Barcelona, 10 November 2025. On 11 and 12 November, the FOESSA Foundation will present in Madrid its IX Report on Social Exclusion and Development in Spain, an in-depth analysis of the country’s social landscape amid growing inequality, precarious work, and a housing crisis. The event will take place at the Pablo VI Foundation and will bring together specialists from different fields to discuss the main social challenges and transformations shaping Spanish society today.

The JHU-UPF Public Policy Center (JHU-UPF PPC) plays an active role in this edition through the participation of five of its researchers in Chapter 1, entitled “A Society in Transformation: The Evolution of the Social Model.” Researchers Joan Benach, Pablo Ruisoto, Fiammetta Brandajs, Ferran Muntané, and Christos Zografos have contributed to this extensive chapter, which comprises eleven sections offering a critical analysis of the social, economic, and ecological changes that have taken place in Spain over the past three decades.

The chapter explores key issues such as the need for a critical sociology to respond to a “society of unease”; the erosion of the democratic model amid class fragmentation and technological acceleration; migration dynamics and the role of women as drivers of social change; family transformations and the sustainability of everyday life; the precarisation of labour and the housing crisis; alongside ecological deterioration and the importance of social movements in shaping new forms of protest and eco-social justice.

Chapter 1 concludes that 9.4 million people in Spain live in situations of social exclusion, driven largely by inequality in housing access and precarious work. In response, the FOESSA Foundation calls for public policies grounded in social justice, care, and interdependence as the foundation for a more equitable and sustainable society.

The participation of researchers from the JHU-UPF Public Policy Center underscores the Center’s commitment to the critical analysis of social inequalities, the evaluation of public policies, and the promotion of eco-social approaches in the study of wellbeing and social justice.

📘 Read the full chapter: IX FOESSA Report – Chapter 1 (PDF)