SOTRAC
Transformació Social i Comunicació
- Main investigator:
- Clua Infante, Ana Maria
- Area:
- Social sciences
- Area of specialization:
- Network society, Knowledge governance, City and Community
- Affiliation center:
- Faculties
- UNESCO codes:
- 591002, 591003, 630707, 631010, 590215, 590215
- ODS:
- Mass media
- Gender relations
- Social inequalities
- Information society
- New technologies and social change
Agora is an interdisciplinary research group that focuses on citizens’ access to the public sphere in the context of the digital society, with a vocation for interuniversity and intersectoral collaborations taking roots in society.
As a main objective, the group addresses challenges in relation to communication as a public good in a context of rapid technological changes and given the need for an urgent reaffirmation of democratic values.
At the center of our attention we find the growing inequalities, controversies and contradictions that illustrate the crisis of the concept of social justice, seen as a reference in the construction of a democratic ideal. Our research interest is particularly directed at groups or collectives that stand on the margins of the hegemonic public sphere.
We carry out research projects deepening concepts and theories, as well as translating them into specific social actions, always from a gender perspective.
We collaborate with associations and groups with whom we share aspirations for positive social change, and we understand research as a tool at the service of and with an impact on society.
So far, the team members that make up Agora have done research on youth, the elderly and women (especially those made invisible and minoritized in the public sphere, such as Wikipedia editors, and even in marginal situations, such as sex workers).
Media discourse analysis
Critical analysis of mass media (press, radio, television) discourse. Gender perspective. Journalism and democracy.
Analysis of social media networks
Analysis of social media networks' structures and contents, and of users' interactions. Gender perspective. Social media journalism and democracy.
Right to communication and information
Study of citizens' access to information and communications media.
Ccitizens' communications, media and democracy, journalism and democracy, public service media, citizen journalism, community media, social movements, urban activism, and gender perspective.
Public sphere and cities
Study on citizens' access to the public sphere. Urban case studies. Public space and the public sphere in cities. Social movements. Urban activism. Gender perspective.
Public sphere and gender
Analysis of women's presence in media content and on social media. Study on women's access to the public sphere. Analysis of women's access to public spaces (street, institutions, events) in the media and on social media. Women journalists. Feminist movements. Urban feminist activism. Gender perspective.
Digital public sphere
Analysis of the make-up of the digital public sphere. Challenges for the right to communication and information. Journalism and democracy in the digital age. Social movements. Online activism. Gender perspective.