Analysis and study of the professional performance of the AEDL (Employment and Local Development Agents). As an essential element in the process of implementing public policies for socio-territorial intervention, the AEDLs have become the central figure in the local development model, whereby knowing their reality, activity and problems are aspects of great scientific interest that can greatly help in determining the actions to be undertaken. Knowing who is carrying out the actions in the territory also provides a guarantee that these actions will have one result or another.
Aesthetics, art and philosophical knowledge. Philosophy of art as a critique of society. The conception of the aesthetic in Critical Theory.
Audiovisual coeducation, gender, semiotics and cultural studies. Critical analysis of audiovisual culture and its coeducational dimension. Meaning and codification of gender in audiovisual discourses. Media interpellation: processes of identification and subjectivation.
The analysis of biographical events and life trajectories from micro- and macro-analytical perspectives has as its areas of study education, emancipation, integration into the labour market, the formation and dissolution of unions, motherhood and fatherhood, family changes, gender gaps throughout life and in the private and public spheres, life episodes during old age.
Study of the effects of biopower applied to the analysis of bodies, genders and sexualities. Social construction of health and illness.
Analysis of the role of practices, methods and techniques in the field of social intervention in the production of identities and sexualities.
Analysis of the public policies promoted by the local level in terms of citizen participation, their impact on the co-production of public policies, the methodologies deployed for this purpose and the effective consideration of "citizenship" (mechanisms of social inequality and education in participation).
Background, moderators and consequences of marketing and market orientation on the competitiveness of cluster companies.
Perception of belonging and affiliation, influence of the manager's cognitive style, influential aspects in group decision making in the cluster, method of group decision making. Mimicry and managerial perceptions.
Analysis of the articulation of the different types of social inequality, including as an object of analysis the systems of classification of social inequalities. Study of the relationship between the socio-historical structure and the system of social inequalities.
Research in critical theory and the Frankfurt School.
Analysis of the relations between the cultural and creative sectors and the development of territories, taking into account social, economic and cultural constraints.
Second-tier and transversal clusters. Economic dynamisation of territories and their external markets.
Modelling social systems, values and quality of life, and demographic flows.
Current developments in the connection between the education system and the labour market make it necessary to pay attention to some effects that are already visible on the condition of young people. The first question that will be analysed in this line concerns the concept of human capital and its capacity to create new youth subjectivities that respond to the idea of the entrepreneur of oneself. This idea has been developed by political philosophy in recent decades. Human capital is a machine for activating subjects, which entrepreneurialises social relationships and introduce us the other as a competitor. This is a disturbing scenario for social and human relationships that hovers over today's youth. Human capital is connected to a series of notions such as employability or entrepreneurial spirit that guide the educational and labour conceptions of young people. The second issue studied in this line is the brain drain of Spanish young people as a result of the economic crisis of 2007. The third question refers to free work (internships, scholarships) which is increasingly becoming a compulsory requirement for young university students and opens up a whole field for possible exploitative, abusive and arbitrary practices.
The international entrepreneur. Strategic effectiveness in new companies. Organisational alternatives in bankruptcy environments. Business reorganisation and restructuring. Decline, crisis and turnaround. Second Chance Policies.
Concept of gender violence, legal perspective: study of the impact of the Law on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence, public policies against gender violence Psychological perspective of gender violence. Feminicide.
Women and the labour market. Socio-economic situation of women. Equality policies. Labour insertion and unpaid work. Wage gap, labour segregation and glass ceiling. Co-responsibility. Budgets with a gender perspective. Gender, social sustainability and ICTs.
Study and analysis of the structure of gender relations in the different spheres of contemporary society. Design of intervention programmes in situations of inequality in access to resources for social action.
Policies for gender equality, against poverty and promotion of social participation at local, national and international levels. Gender and international cooperation, humanitarian action, awareness raising and education for development. Exclusion and marginalisation from a gender perspective.
Study of the dynamics of coexistence in contexts of significant multiculturalism, with special attention to integration policies, models for managing cultural diversity, the promotion of interculturality and conflicts associated with inequality and xenophobia.
Analysis and study of the local development model implemented in the territory as a framework for the implementation of actions that allow the improvement of the territory and its population. Analysis and study of the effects that public actions have had on the territory since this model was implemented in the 1980s. What has been its evolution, what aspects require improvement in order to favour processes of integral development of the territory. The search for answers to questions linked to the effectiveness and efficiency of the resources invested makes this line of work strategic for the future of the territory and its population.
Deciding factors of multi-localisation, agglomerations, compatriot and activity clusters. Generation and development of international social capital. Networks and guanxi. Distance and localisation-entry strategy.
Study of the processes of precariousness in social contexts discursively dominated by the knowledge economy and which particularly involve people with higher education qualifications. Phenomena: entrepreneurial activation, new forms of vital precariousness and the role of higher education institutions.
Analysis of the production of pedagogical identity in specific contexts of educational and professional transition from a Social Justice perspective. Construction of the social positioning of young people in institutional transition processes. Analysis of Educational Policies from a critical perspective: conservative modernisation.
Translation, editing, biographical studies of intellectuals of the Frankfurt School and its predecessors.
Pedagogical relations in contexts of social and educational exclusion (poverty, ghettoisation, ethnic minorities). Analysis of policies to combat failure and early school leaving. Curricular justice and educational equity. Childhood and RECE.
Study of pedagogical practice based on Basil Bernstein's theory. Analysis of the processes of distribution and construction of legitimate knowledge in the pedagogical device. Pedagogical modes of transmission. Sociology of pedagogy. Critical pedagogy and critical table.
Analysis of the relationship of contemporary processes of individualisation with social structure, especially with gender and class positions. Study of the relationship between agency and social structure.
Study of the dynamics of coexistence and interreligious dialogue in diverse societies with special attention to the guarantee of religious freedom in contexts of xenophobia and rejection of minorities. Analysis of the impact of Islamophobia in European societies.
Application and development of concepts and figures of critical thinking in social research. Global dialogue of critical theory.
Analysis of the dimensions and variables that can explain the processes of change in the unequal distribution of resources for social action. Social camps, capitals and unequal relations.
Analysis and study of the socio-economic processes that occur in the territory. Socio-territorial innovation as an element that allows territories to face local development processes is a matter of interest for any public administration with competences in this area. Even so, this social innovation suggests the need for each territory (local, regional, provincial, etc.) to be able to determine what its territorial singularities are, i.e. those aspects that enable it to face the future with guarantees. This has a lot to do with whether a territory can be considered as a competent territory, i.e. whether it has sufficient resources, whether it has actors who implement these resources and whether, as a result of this, active dynamics are generated so that these singularities allow local development processes to be articulated.
Analysis of spatio-temporal models. To implement geographic information systems for the study of interorganisational relations: configuration, content, container and effect. Positive and negative externalities. Moderating and mediating factors. Knowledge transfer in clusters. Franchised relationships.
Corresponding to its complexity and wide range, it focuses on studies and developments concerning strategy (including tactical and operational levels) and all the components involved in the decision-making process, based on normative or descriptive models (mathematical versus psychological), as well as at the individual and group level.
Electoral regulations, parity, political parties. Study on the behaviour of political parties in the design of electoral lists. Positions held by women in politics, parties and institutions.
The topics of research and development are very broad and include epidemiological studies, accident research, causes of accidents, risk factors, risk groups, vulnerable users, driver behaviour, basic psychological processes, attitudes, motivations and values underlying behaviour, the special case of offenders and repeat offenders, as well as autonomous driving.
In addition to the human factor, the subject of study includes the roads (with special attention to black spots and accident hotspots, as well as signage, which is particularly variable), vehicles, and the condition of all of them.
The basic concept of this line of research is that the transition towards a ‘post-carbon’ society will not take place through more energy efficiency or changes in government policies alone, but also requires profound transformations in lifestyles and consumption patterns.
The research and development topics are very broad and include studies of the travel habits or needs of users of a given territory or means of transport, user satisfaction, public transport, the impact of changes in supply, soft modes, freight, logistics, last mile, fares, accessibility, inclusiveness, gender, environment, electric mobility, etc.
Likewise, and even more so in the case of Road Safety, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) are the object of study and development, as well as other means of land transport, such as rail, tram and metro, as well as maritime and air transport.
This line of research aims to research the emerging forms of work both in terms of their material insecurity and in terms of the new configuration of subjectivities that are taking shape. The recent changes in the world of work linked to cognitive work, digital work, platform capitalism and new forms of work organisation that particularly affect young people - project work, the rise of independent forms of work and freelances- are giving room to new precariousness. The aim is to research the effects of jobs in which: 1) The frontier between work and personal life is narrowing; 2) Cognitive, creative and emotional skills are expanding; those that take advantage of personal qualities and open up a whole new scenario of cognitive exploitation; 3) New business demands are being made for involvement, vocation and dedication in these jobs, which call for a "psychological contract", for the identification with the company; 4) Work is recently identified as a space for recognition, reputation, the brand of the corresponding individualisation; 5) Autonomy is glorified as a competence and as an employment situation, which leads us towards the predominance of the entrepreneurial and the independent worker figures; 6) The capacity for negotiation on wages and working conditions is low and increases precarious situations. The weakness of the trade union movement and the protective family framework - which provides support for young people in precarious situations - strengthen the negotiating power of the company, which establishes precarious material conditions with little resistance. Initially, the qualitative approach will guide the research methodologically.
The latest economic recession that has hit the Western countries has revealed not only the fragility of the capitalist system and the social guarantees that have been associated for some years to Fordism, but also the existence of a deep systemic crisis of a structural rather than a conjunctural nature. Those who are young today have grown up immersed in this crisis and in the uncertainty that the ineffectiveness of social structures produces. In the face of the challenge of "growing up" in this context, young people are adopting the most diverse strategies. This line of research aims precisely to analyse what these strategies are by trying to identify the existence of patterns and construct some new theoretical categorisations. Starting with Hirshman's famous "exit, voice or loyalty", protest or conformity, the studies carried out in this line analyse the phenomenology of these reactions: processes such as emigration, protest and participation that are manifested in the new social movements, innovation as the construction of new paths, are the central phenomena of this line. The destructuring of Western societies and their organisation is generating, on the one hand, a lack of univocal orientation in the processes of socialisation in favour of the pluralisation of life paths and, on the other hand, an urgent need to build new "solutions" in the life of the community in all areas. From the models of coexistence and the pluralisation of family models, to the ways in which work is organised, including training processes, the life of young people is characterised by a very interesting mixture of conservation and innovation, of ruptures and the emergence of new identities, where subjective processes and interpersonal relations take on great importance. Hence the key use of qualitative research methodologies.
