Research at BCURE is organized through working groups that function as flexible , interdisciplinary spaces with international outreach. Each group delves into a set of specific axes, but all share the same vocation: to generate critical and empirical knowledge about the imaginaries, values, and conflicts that contemporary societies face.
These groups constitute the backbone of our research, as they promote research projects, collaboration networks and knowledge transfer initiatives. Their aim is to connect diverse disciplines, generations and geographical contexts, maintaining an articulation permeable to emerging debates and global transformations that shape our time.
BCURE Working Groups
Religious Diversity and Cultural Pluralism
Coordinator: Avi Astor (avi.astor@uab.cat)
Deputy Coordinator: Víctor Albert Blanco
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This group takes up ISOR's legacy in the sociology of religion and situates it within the framework of contemporary challenges of religious and cultural pluralism. It analyses how religious practices, identities and discourses are shaped in increasingly diverse and globalised societies.
Research areas
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Religious pluralism and governance of diversity.
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Religion and the public sphere: secularism, religious freedom and coexistence.
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Transformations of religious practices in migratory contexts.
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Religion, gender and sexual diversity.
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New spiritual movements and secularization dynamics.
Critical Socio-Material Ecologies
Coordinator: Anna Clot-Garrell
This group analyzes the interrelationship between social processes and material forms in the context of the environmental crisis, exploring ecosocial imaginaries, infrastructure trajectories and forms of political articulation.
Research areas
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Imaginaries of climate futures: narratives and representations.
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Trajectories of socio-ecological infrastructures.
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Collective climate action: forms of mobilization and response.
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Ruins and processes of ruination: spaces of dispute and regeneration.
Memory, Heritage and Identities (MePI)
Coordinator: Marta Simó
This group explores the processes of construction, transmission and transformation of representations of memory in contemporary societies, and their relationship with cultural heritage and collective identities.
Research areas
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Collective memory and identity.
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Heritage and memory: tangible and intangible heritage.
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Narratives of memory: literature and visual and audiovisual arts.
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Memory and public space: monuments, museums and memorials.
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Memory and cultural diversity: preservation and transmission in multicultural contexts.
Science, Beliefs and Health (SBH)
Coordinator: Rosa Martínez-Cuadros
This group explores the intersections between science, beliefs and health, with attention to the cultures of knowledge that emerge in biomedicine, alternative health practices and public controversies.
Research areas
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Health practices and medical pluralism.
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Public controversies in science and health.
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Beliefs and health: cultural representations of illness and care.
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Hybrid epistemologies: scientific, spiritual and experiential knowledge.
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Risk and technoscience: biotechnology, global health and social perceptions.
Innovative Transdisciplinary Methodologies (ITM)
Coordinator: María Esther Fernández Mostaza
Deputy Coordinator: Ana Fernández-Aballí
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This group experiments with innovative and transdisciplinary methodologies to address the complexity of contemporary cultural and religious phenomena.
Research areas
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Visual, digital and participatory methodologies.
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Multi-situated ethnography and collaborative research.
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Mixed methods and integration of qualitative/quantitative data.
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Digital humanities and cultural big data analysis.
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Innovation in knowledge transfer and co-creation.