Three leading researchers and national award winners in their discipline reflect on inequalities, borders and resilience, the motto of the congress that opens on Wednesday in Murcia
The pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the great recession… global impacts that are a total social fact, that challenge sociology in search of answers at the critical crossroads. With the motto ‘Inequalities, borders and resilience. Sociology for global crises’, the XIV Spanish Congress of Sociology to be held in Murcia from Wednesday will feature some of the most lucid voices to address the challenge. Those of Constanza Tobío Soler, Inés Alberdi Alonso and María Ángeles Durán Heras, winners of the National Prize for Sociology and Political Science, and which will be heard on the opening day of the international meeting, which they will share with Miguel Beltrán Villalval, also National Prize for Sociology and Political Science. The three scientists reflect in these pages on the possible responses of sociology to the global crisis.
The impact of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine
The so-called great recession of 2008 generated significant social changes in terms of inequalities. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the social processes of change and the international impact of the war in Ukraine has shaken the foundations of the Europe we knew. In the case of the pandemic, Constanza Tobío reflects, Spanish society “well understood the seriousness of the situation and the need for difficult extraordinary measures, more than other countries around us. The very wide acceptance of the need to be vaccinated and adopt collective protection measures are good indicators. The pandemic has left experiences and lessons that society seems to have accepted, such as the importance of anticipating catastrophes, universal healthcare or the possibilities of virtual communication. Regarding Ukraine, María Ángeles Durán fears that Spanish society is still unaware of the consequences it will have for the country’s economy, «for companies and family economies and for public budgets and resources. He has journalistic information about the war and he has received it above all on an emotional level, but not on a geopolitical level and even less so on an economic level». What is already consolidated as a democracy is, for Inés Alberdi, tied up. “War can blow everything up, but Ukraine is still a democratic country.”
Durán: «A revolutionary change is required to transform care into a collective objective»
An eerie autumn on the horizon
In the immediate future, next autumn is seen as a critical moment: «The rise in prices suggests an escalation of generalized discontent and the result of the elections in Andalusia will not favor confidence that the government will continue to take the helm to give response to so many serious problems”, values Durán. For Tobío, other questions lurk around the summer, such as the possible new wave of the pandemic or the continuation of the war in Ukraine and its effects on inflation through energy prices. “In both cases, these are problems external to our country that, however, have an impact that can be very important. What a country can do is prepare, as is being done with measures such as the fourth dose of the vaccine or to reduce the price that consumers pay for energy.
Inequalities in access to resources and new gaps
The crisis has revealed inequalities in the distribution of resources and in access to basic services. Also the lack of adequate institutions to combat the processes of social exclusion. For Alberdi, the search for mechanisms to reduce the gaps is key, without forgetting that, “in recent decades, the opposite has happened in Spain: we have improved and giant steps have been taken for equality in which access to health and education have been the foundations». For Tobío, since the oil crisis of the seventies, fifty years ago, «inequality has not stopped increasing. Since then, wealth has increased a lot, but it has been concentrated in an increasingly small number of hands. The decrease in wages and the erosion of the economic capacity of the states, through very varied mechanisms, are the main factors that explain the increase in inequality. For María Ángeles Durán, “the crisis has made some profound aspects of Spanish society more noticeable, among others its aging and the high proportion of the immigrant population, including a high proportion lacking social integration and access to collective resources.”
Alberdi: “The persistence of violence against women is a pending issue”
Borders and migration crises
The various migratory crises and armed conflicts are transforming society. “I believe that the migratory crises have only just begun. Rich countries – Durán argues – do not produce enough population to perpetuate themselves and, according to some studies, there is 16% of the world’s population that is willing to leave their own country permanently. That means a potential transfer of more than a billion people. Will they repel each other by force or will ways of integration be sought? That is the great political and moral question that we face,” challenges Durán. Constanza Tobío is not optimistic, considering that the approach to migration policies in rich countries “has been revealed as a failure: migrations are increasing and their destabilizing impact is also increasing. It is necessary to reorient them based on the explanatory causes of this phenomenon, especially the difficult –if not impossible– survival in many parts of the world».
The weak point of care
The pandemic highlighted that there are many weak points in the welfare society, and highlighted the vital importance of care. Since women joined the labor market, thus transforming the care model, Tobío reflects, “there is an unresolved structural deficit in this area and the pandemic has only made it even more explicit. The development of universal care policies for those who cannot fend for themselves, regardless of their family situation, is essential. The expert in the study of care Ángeles Durán considers that “no public budget” could address the growing demand. The small partial advances are laudable, but very insufficient. Really, a revolutionary change is required to transform care into a collective goal, supported by all of society and distributed equally between genders, ages and social groups.
Tobío: “Immigration policies in rich countries have been revealed as a failure”
Gender equality
The advances for gender equality, claims Inés Alberdi, “were extraordinary in the nineties; but there are many pending issues: salary equality, distribution of care, conciliation… and, above all, the persistence of violence against women », she warns. For Tobío, “patriarchal domination covers all areas of social life, from the family to employment, politics, culture or art. However, throughout the 20th century and until today, progress has been enormous. It is increasingly recognized that gender equality as an effective outcome is the just and desirable goal.” María Ángeles Durán warns that progress is slow and, “in Spain, cracks have opened that allow us to think of setbacks.”
Summit with 1,500 experts and the Minister of Science
The Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Murcia will host from Wednesday the XIV Spanish Congress of Sociology, which will bring together more than 1,500 professionals from all over the country. Under the motto: ‘Inequalities, borders and resilience. Sociology for global crises’, the congress will analyze and debate topics as diverse as inequality, disability, politics, childhood, culture, communication and population, among many others. The organizing committee, chaired by the professor of Sociology at the UMU Juan Carlos Solano, expects the attendance of the Minister of Science, Diana Morant.
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