In recent years, we have performed an important number of studies aimed at analysing the consequences that the appearance of the new service economy and the restructuring of the labour markets are having on occupation. We concentrated on examining how changes to the role of women stimulate the growth of social and personal services, and, at the same time, obstacles and tension arise with the growth of female labour supply. Another area of research is related to the constraints suffered by women in work opportunities and social mobility. We are especially interested in analysing the decisions to have children and work according to two sets of factors: the social policies that help to reconciling work and the family and the occupational structure.
Finally, our research is also concerned with the analysis of social mobility. We know that long-term trends in the labour market may lead to polarisation between occupations that require a high level of training on the one hand, and occupations requiring very few qualifications on the other; especially in the social and personal services sector. The new knowledge-based society increases and changes the demands for human capital but opens the door for part of the labour force to remain trapped in inferior occupations with potential long-term consequences on people's careers and lives. We are also interested, in this line of research, in assessing the extent to which early attendance at pre-school helps to equal up people's opportunities in life.
This research group was constituted in 1994 with the concession, by the Interministerial Committee on Science and Technology, of the project entitled "Analysis of public political networks in the field of telecommunications in Spain" (reference SEC94-0203). The final report was assessed and considered satisfactory as regards compliance with the foreseen scientific-technical objectives. Later, the Interministerial Committee on Science and Technology financed the project "The transformations of public intervention in the telecommunications sector in Spain: From the business State to the regulatory State" (reference SEC97-1336), which was assessed as being "highly satisfactory". In December 2000, the Ministry of Science and Technology awarded a grant for a new research project for a three year period (reference SEC2000-1037), for the drafting of the paper "Boosting the Information Society: methodology, design and instruments for intervention from a comparative perspective. Policies of promotion in Spain".
The Research Group on Political Theory (GRTP) brings together lecturers, assistants, scholarship holders and doctoral students of the department of Political and Social Sciences who are interested in research subjects in the field of political theory. This is currently co-ordinated by Klaus-Jürgen Nagel. The GRTP was constituted on 18 June 1998. Since then it has met regularly to discuss papers, articles, books, etc. in accordance with a programme which is drawn up every term.
The Research Group on Political Behaviour already has much experience in working an publishing on the way citizens see politics, perceive it and act. To this end, the Group performs research in several directions concerning aspects related with Political Culture and Public Opinion, Political participation, and all that refers to the field of electoral studies (campaigns, electoral systems, electoral behaviour).
The scope of the Group's research covers Catalonia and Spain and comparative research on an international level. It possesses a large database on public opinion and election results, it has several active research projects and its members collaborate with a widespread network of international peer specialists.
The GRIIP (Research Group on Immigration and Political Innovation) was constituted in February 2001 as a result of the concession by the Ministry of Science and Technology of research grant SEC 2000-534, to finance the GRIIP's main project: Advanced democracy and immigrant integration policies. The GRIIP comprises researchers interested in matters related to social and political transformation processes whose origin is in the presence of immigration. Its lines of analysis hinge on immigration policies, citizenship, nationality and discrimination. Currently, the research projects underway are, apart from Advanced democracy and immigrant integration policies (SEC 2000-534), a second study in the area of Catalonia on the integration of immigrants in the regions of Catalonia, a Study of immigrant integration policy based on the design of County Plans, financed by the Department of the Family and Social Welfare of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and lastly, a new project financed by the Jaume Bofill Foundation on the inclusion of immigration as a priority on the political agenda in the municipal elections of 2003, entitled Immigration and its inclusion on the local agenda. The standpoints to tackle each of the projects being carried out are structural at the same time as institutional and regulatory. Apart from the research projects, the group performs teaching, searches and reports, as well as fomenting meetings and links between the society, the political sphere and the academic world.