presence of a NO₃-free brackish groundwater in the deepest parts of the aquifer. Through mixing with present-day denitrified groundwater, this brackish groundwater can contribute to significantly increase the salinity of pumped water from the fissured aquifer.     

Impact of the LMDZ atmospheric grid configuration on the climate and sensitivity of the IPSL-CM5A coupled model

The IPSL-CM5A climate model was used to perform a large number of control, historical and climate change simulations in the frame of CMIP5. The refined horizontal and vertical grid of the atmospheric component, LMDZ, constitutes a major difference compared to the previous IPSL-CM4 version used for CMIP3. From imposed-SST (Sea Surface Temperature) and coupled numerical experiments, we systematically analyze the impact of the horizontal and vertical grid resolution on the simulated climate. The refinement of the horizontal grid results in a systematic reduction of major biases in the mean tropospheric structures and SST. The mid-latitude jets, located too close to the equator with the coarsest grids, move poleward. This robust feature, is accompanied by a drying at mid-latitudes and a reduction of cold biases in mid-latitudes relative to the equator. The model was also extended to the stratosphere by increasing the number of layers on the vertical from 19 to 39 (15 in the stratosphere) and adding relevant parameterizations. The 39-layer version captures the dominant modes of the stratospheric variability and exhibits stratospheric sudden warmings. Changing either the vertical or horizontal resolution modifies the global energy balance in imposed-SST simulations by typically several W/m² which translates in the coupled atmosphere-ocean simulations into a different global-mean SST. The sensitivity is of about 1.2 K per 1 W/m² when varying the horizontal grid. A re-tuning of model parameters was thus required to restore this energy balance in the imposed-SST simulations and reduce the biases in the simulated mean surface temperature and, to some extent, latitudinal SST variations in the coupled experiments for the modern climate. The tuning hardly compensates, however, for robust biases of the coupled model. Despite the wide range of grid configurations explored and their significant impact on the present-day climate, the climate sensitivity remains essentially unchanged.