Projects

Main Researcher: Miquel Domènech (UAB)
STS-b Team Members: Lupicinio Íñiguez Rueda (UAB), Maria Pilar Dellundé (UAB), Joel Feliu Samuel-Lajeunesse (UAB), Luz Maria Martínez (UAB), Joan Moyà-Köhler (UAB), Rosanna Ramírez (UAB) i Oriol Barat-Auleda(UAB).
Project Length: 2023-2026
Reference: PID2022-141950OB-I00
Amount: 2023-2026
Founding Source: Convocatoria 2022 – Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento – Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación

The RoMeO project should allow an analysis of the impact of the introduction of robotic devices in institutional care environments. We propose a research -with quantitative and qualitative approaches- with the participation of older people. On the one hand, it will be measured the attitude of older people living in nursing homes towards robots. On the other hand, ethnographic research will be conducted in a nursing home during a pilot study of robot implementation.
We approach to robotics in healthcare from the framework of science and technology studies (STS). From an STS approach, it is assumed that a specific technology is not just an artefact, but a network of devices, processes, and actors that become interrelated in an assembly. This research will offer elements of reflection and work on a field of study that has been little explored, such as the use of technologies in geriatric residences. This will improve the understanding of innovation processes and contribute to the design and implementation of new
technologies capable of meeting the needs of users. The general objective (GO) is to promote a reliable incorporation of robotic devices adjusted to the needs and wishes of elderly people living in institutional care settings.

Main Researcher: Miquel Domènech (UAB)
STS-b Team Members: Miquel Domenech (UAB), Oriol Barat-Auleda(UAB).
Project Length: 2023-2026
Link to the project: www.ulalabs.eu

The ULALABS project aims to define a theoretical and practical framework for the implementation and operation of a European distributed Living Lab focused on urban challenges and climate change; a “Laboratory of laboratories” perceived as a shared space
and interconnected R&D&I infrastructure between HEI partners to promote transformative innovation policies within and between European regions through the articulation of open and collaborative Learning Communities and shared Agendas.
ULALABS will focus its activities on the development of Learning Communities as key elements of the distributed Living Lab model, offering support and learning opportunities during the project. The pilot program will be the focal point of activities that will allow testing and demonstrating i) the potential for cross-learning between partners, communities and regions, as well as ii) distributed learning, where shared knowledge is generated. -hoc between partners.
The project is expected to produce:

• a catalog of innovative best practices on urban innovation labs and distributed models and on learning toolkits that offer skills to address climate change in urban environments.
• a series of methodological guides for the implementation of distributed learning communities and laboratory infrastructures.
• a learning community articulated and distributed around open innovation laboratories that can continue their operation beyond the subsidized project.

Main Researcher: Miquel Domènech (UAB)
STS-b Team Members: Joan Moyà-Köhler (UAB)
Project Length: 2023-2026
Founding source/s: Marató de Tv3 per a la Salut Mental.
Reference: TV3-432/C/2022 (202215-32)
Project’s link: New Therapeutic Targets in Depression

Des del grup de recerca STSb de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona estem participant d’una recerca coordinada per la Universitat de Barcelona que es titula “Nous objectius terapèutics en la depressió: el paper de la percepció situacional“. El projecte vol esbrinar el paper de la percepció situacional en el desenvolupament i tractament de la depressió.

Des del nostre grup l’objectiu és la de generar un espai participatiu de recerca amb persones que estan o han estat en situació de depressió, per a fer un seguiment crític del projecte i per a aportar una mirada situada i concernida sobre aquesta realitat.  

En aquest moment estem buscant persones per a la primera fase d’entrevistes (a persones que estan o han estat en aquesta situació), per entendre i recollir com es veu i es defineix la depressió en primera persona. A partir del març volem obrir el procés de recerca participativa.  

Main Researcher: Miquel Domènech Argemí  (UAB)
STS-b Team Members: Núria Vallès-Peris (CSIC), Oriol Barat Auleda (UAB) and Francisco Tirado Serrano (UAB)
Project Length: 03/10/2019 – 15/12/2021                                                                                                  Reference: DEMOC00002
Founding source/s: Departament de Governació i Relacions Institucionals (Generalitat de Catalunya)
Amount: 12.000€

DEMOC grants are for original and unpublished research projects in the field of democratic quality, leading to scientific results and proposals for intervention applicable in this field.

Our research project deal with the following topics:

• The incorporation of social initiatives in decision-making spaces: analysis of the elements that hinder or facilitate the inclusion of social initiatives in government agendas, both from the perspective of the administrations and the initiatives themselves.
• Democratic innovation in the local world: analysis of successful experiences of citizen participation in the local sphere, both in the design and management of policies, services, spaces or public facilities.

Main Researcher: Miquel Domènech (UAB)
STS-b Team Members: Núria Vallès Peris (CSIC), Cecilio Angulo (UPC), Ludovica Larusso (UAB)
Project Length: 2018-2021
Founding source/s: Fundació “La Caixa”
Amount: 74.496,06€
Project’s link: Ètica per a robots que ens cuiden

The research project “Ethics for robots caring for us” has as main objective the construction of an ethical framework for the design and use of social care robots in Catalonia, in the field of childhood, elderly people and health. The project is based on an interdisciplinary perspective, with the aim of reflecting and integrating intersectionality between the different disciplines and research areas related to social robotic care. For this reason, in the research team, led from a sociological perspective, researchers come from philosophy, engineering, sociology, nursing and psychology. The project aims to reflect on what seems to be an inevitable incorporation of social robots in care tasks, with the goal of building an ethical framework in a context of multidisciplinary innovation, in which development and technological application seem to have been previous to the reflection on the ethical and care model linked to this development. This reflection will be carried out with the various actors involved in the design and use of social care robots in three areas: childhood, elderly and health.

The theoretical perspective used is based on the reflections and academic debates developed by Science and Technology Studies (STS), more specifically the corpus of knowledge related to the relationship between humans and machines. From this perspective there are uses the reflections that make up the ethics of care and empirical ethics in the development of ethical frameworks that guide relationships between people and machines. As a work process, the proposal is developed using the so called vision assessment, a methodological proposal to identify and evaluate the future views of the various actors involved in a particular technology that will be used, with the intention of preventing unwanted futures and, at the same time, promote the most desired.

Main Researcher: Miquel Domènech (UAB)
Lecture series. More information at this link.

Main Researcher: Miquel Domènech Argemí (UAB)
STS-b Team Members: Mireia Faucha (UAB), Rodrigo de Oliveira (UAB), Guillem Palà Nosàs (UAB) i Núria Vallès Peris (CSIC)
Project Length: 01-10-2016 a 01-10-2017
Founding source/s: Fundació Víctor Grífols i Lucas
Amount: 5.000€

The aim of this research is to develop an ethical framework for the design and use of social robots in children’s hospitals. The project will involve the different stakeholders in the process of designing and using social robots in hospital contexts. The aim is to construct an ethical framework that encapsulates the meanings, priorities, interests and concerns of all stakeholders. The research and development of this ethical framework will be conducted from the perspective of the ethics of care, while also integrating insights from scientific and social studies of the relationship between people and machines covered by the concept of empirical ethics.

http://www.fundaciogrifols.org/en/web/fundacio/-/etica-per-a-robots-algunes-consideracions-per-al-disseny-de-robots-socials-per-a-hospitals-infantils-

Main Researcher: Miquel Domènech Argemí (UAB) and Francisco Tirado Serrano (UAB)
STS-b Team Members: Juan Muñoz Justicia (UAB), Lupicinio Íñiguez Rueda (UAB), Guillem Palà Nosàs (UAB), Gonzalo Correa Moreira (UAB), Rodrigo de Oliveira Machado (UAB), Juan Carlos Aceros Guraldrón.
Reference: CS=2014-59136-P
Project Length: 01/01/2015-31/12/2017
Founding source/s: Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Plan Nacional de I+D+I
Amount: 42.350€
Project’sWebsite: https://tecsal.wordpress.com/

In our knowledge societies it is a common topic to show the enormous difficulties that ordinary people experiment when they want to participate in the processes of definition of social politics and common services. Frequently, it is put forward that such situation is inevitable because of the mentioned politics and services are based on specific and complex technoscientific developments. Nevertheless, in the last decade it has appeared an important scientific and political tradition questioning that affirmation. This tradition poses lay people have the right to participate in the production of a knowledge and technology that is thought and designed in order to improve, precisely, their lives. Such participation means both a relevant improvement in the quality of our democracies and a better definition and acceptation of the technoscientific products and results.

Our research is based on this tradition and we propose the following hipothesis: the social appropiation of expert knowledge and the citizen participation conform a important democratic value. This has to be strengthen and the ways it works have to be deeply analysed in order to figure out the dimensions and variables that can facilitate a permanent relation between lay people and experts.

Main Researcher: Miquel Domènech Argemí (UAB)
STS-b Team Members: Juan Carlos Aceros Gualdrón (UAB), Maria Tereza Leal Cavalcante (UAB), Gonzalo Correa Moreira (UAB), Israel Rodríguez Giralt (UOC), Daniel López Gómez (UOC), Asun Pié Balaguer (UOC)
Reference: CSO2011-29749-C02-00
Project Length: 01/01/2012 – 31/12/2014
Founding source/s: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Plan Nacional de I+D
Amount: 33.880€
Project’s Website: http://psicologiasocial.uab.es/democit/inicio

For the last years the research groups GESCIT and ATIC were involved in research projects related to citizen participation in public technoscientific controversies as well as policies and services for dependency care in Spain. Such researches indicate changes in the form that Spanish society perceives the role of science and technology in the daily lives of citizens and show the implications of expert knowledge and technical devices in ageing, identity construction, social organisation and institutions. It is increasingly more common the constitution of hybrid assemblies mixing lay people and experts in order to solve public controversies. Such hibrid forums can take place as an institutional (“top-down”) initiative, promoting participatory mechanisms such as public consultation and consensus conferences, or as social mobilization (“bottom-up”) actions, as for example, those of concerned groups that call for greater participation in the definition of policies.

This coordinated project aims to compare the mechanisms of participation with the processes of mobilization by experiencing and analy zing the formation of hybrids forums of experts and non-experts on issues relating to collectives with difficulties to express their voice in the public arena. In order to achieve this goal, each investigation group will focus on one of those dimensions applied to the case of people affected by policies for the promotion of the independent living in Spain. The GESCIT will be devoted to the mapping of institutional consensus experiences between expert and citizens in Spain and will implement a consensus conference with experts and older people. The ATIC will analyze the reality of the concerned groups regarding the promotion of independent life in Spain and will identify the processes of hybridization of knowledge and expertise in these mobilizations.

The combination of these two dimensions will offer a general diagnostic on participatory experiences and mobilisations of concerned groups in Spain. It will reveal the strengths and weakness of both processes, as well as the potential of each one for the hybridization of knowledge.

Sub-project of: “Science, Technology and Democracy: Expertise, Institutions an Citizen Participation. (DEMOCIT)”
Main Researcher: Miquel Domènech Argemí (UAB)
STS-b Team Members: Juan Carlos Aceros Gualdrón (UAB), Maria Tereza Leal Cavalcante (UAB), Gonzalo Correa Moreira (UAB)
Reference: CSO2011-29749-C02-01
Project Length: 01/01/2012 – 31/12/2014
Founding source/s: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Plan Nacional de I+D
Amount: 33.880€
Project’s Website: http://psicologiasocial.uab.es/democit/inicio

The main objectives of the project are:

1) To inventory the participative experiences promoted by the public administrations in the last five years in Spain, with special attention to those that involve groups with less possibilities of making hear their voice in front of problems concerning them.

2) To analyze the strengths and weaknesses in the organization and execution of the identified participative processes, as well as in their results.

3) To identify a relevant subject matter that could serve to promote a consensus conference with the participation of experts and older people.

4) To design and to carry out a consensus conference with experts and older people as an exercise of dialogic democracy in the local arena.

5) To analyze the strengths and weaknesses of consensus conferences in terms of its capacity to assemble in the same collective experts and older people.

6) To elaborate indications and useful recommendations for public administrations interested in organizing consensus conferences regarding outstanding issues for citizens.

Main Researcher: Miquel Domènech Argemí (UAB)
STS-b Team Members: Israel Rodríguez Giralt (UOC), Daniel López Gómez (UOC), Tomás Sánchez Criado (UOC), Gonzalo Correa Moreira (UAB), Paula Caryan González Galván (UAB)
Reference: 2013 DEMOC 00033
Project Length: 01/07/2013-30/06/2014
Founding source/s: Departament de Governació i Relacions Institucionals (Generalitat de Catalunya)
Amount: 7.500€

Main Researcher: Francisco Tirado Serrano (UAB) and Andrés Gómez
Reference: JCI-2010-06447

Project Length: 01/04/2011-28/02/2014
Founding source/s: Programa Juan de la Cierva, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Amount: 100.980€

Main Researcher: Maggie Mort (Lancaster University)
STS-b Team Members: Miquel Domènech Argemí (UAB) and Daniel López Gómez (UOC)
Reference: FP7-Science-in-Society-2007-1, num. 217787
Project Length: 01/01/2009 – 31/12/2011
Founding source/s: European Commission (FP7)
Amount: 783.084€
Project’s Website: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/efortt/

EFORTT is concerned with the social implications of ‘telecare’: remote care technologies worn, installed or embedded in the homes of older citizens. It addresses an ethical and democratic deficit in this field which has arisen due to a proliferation in research and development of advanced care technologies that has not been accompanied by sufficient consideration of their social context. In-depth qualitative research methods were used to gain understanding of ethical issues raised by telecare in practice. EFORTT also developed deliberative approaches to the making of remote care policy at a European level by separately recruiting citizens’ panels of older people and carers in each partner’s region. By convening these panels twice: early in the research to gain citizens views about care systems, and later to consider research findings from the project, we develop a ‘grounded’, critical ethical framework to assist European policymaking in this highly sensitive area

Main Researcher: Miquel Domènech Argemí (UAB)
STS-b Team Members: Francisco Tirado Serrano (UAB), Lucía Gómez Sánchez (UAB), Blanca Callén Moreu (UAB), Juan Carlos Aceros Gualdrón (UAB), Soyani Mozka Estrada, Israel Rodríguez Giralt (UOC), Daniel López Gómez (UOC), Asun Pié Balaguer (UOC)
Reference: CSO2008-06308-C02-00
Project Length: 01/01/2009 – 31/12/2011
Founding source/s: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Plan Nacional de I+D
Amount: 48.000€

Several elements indicate that attention to people in a situation of dependency is one the most relevant issues for public policies in contemporary societies. These policies go hand in hand with an accelerated development of new technologies that come out as a possible response to this situation and should not leave social scientists indifferent. This technological development covers a wide range of innovations; it includes transformations that are merely technical, but also sociocultural changes, the development of new meanings and prospecting tools and theoretical discussions. The objective of this coordinated project is to analyze the ethical, political and sociocultural consequences of the technification of care policies and assistance devices. To achieve these objectives we will analyze, on one hand, the implementation and functioning of a home telecare system, on the other hand, we will also study the associative and organizational movements that have used internet in the last years as their main resource in order to debate about the non expected or non considered effects of the new care and assistance systems. The combination of these two fields will allow us to provide a general diagnosis about the transformations that care policies have suffered inside the society of knowledge.

Sub-project of: “Science, Technology and Care Dependency: The Transformation of Care in the Knowledge Society (CITAD)“
Main Researcher: Miquel Domènech Argemí (UAB)
STS-b Team Members: Francisco Tirado Serrano (UAB), Lucía Gómez Sánchez (UAB), Blanca Callén Moreu (UAB), Juan Carlos Aceros Gualdrón (UAB), Soyani Mozka Estrada
Reference: CSO2008-06308-C02-01
Project Length: 01/01/2009 – 31/12/2011
Founding source/s: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Plan Nacional de I+D
Amount: 48.000€

Main Researcher: Lupicinio Íñiguez Rueda (UAB)
STS-b Team Members: Juan Muñoz Justicia (UAB), Mª Carmen Peñaranda Cólera, Luz Mª Martínez Martínez (UAB), Joel Feliu Samuel-Lajeunesse (UAB), Maya Ninova, Ana Vitores (UAB) and Tomás Ibáñez Gracia (UAB).
Reference: SEJ2006-15655-C02-02/SOCI
Project Length: 17/10/2006-17/10/2009
Founding source/s: Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, Plan Nacional de I+D