“When Your Neighbor Is Different: The Relationship Between Segregation and Social Capital” is the title of the study carried out by researcher and professor at Pompeu Fabra University, Toni Rodon, as the winner of the Pasqual Maragall Legacy Research Grant 2020, promoted by the Fundació Catalunya Europa in collaboration with the City Council of Barcelona and the Government of Catalonia, within the framework of the Pasqual Maragall Legacy Program, which aims to promote the thought and work of Pasqual Maragall from both a historical and contemporary perspective, focusing on the challenges faced by cities and Europe.
Toni Rodon’s study is an academic contribution to the debate on segregation and its effects. What is the relationship between segregation, voting, and political participation? This is one of the starting points of the research, which analyzes the impact of segregation by origin and income on different attitudes and behaviors associated with social capital, taking Barcelona and Catalonia as case studies.
The analysis confirms that in Catalonia there is a negative relationship between segregation and social capital, suggesting that public policies should pay special attention to how individuals are distributed across space.
The publication, funded by the Fundació Catalunya Europa, was presented on Tuesday, February 28, at an event held at the Hub Social de Barcelona (c/Girona, 34).
A digital edition of the book can be downloaded for free, as well as this article by the same author with the main conclusions of his research.
Toni Rodon holds a European PhD in Political Science and is an Assistant Professor at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). Previously (2017–2019), he was a postdoctoral researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and at Stanford University (California, USA). He has also been a visiting student at Nuffield College (University of Oxford), the Institute for Social Change (University of Manchester), and the Juan March Foundation.
His research focuses on participation, political geography, comparative politics, and political economy from a historical perspective. He is a regular contributor to the media and the author of the podcasts El Pati Descobert and La segona volta, which provide scientific outreach in the social sciences on Catalunya Ràdio.
Additionally, in 2022 he won the Institut d’Estudis de l’Autogovern (IEA) Award from the Government of Catalonia for an article published in the British Journal of Political Science linking the Spanish Civil War and support for Catalonia’s independence.
