Kinship and Reproduction

This area of research is focused on the experience, work and interests of the former Research Line on changes in kinship relationships and construction of family identities belonging to the Grup de Recerca en Antropologia del Parentiu i del Patrimoni (GRAPP).

This axis deals with issues like abortion in Europe, the individualisation of kinship relationships, the perception of generic kinship relationships, gender relations in new families or the formation of LGBT parenting families. Current researches include the anthropological study Women travelling to seek abortion care in Europe and The individualisation of kinship relations.

Coordinators: Silvia de Zordo and Montse Pijoan Vives

Identity Processes and Social Control

Identity processes are the product of sociocultural dynamics that intertwine social control mechanisms and practices of resistance. How do devices of social exclusion work to define, label and categorise bodies, identities and expressions? What strategies do stigmatised people incorporate to assert their rights?

This ongoing tension between stigma and pride shapes the experiences of collectives that transgress conventional norms and social practices imposed by hegemonic structures. Analysing these swaying itineraries, on the one hand, in terms of infringement of rights and as asserted rights on the other is what guides this research area. The project SupportVoC. Development of a Generic Support Services Model to enhance the Rights of Victims of Crime belongs to this research line.

Coordinators: Livia Motterle and Emma Fàbrega

Sexual and Gender Diversity and LGTBI+ Studies

This research line focuses on the tenets and categories that conform our system of sexual and gender identity and the problematisation of normativities and exclusions that these entail. It seeks to contribute to knowledge on sexual, corporal and gender diversity through participative ethnography in order to imagine new discourses and representations that challenge the androcentric, heteronormative and cisnormative system, whilst incorporating knowledge and struggles of the LGTBI+ movements.

The project DIVERCITY: Preventing and combating homo- and transphobia in small and medium cities across Europe belongs to this line.

Coordinators: Jordi Mas Grau and Oscar Guasch

Body and Health

This research line aims to contribute to the knowledge on the cultural construction of the body and the influence of models and social representations of gender in bodily constructions and in the processes of health and illness, from a transnational perspective. It also analyses the relationship between the internalisation of gender roles that from the cultural imaginary justify the asymmetries of power and gender violence, and the attitudes, behaviours and concessions that sustain their existence. Similarly, it addresses issues related to mental health, processes of inclusion/exclusion and functional diversity.

Beyond its analytic effort, this area also focuses on designing tools for evaluation and intervention.

Coordinator: Dolors Rodríguez Martin

Migrations and Mobility in the
Contemporary World

Applying ethnographic research and a multi-sited approach, this research line tackles issues regarding mobility, migratory movements and labor markets. To this line belong projects about interrelations between migration and labour markets, migrations and transnational motherhood, migration and constructions of alterity and migration and decolonisation.

Olga Jubany’s recently published study Screening Asylum in a Culture of Disbelief: Truths, Denials and Skeptical Borders belongs to this research line.

Coordinators: Rosa Lázaro Castellanos and Fabiola Mancinelli

Territory, Decoloniality and Resistances

This research area focuses its analysis on the different forms of political and social resistance that peasant communities and indigenous peoples from the Global South articulate around the defence of their territories. From a decolonial feminist focus, and with collaborative ethnographic methodologies, the research work developed from this area aim to contribute to the visibilisation and understanding of political proceses, social movements and cultural dynamics deployed by people who claim for the safeguard of their territorial space against extractivism proceses, displacement and despoilment, consequences of modern and colonial logics.

Coordinators: Maria Ignacia Ibarra Eliessetch and Claudia Albano Crespo