Analysis of the impact of growth processes on personal inequality in income distribution and on inequality between countries. Historical determinants of global inequality and the impact of public policies.
Analysis of objectives, interests and strategies of multinational companies, international economic institutions, states and other actors in globalisation.
This line studies the agricultural transformations in contemporary Spain, with the aim of influencing recent debates on the degree of development of the primary sector, its characteristics and its contribution to the industrialisation process.
Modelling and simulation of the structure of society in experimental and behavioural laboratories, impact analysis on strategies in complex environments of societal challenges.
Analysis through Experimental Economics, using laboratory experiments, of economic and social phenomena that are difficult to observe in a natural way.
Methodological developments and applications for the measurement of non-response in surveys and for the correction of their effects, especially the biases that can be introduced in the inferential process.
Research and innovation in literature aimed at the model reader, which is to be found in pre-school, primary and secondary education.
A large part of the action of public administrations is carried out in the absence of protocols for the analysis and evaluation of their results. The aim is to improve existing evaluation systems and implement them in policies and programmes with an impact on local and regional development.
Historical analysis of the profound determinants of economic growth in Europe and Latin America. Relations between institutional change and technological development.
One of the challenges currently facing education at all levels is how to deal with ethnic, cultural, linguistic, affective-sexual (...) diversity in our classrooms and how to do so with some signs of success. The line of research tries to do it from the literary training.
This line is based on conceiving coexistence as a relational framework in multicultural spaces that involves negotiating situations of contact that may or may not be conflictive. Racism, xenophobia and discriminatory practices that rely on the construction of otherness are manifestations of conflict that are addressed here, while forms of cooperation, reciprocity, relativism and solidarity are ways that operate in the opposite direction. Relational networks, associations and social networks are basic aspects of the process of insertion of both immigrants and their children, which are approached from this line. Furthermore, it is essential to address the processes of construction of collective identifications, from a minimally intersectional approach that, in addition to ethnicity, includes, among others, the variables of gender, class, age and sexual orientation. Understanding the factors that influence and the dynamics that are generated in contexts of intercultural contact is basic to exploring the construction of intercultural adjustments or processes of cultural and social accommodation that are characteristic of a coexistence that contributes to social cohesion. A construction that operates in a political, socio-affective, socio-economic, socio-spatial, identity and cultural dimension.
Discovery of individual behaviours from aggregated information.
Application and development of models for electoral prediction.
Effectiveness of employment policies in ensuring citizens’ access to quality employment that guarantees a dignified existence away from poverty and the capacity of such policies to rescue people who have been excluded from employment and society.
Analysis of the agents, markets and institutions that make up the modern financial system, i.e. from its beginnings in the 19th century to the present day.
The study of the impact of the first globalisation (1880-1913) and technology: on the labour market and on pay gap in the first and second globalisation (1980)
This line of research addresses the urban insertion of immigrants in the more general framework of the transformations driven by neoliberal urbanism, gentrification and precariousness, and from a multidimensional and holistic perspective, highlighting the conjunction between the socio-urban, socio-economic and cultural spheres, sociability and neighbourhood relations. In this line, the evolution of the residential insertion of immigrants is addressed, from central working-class neighbourhoods to peripheral working-class neighbourhoods, which today have the highest proportion of neighbourhoods of other origins. The problems of these neighbourhoods are studied, which cannot be reduced to the presence of immigration in them, as well as their characteristics. It also analyses access to territorialised public services, schools, health centres and social services, as well as the dynamics generated at neighbourhood level. Another significant area of urban integration is the changes that have taken place in our public spaces, some more functional, mobility nodes, others more for leisure and relaxation, parks and gardens. The process of urban integration of immigrants, whether it is more inclusive or more exclusive, is the result of the dynamics in these various interrelated areas.
Study of the historical evolution of economic theory and its impact on the process of economic development in Spain.
The creation of the Schengen area and the abolition of internal borders between the member states of the European Union has encouraged and facilitated new intra-European migratory flows. Their specificity is the recognition for these migrants, in many areas, of rights very similar to those of the autochthonous population. This makes them an updated version of the migratory flows internal to each country. In the framework of this new mobility space, we investigate the different existing migratory flows: the consolidated flows of economic emigration from the South to the North of Europe, mostly led by young people; the flows of "lifestyle migration" from the North of Europe to the South and the most recent migrations from the East of Europe to the South, as well as the internal migrations in the South of Europe. New migrant profiles, multidimensional motivations and complex mobility strategies are the main research themes of this line.
Analysis of labour dynamics from a comparative perspective.
Analyses at different scales and in different thematic areas that allow for the design of recommendations to achieve greater social cohesion, a higher quality urban environment and sustainable economic development, all within the concept of local sustainability.
Analysis of labour dynamics from a territorial perspective, including public policies for territorial development.
Analysis of the processes of regional economic growth in the historical experiences of European and Latin American countries. Impact of growth on territorial inequality. Impact of public policies on regional development in Europe and Latin America.
The strategies for managing cultural diversity that make it possible to generate cohesive societies as a political response to the fact of diversity are analysed. These are approached from a twofold perspective: first, multilevel governance, and second, the relationship between the institutional framework and socio-cultural dynamics. Within this framework, the conditions of insertion in public services are specifically highlighted. Given that managing cultural diversity implies a strategy in favour of coexistence and promotion of the diversity of the cultural groups existing in a territory, this line of work explores in depth the design and elaboration of plans for ethnic and cultural diversity or intercultural coexistence (municipal, university, etc.); the perspective of intersectionality between gender and cultural diversity and, finally, the challenge of considering the cultural diversity approach as a transversal principle for its application in different areas and sectors.
A segment of immigration faces conditions of precariousness and social exclusion. A social insertion on the margins that manifests itself in different degrees of residential exclusion, social rejection, administrative irregularity, subsistence economic activities, etc. In this sense, Romani migration is a particular case in point. It is a community-based, family-based migration, with high levels of poverty and social stigmatisation at origin and destination. Adequately capturing these phenomena is of particular interest for the development of inclusive social policies. The ethnographic perspective, combined with other techniques, is suitable for this purpose, facilitating the approach to a reality that is often invisible to the usual statistics and records. This line of work addresses aspects such as their migratory projects, residential integration, economic strategies and sociability and social participation, paying attention to the factors that hinder or favour their access to and normalised use of public services and, in short, their social integration.
Migrant workers have inserted themselves into an increasingly polarised and fragmented labour market. Although there is a wide heterogeneity of immigrant workers, the vast majority have entered the labour market and the productive structure "from below", with a high sectoral concentration and in low-skilled jobs, regardless of the qualifications of the person who performs them. This type of insertion and their working conditions, with rates of temporary employment, over-qualification and unemployment that are much higher than those of the native population, are dealt with along these lines. Although the idea that immigrants take jobs away from the native population is false, it is no less true that our productive structure has changed and that, as in other European countries, it can be described as an ethno-fragmented structure in which the position occupied depends not only on qualifications and experience but also on ethno-cultural origin.
All this has profound labour and social implications which are the subject of research in this line.
Methodological and software developments to find solutions to the problem of partial non-response in surveys and gaps in databases.
Policies and strategies for local and territorial development: socioeconomic transformation processes, new activities, actors in territorial management and territorial development policies.
Analysis of the power relations that shape the global economic order.
Analysis of the interactions between the productive structure, labour dynamics and public policies.
Design of instruments for the measurement, analysis and evaluation of Culture and Development policies and information systems for the monitoring and evaluation of the cultural action of public and private organisations and institutions.
Public services in rural areas (education, health, social services, commercial activity, infrastructures, leisure, tourism and cultural facilities, etc.) as factors of demographic attraction, economic dynamization (incomes and labour market) and social cohesion.
Adequacy in terms of coverage and intensity of the benefits of the social protection system and identification of its deficiencies (unemployment benefits, contributory and welfare benefits, minimum income for inclusion as well as social action and social assistance measures).
Social capital and territorial development: social networks, power elites and leadership in rural areas. In this line of research, the Social Media Analysis approach is used. The subject of crisis and resilience in local communities is tackled as well.
Vulnerabilities, social exclusion and (new) poverty in rural areas as a result of the crisis and the Welfare State withdrawal (reduction and/or disappearance of the social benefits, privatization and/or deregulation of public services, etc.). This line of research is based on the application of the social networks approach to the health field, with particular reference to rural areas.
Methodological developments and applications for active listening on the Internet, favouring the identification of feelings and authors to convert the huge flows of data and opinions into information.
Analysis and preparation of opinion surveys and polls.
Analysis and development of new criteria, methods and instruments for territorial tourism planning, from an integral perspective, aimed at facilitating the transversal incorporation of the concept of sustainable tourism.
The Great Recession 2008-2014 and the covid-19 pandemic have shown the socio-structural problems of our society in the face of which a diversity of transnational mobility strategies have been activated, both for the native population and the immigrant population:
- The emigration of young autochthonous people who left with the Great Recession and who, in general, respond to a qualified profile.
- The re-emigration of the settled immigrant population with Spanish nationality to European or third countries.
- The circular migration of seasonal agricultural workers in the Spanish countryside, especially from Eastern Europe and North Africa.
- The processes of return of autochthonous emigrants.
We are interested in understanding the effects of the recent crises - of a rather structural nature - on these migratory dynamics, their characteristics and specificities, as well as the strategies used by these migrants in their processes of integration, permanence, circulation or return.
This line of research addresses the urban insertion of immigrants in the more general framework of the transformations driven by neoliberal urbanism, gentrification and precariousness, and from a multidimensional and holistic perspective, highlighting the conjunction between the socio-urban, socio-economic and cultural spheres, sociability and neighbourhood relations. In this line, the evolution of the residential insertion of immigrants is addressed, from central working-class neighbourhoods to peripheral working-class neighbourhoods, which today have the highest proportion of neighbourhoods of other origins. The problems of these neighbourhoods are studied, which cannot be reduced to the presence of immigration in them, as well as their characteristics.
It also analyses access to territorialised public services, schools, health centres and social services, as well as the dynamics generated at neighbourhood level. Another significant area of urban integration is the changes that have taken place in our public spaces, some more functional, mobility nodes, others more for leisure and relaxation, parks and gardens. The process of urban integration of immigrants, whether it is more inclusive or more exclusive, is the result of the dynamics in these various interrelated areas.
Vulnerabilities, social exclusion and (new) poverty in rural areas as a result of the crisis and the Welfare State withdrawal (reduction and/or disappearance of the social benefits, privatization and/or deregulation of public services, etc.). This line of research is based on the application of the social networks approach to the health field, with particular reference to rural areas.
Analysis of working and employment conditions, labour relations and labour management policies.
