Societat, Tecnologia i Cultura

Culture, society and language

 

Propostes de tesi

Investigadors/es

Grups de recerca

The neoliberal transformation of science: effects and resistance

The impact of neoliberal policies is causing the most significant transformation of contemporary science and academe since the mid-twentieth century. We will host doctoral dissertations aimed at analyzing the effects of commercially-driven science, patenting and the privatization of research, in specific scientific fields - including social sciences - and also strategies or instances of resistance, mainly through detailed case studies, using theoretical approaches form current STS scholarship.

Dr Eduard Aibar

Mail: eaibar@uoc.edu 

MUSSOL

The ideology of innovation

More than just another buzzword, innovation has become one of the most powerful ideologies of our time. Important social institutions - i.e. universities, government agencies - are reshaping themselves in the name of innovation and entrepreneurship, very often with dubious results. We will host doctoral dissertations aimed at analyzing the effects of innovation policies in particular institutions or fields, mainly through case studies, using theoretical approaches form current STS scholarship.

Dr Eduard Aibar

Mail: eaibar@uoc.edu 

MUSSOL

Gender factors shaping young people's motivation to choose ICT and STEM studies and occupations

The study of the development of gendered aspirations in STEM across secondary school years and the transition to higher education has been the scope of vast international research under the framework of the expectancy-value (EV) theory of achievement motivation. Similarly, many efforts have been conducted in the US and other international contexts to encourage the participation of girls in STEM, inspired by this EV theory and other theoretical frameworks, such as the stereotype threat theory, or the role and goal congruity theory.

Dr Milagros Sáinz Ibañez

Mail: msainzi@uoc.edu 

GENTIC

The development of gender roles and stereotypes about ICT and STEM occupations during childhood and adolescence

Young females do not choose STEM studies because they do not identify with the prototypical masculine stereotype frequently associated with STEM professionals. Knowing more about the content of gender stereotypes about STEM studies and occupations can provide inspiration for interventions oriented to challenge these stereotypes and their prescriptive role. Research under the framework of social role theory delves into the extent to which young people’s stereotypical portrayals of people working in STEM and ICT studies and occupations shape their academic and professional pathways.

Dr Milagros Sáinz Ibañez

Mail: msainzi@uoc.edu

GENTIC

Gender diversity and science of team science

The “Science of Team Science” brings together a variety of disciplines addressing the conditions of collaborative knowledge production. The question how gender diversity affects scientific collaborative is key in this respect. Current developments strive to integrate a more dynamic view on team processes. Recent methodological (time-based social network analysis) as well as technical developments (sensor/video based monitoring and automatic labelling) allow exciting new questions to be posed regarding the impact of gender diversity on team processes.

Dr Jörg Müller

Mail: jmuller@uoc.edu 

Dr Julio Meneses

Mail: jmenesesn@uoc.edu 

GENTIC

The gender digital divide

Gender inclusion in the promotion of technological innovations has received substantial attention from Social Science scholars, particularly in new media and Internet research fields. As ICTs are becoming fundamental resources in network societies, disparities between women and men in digital access have been a relevant academic and political issue during recent decades. Nowadays, the study of the gender digital divide faces new challenges due to the persistence of inequalities not only in terms of Internet access, but also with regards to digital skills, uses, and the design of technologies. From a mutual shaping of technology and society theoretical approach, it is necessary to take into account women and men as consumers of digital devices and contents, but also as designers/producers of those technologies. In this dynamic and complex context, it is also relevant to analyze how acquiring and developing digital skills play a crucial role in attaining gender equality in living conditions and opportunities to fully participate in the current and future network society. ICTs can empower women’s opportunities to reverse inequalities and show the importance of including women’s talent in the design of ICT services and products that provide solutions to societal challenges like the ones associated to the current health crisis.

Dr Milagros Sáinz Ibañez

Mail: msainzi@uoc.edu

Dr Sergi Fàbregues

Mail: sfabreguesf@uoc.edu 

GENTIC

Gender Bias&Behavioral tracking

Behavioral tracking technology (video but also sensor based) is increasingly prevalent across a variety of societal contexts, including security sector, medical and fitness devices but also Human Resource management. This research lines aims at a critical examination of the use and misuses of behavioral tracking technology and its gendered implications. Behavioral tracking, when combined with artificial intelligence decision making can perpetuate gender-bias but also open up new and exciting research questions regarding gender patterns of social behavior.

Dr Jörg Müller

Mail:jmuller@uoc.edu 

Dr Julio Meneses

Mail:jmenesesn@uoc.edu 

GENTIC

Co-Design, analysis and evaluation of gender equality policies in Research and Innovation (R&I)

The prioritization of scarce public funds combined with rising concerns about the impact of policy interventions have led to a renewed interest in program evaluation. In the field of gender equality, both within R&I as well as public policy in general, there is a growing need for solid evaluation approaches as different interventions have been developed to tackle the under-representation of women, gender imbalance in decision-making as well as integrating the gender dimension in knowledge production. Which gender equality interventions in R&I work, in which context, and why is a central tenet of this line of research.

Dr Rachel Palmén

Mail: rpalmen@uoc.edu

Dr Jörg Müller

Mail:jmuller@uoc.edu 

GENTIC

Cultural studies: emerging forms of popular culture viewed through the lens of inequality 

Research on the link between emerging forms of popular culture (defined as culture mediated by the media and consumption) and the dynamics of reproduction, legitimation and dissolution of social hierarchies on the basis of the three classic lines of work on cultural studies: a) analysis of the culture industry; b) analysis of cultural practices; c) critical analysis of the discourses of/in/about popular culture. 

The methodological approaches can vary from ethnographic and qualitative studies, through cultural practices and tastes to semiotic analyses of cultural products; from quantitative studies of cultural consumption or networks of relationships in specific areas to analysis of cultural policies or public discourses. The areas of research are preferably – although not exclusively – youth cultures, popular music, audiovisual productions, celebrities and contemporary myths, both in the specification of particular groups, styles and communities and in the broader sense, of process associated with the global circulation of culture products.

Dr Roger Martínez Sanmartí

Mail: rmartinezsa@uoc.edu

Dr Olivia Gassol Bellet

Mail: ogassol@uoc.edu

Dr Natàlia Cantó-Milà

Mail: ncantom@uoc.edu

PROTCIS

Cultural studies: emerging forms of popular culture viewed through the lens of the imaginaries of the future

Research on the link between the social sciences and fiction in popular culture. We define fiction as forms of artistic expression and narratives which are not bound by a realistic account of ‘what is’ but deliver open doors to thinking and imagining beyond the limits of the ‘what is,’ and we define popular culture as culture mediated by the media and consumption. Our prioritized areas of research shall be: 

  • Social, technological and environmental imaginaries in fiction, particularly in science fiction (imaginaries of disaster and emergency, dystopies and utopies)
  • Imaginaries of the future of the youth through fiction in popular culture 
  • Interpenetration of fiction narratives and worldviews and world perception in autobiographical accounts 
  • Theorizations regarding the relationship between social theory and contemporary fiction.

Dr Olivia Gassol Bellet

Mail: ogassol@uoc.edu

Dr Natàlia Cantó-Milà

Mail: ncantom@uoc.edu

Dr Roger Martínez Sanmartí

Mail: rmartinezsa@uoc.edu

PROTCIS

Culture and social change in the contemporary world

Every form of cultural expression (art, literature, film, series, music, etc) is involved – one way or another – in the construction of the narrative tapestry with which individuals and societies ascribe and recognize meanings and create cosmovisions. This tapestry arises from social positions, particular moments in history, circumstances, structures and contexts (which it both represents and configures) whilst weaving more or less shared imaginaries. 

This research proposal focuses on the study of culture, defined as a universe of meanings that is incorporated into our lives and that transforms them, with regard to the dynamics of social change that are arising in the contemporary world. The main lines of research are:

  • Analysis of cultural models and discourses within the context of social change. 
  • Institutionalization and cultural policies.
  • The study of cultural phenomena and products as the driving force, scenario or platform of or for social changes.
  • Mass culture and the culture industry.
  • Social networks and discourse creation/stabilization/change
  • Historical and generational changes in youth cultures.
  • The role of culture in processes of political change and in the construction of ideological horizons.
  • The role of culture at times of crisis and/or revolution: the workers' movement, neighbourhood movements, trade unionism, the different waves of feminism, new masculinities, anti-capitalism, anti-globalization, degrowth, ecologism, etc.
  • Imaginaries of the future and social transformation.
  • Myths, images, iconography and linguistic construction in ideological and/or political discourses: fascism, the far right, social democracy, communism, Marxism, nationalism, etc.

Dr Roger Martínez Sanmartí

Mail: rmartinezsa@uoc.edu

Dr Natàlia Cantó-Milà

Mail: ncantom@uoc.edu

Dr Olivia Gassol Bellet

Mail: ogassol@uoc.edu

PROTCIS

More-than-human sociology

Research on the emerging forms of conceiving society beyond the association of individuals. Theoretical and empirical researches that rethink society from the perspective of a processual more-than-human sociology are welcome. Possible research lines are:

  • Experiences from the Anthropocene. Climate change and beyond: discourses and practices. Rethinking ways of inhabiting the planet
  • Social movements and imaginaries of different ways of inhabiting the planet.
  • Anthropocene in fiction. Research on how fiction reflects on the human impact/action on the planet and life on the planet as well as on ways to cope with the overwhelming effects of these actions.

Dr Natàlia Cantó-Milà

Mail: ncantom@uoc.edu

Dr Roger Martínez Sanmartí

Mail: rmartinezsa@uoc.edu

Dr Olivia Gassol Bellet

Mail: ogassol@uoc.edu

PROTCIS

Contemporary novels of the global in the literary market: a digital mapping approach

This thesis will map the circulation of a selected group of the so-called global novels through a digital mapping research model, based on creating circulation maps through circulation, sales, agents or languages data. The “global novel” is defined as a kind of novel that addresses global matters and has the potential to circulate globally for this very same reason. We have indicators that suggest that global novels have very uneven, context-driven circulations, but we need to understand: first, if this is true; second, how they circulate.

Dr Neus Rotger

Mail: nrotgerc@uoc.edu

Dr Marta Puxan Oliva

Mail: mpuxano@uoc.edu

GlobalS

Translations in motion. Between the Local and the Global

This research proposal aims to invite PhD students to analyze the circulation of translations and its relation with the literary and publishing market through the social, cultural, economic, political and even religious constraints that can affect the circulation of books throughout history and, specifically, in the contemporary period. We aim to encourage a sociological and transnational approach that will also shed light into the relevant role of the agents and agencies involved in this process (publishers, literary agents, translators, book fairs, etc.). We propose to push forward the core-periphery model for the analysis of flows of translation and take into account the struggles between languages and publishing markets at different scales (global, national, local). To do  so, this research proposal will use a large scale and a data driven approach, as well as digital tools, social network analysis and visualization techniques. 

The researchers in charge have mainly worked on the circulation of literary translations, but they welcome research proposals that can touch upon other types of translations. 

Dr Diana Roig Sanz

Mail: dsanzr@uoc.edu

Dr Laura Fólica

Mail: lfolica@uoc.edu

GlobalS