Dissemination
Spreading

Dissemination

All the documentation generated by the researches is available for consultation in the Library of Social Sciences and or/ the General Library of the Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona, as well as in the QUIT office.

For our research centre dissemination of research findings goes beyond formal publication in journals or books, thus research dissemination is not fully complete until the findings have been made widely available by using other formats such as non-refereed publications, web pages, digital repositories and other social media.

Media presence

UAB divulga

  • UAB divulga
    • Temporariness and precariousness: the labour reform only improves the situation of some young people’s profiles

      Article: Verd Pericàs, Joan Miquel; Godino Pons, Alejandro; González Heras, Alejandro; [et al.]. Temporalidad y precariedad: la reforma laboral solo mejora la situación de algunos perfiles de jóvenes. UAB divulga, November 2024, p. 1-2. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/303369

      Abstract: Researchers at the Centre for Sociological Studies on Everyday Life and Work (QUIT) at the UAB have analysed the effects of the 2021 labour market reform on the situation of young workers. One year after its implementation, temporary employment, a variable associated with precariousness, continued to be concentrated in this population group, with an increase in permanent-discontinuous and part-time contracts among young people with less education.

    • The sticky floor: an approach from occupational mobility

      Article: Carrasquer, Pilar. The sticky floor: an approach from occupational mobility. UAB divulga, October 2024. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/301678

      Abstract: A study conducted by the Institute of Labor Studies of the UAB reveals that the “sticky floor”, a metaphor of Catherine W. Berheide, describes female labor immobility in low-skilled and low-wage jobs. In contrast to the “glass ceiling”, this phenomenon affects the base of the occupational pyramid with invisible barriers that limit their professional mobility.

    • Against the reductionism of creativity

      Article: Muntanyola-Saura, Dafne. Against the reductionism of creativity. UAB divulga, May 2023, p. 1-2. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/275239

      Abstract: Within the naturalistic paradigm, the Sociology of Culture sees creativity as a phenomenon with different definitions structured by factors such as gender, social class, and the national framework. Sociologically, creativity is an activity that takes place in the social world, far from psychological processes, however, its social legitimation is uneven, especially in the professional sphere. A study by the Department of Sociology of the UAB has reviewed the social conceptions of creativity, demolishing the myths that surround it.

    • Sexual and gender-based harassment in the world of work: the persistence of a phenomenon that is verbally rejected but not perceived

      Article: Moreno Colom, Sara. El acoso sexual y por razón de sexo en el mundo laboral: la persistencia de un fenómeno que se rechaza verbalmente, pero no se percibe. UAB divulga, June 2022. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/263128

      Abstract: The Centre for Sociological Studies on Everyday Life and Work (QUIT) has carried out a qualitative analysis with the aim of identifying, describing and explaining the factors that make sexual and gender-based harassment in the workplace possible. The results show that men and women reject it at a discursive level, but often do not identify it as such. The cause: the socio-cultural background of a patriarchal society, with its associated gender roles and stereotypes. Thus, the persistence of a phenomenon with endemic characteristics makes it difficult to denounce and eradicate it. The study concludes by proposing four areas for action.

    • Telework during confinement: a missed opportunity for shared responsibility at home

      Article: Moreno Colom, Sara,; Arboix Caldentey, Paula. Teletrabajo durante el confinamiento: una oportunidad perdida para la responsabilidad compartida en el hogar. UAB divulga, September 2021. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/249547

      Abstract: Researchers from the Centre for Sociological Studies on Everyday Life and Work (QUIT) of the Department of Sociology, together with the Institute of Regional and Metropolitan Studies of Barcelona (IERMB), have carried out a study on the gender impact of telework and confinement routines on domestic and care tasks, which concludes that the covid-19 crisis accentuated the gender inequalities that existed before and represented a lost opportunity to move towards a more equal distribution of domestic work and its revaluation.

    • Contacts and environment: essential tools for accessing the world of work

      Article: Verd Pericàs, Joan Miquel; Martí Olivé, Joel; Muntanyola-Saura, Dafne; [et al.]. Los contactos y el entorno: herramientas esenciales para acceder al mundo laboral. UAB divulga, April 2021. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/239351

      Abstract: Having a network of personal contacts to find and get a job is vital to access the world of work, especially for young people with insertion difficulties. A study carried out by the Centre for Sociological Studies on Everyday Life and Work – QUIT of the UAB, has evaluated the environments in which useful contacts are acquired. The results show that the most important are those generated in the world of work, in education and training, and those that allow access to contacts of a more favoured social level. Some of the conclusions highlight the need to promote support policies and the creation of spaces that transcend the closest social environment.

    • The role of personal networks in collective bargaining

      Article: Godino Pons, Alejandro; Molina Romo, Óscar. La importancia de las redes personales en la negociación colectiva. UAB divulga, December 2020. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/235180

      Abstract: How do different sectors coordinate to establish labour agreements between employers and workers and what is important to take into account in the collective bargaining process? These are the questions that the project ‘Networked coordination of Industrial Relations’ (NetwIR), coordinated by the Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball (QUIT) of the UAB, answers. In this article, researchers Oscar Molina and Alejandro Godino present the results obtained and point out the importance of using social network analysis to study labour relations.

    • Contacts and the environment: essential tools to access the world of work

      Article: Godino Pons, Alejandro; Molina Romo, Óscar. La desprotección de los trabajadores externalizados en Europa. UAB divulga, July 2019, p. 1-3. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/211178

      Abstract: A consortium of five research teams from Europe, coordinated by the Centre for Sociological Studies on Everyday Life and Work (QUIT) of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, has completed the project ‘Relaunching Collective Bargaining Coverage in Outsourced Services’ (RECOVER), funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. The study analyses the regulatory framework of outsourcing, business practices and their implications for employment relations in six countries (France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom), focusing on different high and low-skilled activities to suggest specific lines of action to improve the social protection of these workers.

       

    • The downward spiral of youth unemployment

      Article: Bolíbar, Mireia; Verd Pericàs, Joan Miquel; Barranco Font, Oriol. La espiral negativa del paro juvenil. UAB divulga, December 2019, p. 1-3. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/216916

      Abstract: Young people are one of the population groups most affected by unemployment. A research team at the UAB has analysed the effect of long-term unemployment on the support networks that young people use to find a new job. The results: disengagement from the world of work leads to the loss of the most useful contacts, which are those obtained while working. In addition, inequality factors such as socio-economic status and other variables such as gender and education influence the ability to acquire new contacts and can have negative effects on future employment prospects.

    • The quality of outsourced jobs

      Article: Godino Pons, Alejandro. La calidad del empleo externalizado. UAB divulga, July 2019, p. 1-3. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/211177

      Abstract: In his doctoral thesis, Alejandro Godino Pons has studied the impact of outsourcing dynamics on the quality of employment. In particular, he develops a multi-strategic analysis focusing on sectors, companies and the daily life of individuals linked to outsourced services (specifically cleaning, contact-centre and community catering) as well as resorting to an articulation of different statistical and information sources. It also analyses the relative weight of privatisation in the public sector and its impact on different administrations.

    • The importance of your personal contacts when job searching

      Article: Vacchiano, Mattia. La importancia de los contactos personales para encontrar empleo. UAB divulga, May 2018, p. 1-2. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/192773

      Abstract: Mattia Vacchiano has analysed in his doctoral thesis the influence of personal contact networks during the youth labour search and insertion processes. The study shows that insertion through family, friends or acquaintances is a structural characteristic of the Catalan labour market, with networks being the main means of labour market insertion before and during the recent economic crisis.

    • The changing social and sexual division of labour

      Article: Sánchez Mira, Núria. La división social y sexual del trabajo en transformación. UAB divulga, February 2017, p. 1-3. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/171530

      Abstract: Núria Sánchez Mira has analysed in her doctoral thesis the transformations in the social and sexual division of labour in Spain, focusing on households and underlining the class dimension of these changes. In particular, she focuses on working-class dual-income couples as a group that has been at the centre of recent transformations. The author has been awarded the 2016 Ángel Rozas Prize for research in the social sciences, promoted by the Cipriano García Foundation.

    • More resources and better policies to reduce unemployment

      Article: Miguélez, Fausto; Molina Romo, Óscar. Más recursos y mejores políticas para reducir el desempleo. UAB divulga, October 2016, p. 1-2. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/166546

      Abstract: Professor Emeritus of Sociology Fausto Miguélez has coordinated a study on employment policies in Spain between 2012 and 2014. Among the conclusions, he highlights that public investment and support should play a key role in the consolidation of a more sustainable productive model and in reducing unemployment to below 10%, in order to avoid the marginalisation of part of society.

    • Is a Break with Egalitarian Commitment Necessary to Sustain Europe’s Welfare State?

      Article: Martin Artiles, Antonio; Molina Romo, Óscar; Carrasquer, Pilar. Is a Break with Egalitarian Commitment Necessary to Sustain Europe’s Welfare State?. UAB divulga, June 2016, p. 1-2. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/158698

      Abstract: Collectivist values, based on the idea of egalitarian social compromise, tend to break. For those profiles which have made up the traditional working class, social closure is a defence mechanism against competition for redistribution, which is reflected in negative views toward immigration. For those making up the middle class, with high levels of education, high incomes and upper middle positions, opinion on immigration and demand for solidarity is not a preferred option because they rely on the success of their individual trajectories

    • The gender wage gap in the labour market

      Article: Torns, Teresa; Recio, Carolina; Sánchez, Núria; [et al.]. La brecha salarial entre hombres y mujeres en el mercado de trabajo. UAB divulga, April 2016. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/150762

      Abstract: The Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball (QUIT) of the UAB has participated in a research that has analysed the factors that affect the wage gap between men and women, as well as the perceptions of social agents on the issue. The results show inequality in paid working time, a significant sexual division of labour and a social and wage undervaluation of the work done by women, as well as a strong tendency to encourage presenteeism and long working hours by companies.

    • Analysis of intergenerational social mobility in Spain in 2011

      Article: Fachelli, Sandra; López-Roldán, Pedro. Anàlisi de la mobilitat social intergeneracional a Espanya el 2011. UAB divulga, October 2015. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/143932

      Abstract: The aim of the article is to present the results obtained in a research on intergenerational occupational mobility in Spain. We use the 2011 INE Living Conditions Survey, which allows us to obtain occupational information on parents and children. The comparison of employment between origin (parents) and destination (children) has traditionally been carried out using the male population and consequently making women invisible. The question that arises is how the usual conclusions of these studies change when we include the female population.

    • Effects of prison work programmes on the reintegration of ex-prisoners into the labour market

      Article: Alós, Ramon. Efectos de los programas de trabajo en prisión en la reinserción laboral de ex−presos. UAB divulga, March 2015. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/131284

      Abstract: This study analyses the impact of job training workshops offered in prisons in Catalonia on the reintegration of ex-prisoners into the labour market. The results indicate that these activities, in addition to favouring the emotional stability of the inmates and order within the penitentiary centre, contribute to offering job placement opportunities, which results in a lower recidivism in criminal acts. It is evident that accompaniment in the process of transition to freedom is key to ensuring behavioural change.

    • Factors influencing the duration of trade union membership

      Article: Alós, Ramon. Factores que influyen en la duración de las afiliaciones sindicales. UAB divulga, December 2014. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/127924

      Abstract: In Spain, where workers do not need to be members to obtain the benefits of collective bargaining, one of the main problems affecting trade unions is the retention of their members. A study has carried out a survival analysis for Comisiones Obreras, and has observed a plurality of situations, as well as an increase in the intensity of short-term membership, linked to temporary contracts and workers in companies without affiliated colleagues, situations that particularly affect young people, immigrants and workers in specific sectors.

    • The integration of ex-prisoners into the labour market

      Article: Alós, Ramon. La inserción laboral de los ex reclusos. UAB divulga, July 2014. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/119548

      Abstract: The results of a study on the effectiveness of occupational training and workshop work programmes with inmates in prisons in Catalonia in terms of their labour and social reintegration at the end of their sentence show, among other interesting aspects, that training courses and workshop work in prisons contribute to reintegration, but for reasons that go beyond their content, and that ex-prisoners do not always use the skills they have acquired.

    • Is male hegemony declining?

      Article: Borràs Català, Vicent; Moreno Colom, Sara; Castelló, Laia; [et al.]. ¿Está disminuyendo la hegemonía masculina?. UAB divulga, May 2013, p. 1-1. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/106962

      Abstract: According to research carried out at the UAB’s Centre for Sociological Studies on Everyday Life and Work, the current crisis is leading to an increase in male unemployment and worsening working conditions for many men. This is forcing some of them to have a greater presence in the home and to devote more time to caring for their children. This study shows how, despite this change, paid work continues to be at the heart of men’s life trajectories.

    • Immigrants in the Spanish labour market

      Article: Lozano Riera, Mariona. Inmigrantes en el mercado de trabajo español. UAB divulga, June 2013, p. 1-1. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/108139

      Abstract: The main interest of this doctoral thesis, read at the Department of Sociology of the UAB, is to study the process of labour integration of immigrants in the Spanish labour market. This study has followed a theoretical and methodological strategy that has used the labour trajectories of immigrants who have arrived in Spain as its main instrument.

    • Increasing instability in labor trajectories

      Artículo: Verd Pericàs, Joan Miquel. Increasing instability in labor trajectories. UAB divulga, june 2012, p. 1-2. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/92637

      Abstract: The Spanish labor market is characterized by its large number of temporary contracts. However, few investigations have analyzed the effect of this labor instability from a longitudinal perspective. UAB researchers have studied how this instability has a continued effect over time, which has even produced permanently precarious employment trajectories. They have also identified the groups that suffer most from these kinds of trajectories as well as the main factors that lead to them. They have concluded that gender, age and educational level are among the most important variables in determining the likelihood of precarious careers, which are becoming more common among larger groups of the working population.

Seminars and conferences

  • 2023
    • Tribute to Fausto Miguélez
      Tribute to Fausto Miguélez Lobo, professor of sociology and founder and director of QUIT until his retirement, which took place on 26 May 2023 in the Assembly Hall of the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology of the UAB. The following speakers took part in the event: – Olga Serradell, Dean of the Faculty of CCPP and Sociology of the UAB – Antonio Martín, Emeritus Professor of the Department of Sociology of the UAB – Joan Botella, Emeritus Professor of the Department of Sociology of the UAB – Clara Llorens, Professor of the Department of Sociology of the UAB – Carlos Prieto, Emeritus Professor of the Department of Sociology of the UCM – Albert Recio, Honorary Professor of the Department of Economics of the UAB – Sònia Parella, Director of the Department of Sociology of the UAB.Date: 26 May 2023Organised by QUIT.ProgramThe Social Sciences Library has also joined in this tribute with an on-site exhibition in the display cases on floor 0 and with a virtual exhibition that you can consult on the following website https://mirades.uab.cat/exposicions/biblioteques/faustomiguelez
  • 2022
  • 2021
  • 2020
    • Webinar «Teleworking, labour rights and the right to disconnect»

      The seminar aims to explore the normalization of telework in our society as a result of the pandemic, from a multidisciplinary perspective. The regulatory changes agreed between the administrations, unions and employers and their implications for practical purposes will also be addressed.

      Programme

      Date: 11 de November 2020

      Organized by the Col·legi de Professionals de la Ciència Política i de la Sociologia de Catalunya, the Observatori per la Democràcia (ODEM) and the Associació Catalana de Professionals.

  • 2019
    • Seminar “Collecting waste and informal work”

      This seminar aims  to valuing the work of informal waste pickers in the Catalan recycling sector, to know how it is being studied from the University, to discuss how these situations have been managed in the Southern countries and what lessons can be learnt.

      Programme

      Fecha: 4 de junio de 2019

      Organized by the Minor en Desenvolupament Sostenible i Ciutadania Global, the Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball – QUIT,  the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambiental – ICTA and the Institut de Govern i Polítiques Públiques – IGOP

Past events

QUIT Seminars

  • 2025
    • Agency and social capital over the life course

      Speaker: Riccardo Valente

      Institution: Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics

      The LIFELONGMOVE project represents a groundbreaking effort as the first comprehensive examination of spatial mobility from early childhood to adulthood, encompassing the concept of lifelong mobility.

      Current research has only begun to explore the increasingly diverse and intricate ways in which individuals engage in spatial mobility over their lifetimes, particularly in the context of growing inequality. While childhood backgrounds and circumstances significantly shape life opportunities and outcomes in later years, the role of childhood mobility in influencing the diversity of life paths and stratified outcomes in adulthood remains largely unknown.

      Date: 18/02/2025

    • Institutional change in Public Employment Services through outsourcing and governance. A comparative analysis between Asturias and Catalonia

      Speaker: Andrea Moreno

      Institution: Universidad de Oviedo

      Public Employment Services in the framework of the European Employment Strategy show variations in the levels and types of externalisation and in the role that different actors have adopted in the implementation of active employment policies. In Spain, the process of decentralisation of these policies culminated in the creation of the Autonomous Employment Services at the beginning of the 21st century, which resulted in different models of provision.

      From a comparative perspective, the main changes in the Public Employment Service of the Principality of Asturias and in the Servei d’Ocupació de Catalunya are analysed, showing the structural nature of outsourcing in these services and the evolution of their characteristics since their creation until 2022. It also presents the changes that have occurred in their governance systems as a consequence of the diversification of actors and the intensification of the liberalisation process with the arrival of the economic crisis. Finally, some of the challenges facing PES in the current transition context are presented.

      Date: 21/01/2025

  • 2024
    • The impact of architectural and urban conditions on care in care homes for the elderly

      Speaker: Blanca Valdívia

      Institution: Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      In recent years, the debates surrounding the care of elderly people with a lower or higher degree of dependency have pivoted towards policies that favour their autonomy, increasing resources for home care and rethinking the management and care models of care homes. In these reflections, the analysis of the urban characteristics of care homes has scarcely been addressed. The spatial dimension of care has only been studied from an approach to the conditions of the residential building itself and not so much the environment or the urban framework in which it is located.

      This paper analyses the impact of the urban characteristics of care homes on the care of the elderly. The aim of the paper is to determine the link between spatial conditions and care, and to assess whether the urban characteristics of care homes should be a dimension that needs to be integrated into public policies in order to guarantee comprehensive care.

      Date: 17/12/2024

    • Precarious youth transitions: an analysis of the forms and effects of precarity on young people’s emotional well-being

      Speaker: Mireia Bolíbar

      Institution: Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      The seminar will present the report “Salut mental, joventut i desigualtats: Una mirada integral al benestar emocional de la població jove de Catalunya”’, prepared for the Catalan Youth Agency. In this report, the authors have studied the inequalities in emotional well-being among young people and the related social and economic factors. Adopting the perspective of the social determinants of health, they analyse the relationship between young people’s emotional discomfort and the lengthening and precariousness of youth transitions at the labour, economic and family levels.

      Date: 19/11/2024

    • Industrial democracy and algorithmic management: the Spanish case in comparative perspective

      Speaker: Óscar Molina, Alejandro Godino & Sander Junte

      Institution: Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      The seminar presented the results of the INCODING (Democracy at Work through Transparent and Inclusive Algorithmic Management) project, which analyses the role of collective bargaining in regulating greater transparency in the design and implementation of AI-based systems that influence the organisation of work.

      Date: 19/06/2024

    • Characteristics of working in all-inclusive resorts in the Dominican Republic

      Speaker: Ernest Cañada

      Institution: Researcher at the University of the Balearic Islands and member of Alba Sud

      Tourism growth in the Dominican Republic has been steady since the 1990s. After the interruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, its reactivation has been even more intense and the country leads tourism growth in the Caribbean. The main area in which this development has taken place is the Macao area in Punta Cana, in the province of La Altagracia. This development has been managed mainly by hotel chains, mostly Spanish, under the all-inclusive formula. This model has been critically analysed for the lack of integration it generates in its surroundings, reproducing exclusionary dynamics. There has also been strong attention to phenomena associated with sex tourism. However, less attention has been paid to the characteristics and quality of the employment it generates, as well as to its labour relations. This presentation aims to share an ongoing research that aims to broaden the understanding of the type of employment generated by all-inclusive resorts in relation to working conditions and labour relations. The research, basically ethnographic in nature, has been developed through five stays between 2017 and 2023, with direct observation in three areas (inside hotels, at Hoyo Friusa, a suburb of Bávaro, and in the dormitory town of Higüey, in the same province of La Altagracia) and in-depth interviews with 140 people (workers and managers of hotels and professionals linked to the sector). The results of the research show how low salaries turn these hotels into places where workers are constantly trying to find other sources of income in multiple ways. In addition, the flexibility and cost-saving policies imposed by the companies generate terrible employment and working conditions. Finally, the absence of a class-based trade union organisation means that workers are unable to defend their demands through organisations that respond to their interests. Consequently, they try to resolve their concerns through informal forms of protest. The growth of all-inclusive hotel tourism has not been accompanied by decent employment, but has exacerbated working poverty and precariousness.

      Date: 21/05/2024

    • The gender gap in time use – is it narrowing or has it stagnated?

      Speaker: Joan García Román

      Institution: Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics

      The gender gap in time use has narrowed significantly in all Western societies in recent decades. However, recent studies show a slowdown or stagnation of the reduction. The seminar will present different papers on the recent evolution of the gender gap in time use, especially in domestic work. Based on time use surveys in Spain, the Basque Country and other countries, the most recent estimates and how the gap varies according to the time of the life cycle and the composition of couples, especially in terms of the relationship with the activity and education of the partners, will be shown.

      Date: 16/04/2024

    • A typological proposal for self-employment in Chile and Spain

      Speaker: Claudia Baeza

      Institution: predoctoral researcher, ANID scholarship holder (Doctorate Scholarships Chile)

      The seminar will focus on presenting the results of a comparative typological analysis of self-employed workers between Chile and Spain, the aim of which is to establish similarities and differences in the patterns of configuration of the various profiles of self-employed workers, conceptually delimiting self-employment and establishing as a hypothesis its stratification and differentiated distribution in the territory. Therefore, the aim is to provide theoretical and empirical elements for a sociological analysis that sheds light on the social reality of the group studied. The methodology is structural and articulated by combining two multivariate analysis techniques. First, a multiple correspondence analysis was carried out to determine the main differentiating factors of self-employment, and then a classification analysis was applied to obtain the typology of self-employment. We worked with data from the National Employment Survey 2019, 2020 and 2021 for Chile and the Labour Force Survey 2019, 2020 and 2021 for Spain.
      Finally, two main factors are obtained from the data, labelled as: “socio-occupational level” and a second factor as “degree of autonomy”. These two factors allowed us to generate three types of profiles for self-employment in Chile and Spain: high stratum; middle stratum; and agricultural stratum.

      Date: 19/03/2024

    • Generous paternity leave entitlements in a segmented labor market: A cautionary tale of paternity leave take-up in Spain

      Speaker: Dani M. Marinova

      Institution: professor Serra Hunter in the Department of Political Science at the UAB

      To evaluate the success of paternity leave as a progressive, equal access policy instrument, it is essential to assess it against the backdrop of preexisting labor market inequalities that condition its use. We investigate a case of an extension of unprecedented length in paternity leave provisions in Spain. Analyses of an original mixed-sample survey administered to cohorts of fathers with varying leave entitlements show that take-up increases under the longer provision but does so unevenly. While already high levels of take-up surge further among fathers in stable employment, fathers in temporary jobs, the self-employed and those at the bottom and top of the income distribution maintain lower levels of usage. The former group take on average two to nine weeks more leave with their newborns than do the latter groups. The unprecedented length of Spain’s paternity leave provision thus compounds preexisting inequalities in take-up rates. Results tell a cautionary tale of generous paternity leave provisions in the context of a segmented labor market, with bleak implications for the policy instrument’s capacity to generate social change across social strata. With the entering into force of the EU Work-life Balance Directive in 2019, other European states are considering the implementation of generous benefits for fathers, thus increasing the policy relevance of understanding how preexisting labor market segmentation shapes inequalities in the use of paternity leave in Spain.

      Date: 20/02/2024

    • What is precariousness? Disentangling a phenomenon that characterizes the youth generation

      Speaker: Lara Maestripieri

      Institution: Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Department of Political Science of the UAB and IGOP researcher

      Precariousness and the growth of non-standard work have emerged as crucial factors contributing to the diversification and delay of young people’s transition to adulthood. Despite their popularity, there is a lack of clarity in the operationalisation of these concepts, especially regarding their subjective and objective components and their work and non-work dimensions. Notably, there is a critical misalignment between work-related objective indicators of precarious work (e.g. having a fixed-term contract), usually applied in surveys, and subjective-oriented approaches towards precariousness (e.g. feeling insecure), often used in qualitative studies to capture people’s perceptions and experiences that tend to go beyond a strictly work-oriented definition. This paper aims to merge these two traditions and to investigate holistically precariousness, using an original database comprising 3.012 young respondents in Spain.
      The findings illustrate the multidimensional nature of precariousness, with economic insecurity and work conditions as its core elements. The involuntary nature of non-standard work emerges as a key dimension of precarity

      Date: 05/01/2024

  • 2023
    • Educational attainment and unstable employment trajectories: an exploration of discordant cases

      Speaker: Alejandro González

      Institution: Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      One of the variables that most influences the labour market trajectory of young people is their educational level. Thus, the labour market trajectories of individuals with low educational level are more unstable and have jobs with a lower income than those of other individuals with a different educational level. In this paper we first analyse the relationship between educational level and unstable labour market trajectories. Second, based on a sequence analysis, we classify the cases according to whether or not they are trajectories that illustrate each educational level. Third, we analyse the characteristics of the mobilized social contacts according to such classification. Lastly, we explore qualitatively the cases that do not follow the norm, i.e., the discordant cases, in order to explain qualitatively what makes them discordant. The data used for these analyses comes from a hybrid survey that gathers information on the longitudinal use of social contacts among young people with unstable labour market trajectories in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. For those with the lowest educational level, discordant cases have a better employment trajectory than such individuals tend to have. The mobilisation of personal contacts is one of the drivers used to achieve this. For those with an intermediate educational level, discordant cases are characterized by a high proportion of unemployment or inactivity. Lastly, for those with a higher educational level, who have the lowest proportion of discordant cases, these are slightly more precarious than the illustrative ones.

      Date: 21/11/2023

    • Adapting to the new times? The emergence of innovative practices in collective bargaining

      Speaker: Óscar Molina

      Institution: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      Presentation of a research report for Eurofound analyzing recent developments and emerging practices in relation to collective bargaining processes and outcomes, mainly in the private sector.

      The report covers collective bargaining systems in ten EU Member States and analyzes the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic and social crisis on the dynamics of collective bargaining and collective agreements. It also examines the practices and innovations that have emerged in response to structural factors such as technological change, decarbonization and climate-neutral policies, and the aging workforce. It also assesses the ability of collective bargaining systems to adapt to structural changes in work, production and the labor market, as well as medium-term trends.

      See the research report here.

      Date: 21/03/2023

    • Beyond misclassification: algorithmic management as challenge to the Standard Employment Relationship

      Speaker: Tiago Vieira

      Institution: European University Institute

      The by and large unregulated presence of algorithmic governance techniques in couriers’ labor process short-circuits what would otherwise be a standard employment relationship, thus undermining the regulatory efforts of the Spanish Government. To a large extent, this stems from the surveillance possibilities offered by algorithmic management, leveraged by human managers in ways that compromise the normative underpinnings of the employment relationship through systematic breach of workers’ privacy, inducement of hazardous behaviors, diminishment of workers’ autonomy and constraints to right to information.

      Date: 28/02/2023

    • Between control and consent: insights from dark stores into middle managers’ roles and organizational dynamics in the age of algorithmic management

      Speaker: Tiago Vieira

      Institution: European University Institute (Florencia)

      Last decade’s technological advancements have introduced a major transformation in the world of work: the inception of algorithmic management. While workplace monitoring and assessment through performance metrics are not new, algorithmic management takes a giant leap forward by leveraging the computational and deep learning abilities of algorithms to assemble and process vast amounts of data, enabling automated or semi-automated decision-making. In light of this, some scholars have explicitly or implicitly predicted a future where the role of human managers, particularly low- and middle-level managers, will become insignificant compared to that of algorithms.
      However, against this potentially overly deterministic prediction, other studies have argued that the deployment of algorithmic management tools does not, and will not in the foreseeable future, eliminate the need for human managers. Indeed, middle managers remain a salient and everyday presence in the labor process of organizations despite the deployment of algorithmic tools. This is because, despite the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and computational algorithms to improve firms’ efficiency, some critical managerial traits cannot be automated.
      This article aims to understand how algorithmic tools reshape the role of middle managers and how this, in turn, transforms the dynamics of managerial control in workplaces. Drawing on 51 semi-structured interviews with managers and shop-floor workers from last-mile grocery delivery warehouses – a sector we consider both revelatory and critical for our purposes – our findings show that, notwithstanding the automation of several coordination-related tasks, middle and low management retains a crucial role in organizations. This role has two facets that appear contradictory but are, indeed, complementary.

      Date: 21/11/2023

    • Men’s Entry into Paid Care Work: Opportunities and Risks

      Speaker: Vicent Borràs & Joan Rodríguez Soler

      Institution: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      The study, commissioned by the Direcció General de Cures, Organització del Temps i Equitat en els Treballs, of the Departament d’Igualtat i Feminismes de la Generalitat de Catalunya, seeks to improve knowledge about the potential and risks of men joining care-related occupations, where women traditionally make up the majority; the ultimate aim is to point out possible lines of action in the design of public policies for the incorporation of men in care work.

      Date: 31/10/2023

    • Employment and wage effects ofminimum wage policy

      Speaker: Ferran Elías

      Institution: Universitat de València

      Presentation of his research in which he estimates the effect of the minimum wage for the entire wage distribution of workers, using a new empirical approach that is particularly appropriate for national-level changes in the minimum wage. In particular, it uses the old wage distributions to develop a counterfactual using the difference-in-differences technique.
      The results include negative employment effects, large wage growth for the affected workers and a significant increase in wages across the distribution. The employment adjustment occurs through an increase in layoffs and a decrease in inflows.

      Date: 09/06/2023

    • Caregiving in inequality, a comparative analysis of the distribution of unpaid care work in Mexico and Argentina from a gender and legal perspective.

      Speaker: Camila Buffarini

      Institution: Universidad Autònoma de México

      Her research aims to analyse the convergences and divergences in the current distribution of unpaid care work in Mexico and Argentina, in order to bring together the conceptualisation of the human right to care and comprehensive care systems. The analysis is based on a critical theoretical framework, called the gender critique of law, incorporates the tools provided by the human rights approach, the gender perspective and intersectionality, and seeks to demonstrate that the lack of recognition, redistribution and reduction of women’s unpaid care work violates the human rights to care, equality and autonomy of girls and women.

      Date: 09/05/2023

    • Illustration of the construction of a multidimensional index with the Urban Vulnerability index

      Speaker: Irene Cruz

      Institution: IERMB

      The analysis techniques used in the construction of urban vulnerability indices are dominated by dimension reduction strategies, among which principal component analysis (PCA) stands out. Apart from its virtues, such as simplicity and interpretability, PCA has certain limitations that must be borne in mind. On the one hand, PCA, like factor analysis (FA), treats all variables together, under the assumption that they are all related to the underlying dimensions, so that they do not allow for an organised analysis along dimensions. This makes comparability between annuities very difficult, due to the fact that there is no certainty that the information contained in the first factor of the analysis of one annuity corresponds to that of the following annuity. To overcome these limitations, structural equation models are proposed in the literature, which make it possible to configure a much more stable factor structure by controlling the various dimensions that group together the indicators involved in the analysis, making them comparable over time. The session will illustrate the methodology followed to construct the Urban Vulnerability Index following this procedure, and the main results obtained will be presented.

      Date: 25/04/2023

    • Stagnant evolution? Theoretical reflections and empirical analysis through the distribution of reproductive work among cohabiting couples in Andalusia

      Speaker: María Cascales

      Institution: Universidad de Sevilla

      Date: 23/05/2023

    • The processes of social mobility in comparative perspective between Chile and Spain

      Speaker: Cristian Segura-Carrillo

      Institution: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      The objective of the seminar is to present the analysis of social inequality from the perspective of social mobility, comparing Spain and Chile, countries that share a late industrialization process, even though they represent different contexts in terms of level of development and social model.
      In this sense, following the research tradition on social stratification and mobility of the ISA Research Committee 28, a quantitative design is proposed using secondary information sources, with national bases for Chile and Spain. An analysis by cohorts and by sex is carried out. Social class is considered as the analytical axis from the perspective of EGP (Erikson, Golthorpe and Portocarrero, 1979, 1993) and the adjustments proposed by Ganzeboom and Treiman (1996) that support international comparison, using a categorization of 6 classes. Absolute mobility is analyzed by observing the social structure in both countries, as well as relative mobility to study equality of opportunity using log-linear models. As a result, differences by gender and cohort are observed. However, even though the weight of social origin has diminished, it continues to be present in intergenerational class movements. In particular, in the Chilean case, this association is much stronger for both sexes; in the Spanish case, men tend to have a stronger social origin-destination association, but women considerably diminish this association. In both countries, the effect of educational expansion is key to social mobility.

      Date: 24/01/2023

    • Precariousness and public employment in terms of gender. A look at municipal services in Chile

      Speaker: Betzabeth Marín

      Institution: PhD student of the Sociology Programme of the UAB and CONICYT scholarship holder

      A doctoral thesis that seeks to explain the factors that influence the feminisation of labour precariousness in Chilean municipal employment, from a gender perspective. Research in the sector is scarce and non-existent from this perspective, hence the importance of its inclusion as an approach. Transversally, two theoretical objects are addressed: 1) the objective dimensions of job insecurity and its link with 2) gender segregation in municipal services: administration, health and education.
      Through a design that articulates quantitative and qualitative data, it is proposed to demonstrate that, on the one hand, Chilean municipal services have a highly heterogeneous and sexually segregated employment structure, reproducing territorial and labour market inequalities, and that 2) the particularities of job insecurity in municipal employment go beyond the dichotomous view of precarious/non-precarious, usually associated with one of its dimensions: job stability, i.e. the temporary/permanent binomial. The construction of a typology of precarious profiles makes it possible to show the various forms and degrees to which multidimensional precariousness affects the public workforce.

      Date: 05/12/2023

  • 2022
    • When Woman is no longer spelled with M for Mother. A study of professional women who choose not to become mothers

      Speaker: Tania Corsetti

      Institution: Universidad Nacional de Rosario (UNR)

      The existence of women who decide not to be mothers in a labor context where the conflict between reproductive work – as a result of the exercise of maternity – and productive work acquire an intensity as never before in the history of capitalism, led to the construction of a research, whose problematic refers to the incidence of professional development and work in the decision not to exercise maternity, and its relationship with the identity processes that working women construct.

      Date: 21/11/2022

    • Spanish workers in the Netherlands: an x-ray of the exploitation system in the distribution and logistics sector

      Speaker: Sander Junte

      Institution: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      The precariousness and lack of opportunities that characterize the Spanish labor market have led many Spaniards in recent years to choose to move to other countries, including the Netherlands. Contrary to expectations, they land in a system of harsh working and living conditions.
      The seminar will present the main results of a research project that aimed to learn about this system and the experiences of a colony of Spanish workers in it.

      Date: 25/10/2022

    • Racism, Place, and Space: White Sanctuaries, U.S. Museums, and Maintaining the Status Quo

      Speaker: David G. Embrick

      Institution: University of Connecticut

      The Art Institute of Chicago – a nationally recognized museum – as a white sanctuary, i.e., a white institutional space within a racialized social system that serves to reassure whites of their dominant position in society. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how museums create and mantain white spaces within the greater context of being an institution for the general public.

      Date: 14/06/2022

    • Sexual and gender-based harassment in the workplace: a qualitative approach

      Speakers: Sara Moreno & Vicent Borràs

      Institution: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      The main objective of the study is to carry out a qualitative approach to sexual and gender-based harassment in order to understand the perceptions, experiences and socially shared imaginaries that are part of the phenomenon in the workplace. Specifically, the aim is to analyze the sociocultural background that acts as a context and support for the existence and persistence of sexual and gender-based harassment beyond its quantification. In this sense, the specific objectives are to identify, describe and explain the social factors that make the phenomenon possible, as well as the elements of change and continuity that have occurred in recent years. Finally, the results obtained allow us to point out some recommendations on lines of action, as well as a set of suggestions for the design of a possible survey on male violence in the workplace.

      Date: 24/05/2022

    • The effect of occupational training on employment

      Speaker: Álvaro Fernández Junquera

      Institution: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      This study, financed by the Employment Service of Catalonia, deals with one of the active labor market policies implemented by the public employment services in Spain, namely occupational training. These actions, aimed primarily at the group of unemployed people, consist of the offer of training courses framed in the labor system. This paper evaluates the causal effect of participation in occupational training courses on the probability of finding employment, based on data from the “Survey of Educational-Training Transition and Labor Market Insertion” and the “Survey of Labor Market Insertion of University Graduates”, both published by the INE in 2019.

      Date: 26/04/2022

    • Active employment policies as an indirect source of social capital among young people with precarious insertion trajectories.

      Speakers: Joan Miquel Verd & Joan Rodríguez Soler

      Institution: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      The insertion of young people in the labour market is a constant in the European policy and research agendas. The recent economic and health crises have only increased the concern about the labour insertion of this group. Active employment policies have been one of the instruments used to improve the employment situation of young people. However, the orientation of these policies has been called into question due to the limited effectiveness that they have often shown. The longitudinal perspective adopted in the article makes it possible to deepen the understanding of the role that active employment policies may have in the unstable employment trajectories of young people. The results highlight a limited capacity of these policies in order to modify youth labour market trajectories and the low perception that this young people have of them as corrective or improvement instruments of their trajectories.

      Date: 22/02/2022

  • 2021
    • The more you search the less you find: low qualified job seekers and online job search

      Speakers: Guillaume Dumont

      Institution: Centre de Recherche OCE de Emlyon Business School

      Drawing on in-depth interviews with unemployed workers, this article explores how low qualified job seekers experience the online job search process. By taking the digitalization of the access to labor markets as a starting point, we uncover three main activities – crafting, applying, reviewing – central to the online job search process and analyze their performance by job seekers. We show that their use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for employment purpose sparks strong tensions and dilemmas shaping how they experience job search, ultimately preventing them from using ICTs to secure work but also increasing their vulnerability on the labor market.

      Date: 24/11/2021

    • Dual vet and school-to work transition of young people: the social actors perspective

      Speakers: Daniel Barrientos

      Institution: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      Dual Vocational Education and Training arises in Spain within the European policies about employment and training for young people. However, the lack of an indepth legislation, the high level of unemployment and the poor resources, caused by the economic crisis, or the low role played by the Administration, has led to a limited model. Every Autonomous Community, productive sector, high school or company, has implemented their owns solutions for each limitation, developing different models in Spain. This situation does not allow us to conclude that Dual VET improves the school-to-work transition only by itself, but rather there are some conditions that must be fulfilled in its implementation to achieve the positive effects aimed. This article studies the perspectives of social actors who design and implement the model to analyse the development and possibilities of the Dual VET

      Date: 20/10/2021

    • Drivers of Youth Labour Market Integration Across European Regions

      Speakers: Rosario Scandurra

      Institution: researcher Juan de la Cierva of the Department of Sociology of UAB

      Territorial disparities and youth labour markets have been often considered as separated themes, due to challenges in data availability. Comparative regional or sub-regional research on youth labour market integration (YLMI) have been therefore scarce. In this article, we address this gap by presenting a composite measure of YLMI that covers a wide range of indicators and sheds light on the EU territorial divide of young peoples’ opportunities at regional level. In order to build the YLMI index, we use benefit-of-the doubtweighting, a seminal methodology on composite indicators (CI) that combines sequence with conditional weights based on the range of each sub-indicator. To proof the usefulness of YLMI, we analyze the evolution of regional YLMI in the EU before and after the economic crisis; and the trends of homogenization or differentiation across EU territories. Furthermore, we investigate to what extent employment conditions, skills supply and technological resources explain cross-regional variations in YLMI.

      Date: 29/06/2021

    • Changes in the times, changes in jobs: The masculinization of domestic work and the feminization of care work

      Speakers: Vicent Borràs & Sara Moreno

      Institution: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

      Presentation of the results of an investigation that aimed to analyze the changes in the uses of time, based on the comparative analysis of the two editions of the Time Employment Survey 2020/03 – 2009/10. The main results show that there has been a generational change in dedications to domestic work and care work, both on the part of women and men; There has not been a division of work, but changes in dedications to certain tasks.

      Date: 26/05/2021

    • Analysis of the gender regimes of political organizations: a comparison according to the degree of institutionalization

      Speaker:  Núria Alcaraz

      Institution: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      The objective of this research is to know the effects of the degree of institutionalization of political organizations on the gender relations established in them. The analysis of gender relations in political participation has focused mainly on the lack of interest of women in politics and on how their social position hinders their participation in the public space. However, focusing on the analysis of political organizations, and on how they produce and reproduce gender norms and practices, allows us to go further and understand how gender relations take place in the everyday life of organizations by shaping their gender regimes. Most of the studies have dealt separately with political parties and social movements. The main question of this research lies in questioning whether the degree of institutionalization of political organizations has an effect on the configuration of their gender regimes and their capacity to transform themselves into more equitable organizations. For this, a qualitative strategy is characterized by the time structure generated, the horizontal and vertical segregation of tasks and agencies, and the resistance to change of three representative case studies of the different degrees of institutionalization. At the same time, the intersectional perspective is incorporated to explain how gender regimes have differentiated effects based on the social position of women.

      Date: 24/03/2021

    • Bargaining in Networks. A Comparative Analysis of Coordination in Collective Bargaining

      Speaker:  Òscar Molina

      Institution: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball

      The analysis of collective bargaining coordination has attracted the attention of scholars and policy-makers since the early 1990s, but has witnessed a renaissance more recently in the context of generalised de-centralization and the new constraints imposed by the EMU. Originally, ‘coordination’ was presented as a dimension of collective bargaining that was considered an alternative to ‘centralization’, as it focused on processes rather than structures. However, the reality was that all coordination indexes and scores (CITE data sources) have tended to reflect structural characteristics of collective bargaining, and have provided very little insights on the processes and relational aspects underpinning coordination. The objective of the NETWIR project is to provide an alternative assessment of how coordination takes places in different collective bargaining systems and sectors. To do this, the project will adopt a behavioural and relational view, based on the methodological and analytical tools of Social Network Analysis (SNA)

      Date: 24/02/2021

  • 2020
    • Representación sindical y activismos feministas. La experiencia de la Intersindical de mujeres en Argentina

      Speaker: Tania Rodríguez

      Institution: Universidad de Buenos Aires

      Date: 10/03/2020

    • Digitalization in the Retail Sector: a comparative case study between Italy and Spain Industrial Relations’

      Speaker:  Arianna Marcolin

      Institution: Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa)

      In this moment of profound changes of all the aspects of society, also the retail sector has been altered by technological innovations, which have been identified as the spread of omni-channel strategies, the introduction of touch-screen totem and implementation of tablets and bracelets for workers. These changes should improve shopping experience for consumers but, at the same time, have consequences on employment conditions, influencing employers’ association and trade unions actions and finally shaping collective agreements content. In particular, regarding trade unions strategies, this research aims to identify three different categories of reactions: neglect, reject and accommodate, in order to provide a categorization useful for analysing trade unions actions  also in other sectors.

      Therefore, based on the actor-centred neo institutionalism theoretical framework, within the analytical perspective of Varieties of Capitalism and sector-based approach, this research aims to address a hole in the literature, comparing the Italian and Spanish retail sector technological innovations in relation to alterations of employment conditions, social actors strategies and collective agreements content.

      Slide presentation available

      Date: 11/02/2020

  • 2013-2019