Abstract
This chapter presents some of the theoretical basis on which CREA research has been built upon. Written in a narrative style and drawing on my own initial academic experience within the ‘feudal’ structures of Spanish academia, I explain how in CREA we have been able to challenge and contribute to the transformation of these structures. I also describe the seminar ‘with the book in hand’, which is a key activity in the intellectual training of CREA researchers, serving as a space of on-going reflection amid the study of inequalities and our commitment in their transformation through research.
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Notes
- 1.
In the Catalan language, “vila” means village and “nova” means new.
- 2.
In Spain, the highest rank in academia is the position of “catedrático”. Because of the specificity of the history of Spanish academia, we use the Spanish term.
- 3.
In 1992, Althusser wrote the following: “I had just finished publishing with excitement “Marx’s theoretical revolution” and “Reading Capital”, that came out in October. I found myself caught in terror facing the idea that those texts would show me naked in front of a broad audience: completely naked, that is, as I was, a human being full of artifices, and nothing else, a philosopher who barely knew nothing about Marx (from whom I had certainly studied his younger works, but from whom I had only studied seriously the first book of The Capital, in the year 1964 in which I directed that seminar that led to the publication of “Reading Capital”).” (Althusser, 1992, pp. 196–197).
- 4.
In the book The Negro American (1965) Parsons developed his concept of Societal Community and continued to develop it further in the works he published until the late 1970s.
- 5.
I use the term “assumption/s” throughout the chapters of the manuscript to refer to unjustified ideas lacking any scientific basis; when academics use them as statements to support their argument, their assumptions are usually grounded on the person’s power position, as opposed to validity claims of the arguments provided, because they lack epistemological and scientific validity.
- 6.
In his Harvard course “Adam Smith: Philosophy and Political Economy” (offered in 2011), Sen dedicates an entire semester to the diverse contributions of Smith’s work.
- 7.
See declarations from the director of the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response at Harvard University, Sarah Rankin (February 27, 2010): http://crea.ub.edu/index/human-excellence/antisexism/
- 8.
- 9.
Normativity in the social sciences is understood as the analysis that includes the social actions that contribute more to performing the norms decided by society.
- 10.
Axiological neutrality is understood as “sociology oriented towards understanding, based on ideal-typical, and on the dialogue between researchers and social actors, and their willing of understanding other’s conceptions and thoughts” (A Critical Dictionary of Sociology, 1982).
- 11.
The Framework Programme of Research is the program with greater financial resources and higher scientific status of the European Commission. Currently, the 8th Framework Programme is called Horizon 2020.
- 12.
A brief account of this event can be read in Global Dialogue #5: http://www.isa-sociology.org/global-dialogue/?p=294.
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Soler-Gallart, M. (2017). CREA and Our Path Towards Socially Relevant Social Sciences. In: Achieving Social Impact . SpringerBriefs in Sociology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60270-7_1
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