Israel Rodríguez-Giralt (BA PhD).
Professor of social psychology in the Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain.
Beatriu de Pinós Postdoctoral Research Fellow.
email: irodriguezgir@uoc.edu
Research Interests
My research aims at connecting two fields of study which have not had much interaction in recent decades: on one hand, the study of social movements, and on the other STS. With this purpose, my PhD thesis (2008) discussed the implications that an Actor-Network Theory approach could have for the analysis of contemporary collective action. My more recent research has been in an ongoing project regarding the techno-scientific controversies and public participation in social care policies in Spain, the objective of which is to analyze the ethical, political and cultural consequences of the technification of care policies and assistance devices.Project: “Issue-oriented activism: comparing the emergence of concerned groups around care policies for dependent people in UK and Spain”
Type of grant: Beatriu de Pinós (SGR 2009). Scholarship for a postdoctoral research stay (2010-2012). Autonomous Government of Catalonia.
Total Amount: 64.258,00 €
Description:
Several elements indicate that attention to people in a situation of dependency is one of the most relevant issues for public policies in contemporary societies. These policies go hand in hand with the development of new expert knowledge and new technologies that come out as a possible response to this situation. In this context, I would like to explore the emergence and multiplication of new forms of political activism around the non expected or non considered effects of these new care policies. In particular, I am very interested in studying and comparing, both in UK and Spain: 1) How this public engagement is enacted; 2) What are the strategies and technologies these groups use to participate in the public debate; and 3) How are these movements contributing to re-shape (both critically and generative) the relations between technoscience, politics and public life in contemporary societies.Selected Publications
Rodríguez-Giralt, I. (2010). “El activismo informacional” (Informational activism). Revista de Educación Social (RES), 44, 15-28.
Rodríguez-Giralt, I. (2010). “El activismo encarnado” (Embodied activism). Barcelona Metròpolis. Revista d'informació i pensament urbà (Catalan, Spanish and English Edition), 79. (2010). In press.
Rodríguez-Giralt, I.; López, D.; García, N. (2009). “Conviction and Commotion: On Soundspheres, Technopolitics and Urban Spaces” In Ignacio Farías & Thomas Bender (ed.) Urban Assemblages. How Actor-Network Theory Changes Urban Studies. New York: Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-415-48662-0
Rodríguez-Giralt, I.; Galdon, G. (2009). “El sabotatge cultural: la resistència creativa” (Culture Jamming: the Creative Resistance) (with Galdon, G.). Barcelona Metròpolis. Revista d'informació I pensament urbà (Catalan, Spanish and English Edition), 74: 10-15
Rodríguez-Giralt, I. (2008). “El gir simètric en l’estudi de l'acció col•lectiva. Les mobilitzacions per la controvèrsia ecològica de Doñana” (“The symmetrical turn in the study of collective action. The mobilizations against Doñana’s ecological disaster”). Doctoral dissertation. Bellaterra: Servei de publicacions.
Gil. A; Guarné, B.; López, D.; Rodríguez, I.; Vitores, A. (2005). “Tecnologías Sociales de la Comunicación” (Social Technologies of Communication). Barcelona: EdiUOC. 2005. ISBN: 84-9788-014-5.