"The Third Sector and Sustainable Social Change: New Frontiers for Research"
Universitat de Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain
July 9-12, 2008
ISTR Eighth International Conference and
2nd EMES-ISTR European Conference in partnership with CINEFOGO

Conference Site

Universitat de Barcelona
Escola Universitària d’Estudis Empresarials
(School of Business Studies)
Avinguda Diagonal, 696
08034 Barcelona
SPAIN
Telephone: 34 (93) 402-4464
FAX: 34 (93) 402-4473
email: secretaria.emp@ub.edu
website: http://www2.ub.edu/empres/index.htm

Centro de Investigación de Economía y Sociedad (CIES)
CIES was founded in Barcelona in April 1992 as result of the accumulated experience since the early 1980s by a group of experts in the field of economics and society.  Constituted under the legal form of foundation, CIES has as vision and mission being a center of multidisciplinary research and training center of reference while contributing to the implementation of the sustainable development strategy at the organizational and regional level.  Its objective is to study the combination between economic efficacy and social interests, such as the relation between social economy, public administration and the conventional private sector.

Since its foundation, and through its research, teaching and dissemination work, CIES has offered training programs for experts and representatives of public administrations, university professors and students coming from different disciplines, technicians and managers of movements and grassroots organizations, as well as professionals coming from the market sector.

In consequence, CIES has become a reliable resource center which has managed to join the most active agents in the study and promotion of the social economy. CIES achieves its objective through collecting, analyzing and spreading sector information, stimulating and helping innovative projects, and making platforms and nets.

Its teaching experience includes two Masters: Master in Social Economy and Management of Non-profit Institutions (on-line) and Master in Social Corporative Responsibility / Accounting and Social Audit (on-line). CIES is an associated partner of the United Nations’ Global Compact/Pacto Mundial, and of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Europe.

Universitat de Barcelona
The University of Barcelona (UB) was founded in 1450. The university has four campuses, all in different parts of the city. The UB is the oldest and largest of the six universities in Barcelona. The international student population of the UB is approximately 1300 students. Today the UB is the largest university in Catalonia in terms of number of students and teaching staff, facilities, courses offered, and research. Three thousand faculty members and 1,600 other personnel staff the university.

UB students have access to an extensive range of services. The UB library is the second largest in Spain in regards to number of books. There are more than two million books and 38,000 journals available throughout the different schools and campuses. There are approximately 6,000 reading sites.

Barcelona
In a privileged position on the northeastern coast of the Iberian peninsula and the shores of the Mediterranean, Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain in both size and population. The capital of Catalonia is unequivocally a Mediterranean city, not only because of its geographic location but also and above all because of its history, tradition and cultural influences.

The first human settlements in Barcelona date back to Neolithic times. However, the city proper was founded by the Romans who established a colony there at the end of the 1st century BC. The ancient Roman city of Barcino had a population of about a thousand and was bounded by a defensive wall, the remains of which can still be seen in the old town.

For over 200 years in the 8th to 10th centuries, the city was under Muslim rule, but following the Christian reconquest in the early 11th century, it was established as a county of the Carolingian Empire. In medieval times, it was one of the main residences of the court of the Crown of Aragon and established its position as the economic and political center of the Western Mediterranean. From the 13th to the 15th centuries, Barcelona enjoyed its period of maximum splendor, which is still evidenced today in its Gothic Quarter.

From the 15th to 18th centuries the city entered a period of decline. Over these centuries, Barcelona struggled to maintain its economic and political independence. This struggle ended in 1714, when the city fell to the Bourbon troops and rights and privileges in Catalonia were suppressed.

In the mid-19th century, an industrial revolution took place in the region, and textile manufacturing became a key industry. The period also marked the beginning of cultural recovery, which manifested itself in the Renaixença movement. During this time Catalan regained prominence as a literary language.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Barcelona embarked on a process of widespread urban renewal and built its signature Eixample district, which showcases some of its most characteristic modernista buildings. Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was one of the most eminent architects of the time, with works such as the Casa Milá (known as La Pedrera), the Casa Batlló and La Sagrada Família (The Church of the Holy Family).

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the fascist victory led to restrictions in the freedoms achieved during the previous period. With the reinstatement of democracy in 1977, Barcelona society regained its cultural and economic strength. Hosting the 1992 Olympic Games gave fresh impetus to the city’s potential and reaffirmed its status as a major metropolis. 

Barcelona has recently been touted as the coolest city in Europe with the city’s restaurants, bars, shops and hotels among the most cutting-edge on the Continent!

EMES
The EMES European Research Network (EMES) includes established university research centers and individual researchers whose goal is to gradually build up an European corpus of theoretical and empirical knowledge, pluralistic in disciplines and methodology, around “Third Sector” issues. EMES studies socio-economic entities that are designated differently depending on the national context, including, amongst others: the social economy, the civil and solidarity-based economy (“économie solidaire”), the non-profit sector, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. Far from tackling this reality as isolated entities, EMES studies them as they interact with other institutions, private or public, across various activity sectors, and with the various public policies in place. EMES has published the results of its research projects in the form of major books and as part of the EMES Working Papers Series.  

CINEFOGO - Network of Excellence
CINEFOGO–Civil Society and New Forms of Governance in Europe–the Making of European Citizenship (www.cinefogo.org) aims at enhancing the understanding of social and democratic processes in Europe.  It seeks to provide and coordinate knowledge about civil society, citizenship and social protection, nourish a public debate on governance, civic participation and social cohesion in Europe and in its relation to the surrounding countries.  CINEFOGO is supported by the Sixth EU Framework Programme and the network includes more than 40 European universities and research institutions.

The State of the Nonprofit Sector in Spain
With the reestablishment of political democracy and the construction of the welfare state, Spain has registered a strong development of the cooperatives, non-profit organizations and foundations that constitute the third sector. More than 150,000 non-for-profit economic organizations manage resources from the public and private market. These cooperatives, non-profit organizations and foundations develop a large array of activities in the agricultural, industrial and service sectors. Moreover, the most important cooperative business group of all Europe is situated in Spain.

These not-for-profit economic organizations are created to develop an explicit goal of service to the community. In this sense, one of their characteristics is the desire to promote a sense of social responsibility at the local level. Over time, they have managed to build strong relations of trust with their stakeholders, to mobilize voluntary resources, both in terms of time and monetary gifts, and they have demonstrated a capacity to combine social and commercial goals and to professionalize their business management.