General Activities
The Observatory of Globalisation of the University of Barcelona studies and monitors the international instruments that create the framework of the globalisation process. Its activities cover the fields of research, professional training and dissemination. They are not just addressed to future researchers and specialists in the field but also, and above all, to the agents directly involved in the globalisation process: economic and social agents, politicians and officers that regulate and manage this process.
Research activities are focused on the study of the reform of the multilateral system, from an integrated point of view that covers all its instruments. The results of the research activity should be useful, firstly, to the political and administrative authorities involved in the regulation of international economic relations and, secondly, to all economic and social sectors that want to influence the content and the direction of these regulations.
Professional training and dissemination activities try to enhance and promote the public awareness of the significant practical importance of legal regulatory instruments of international economic relations. They emphasize mainly two aspects: on the one hand, the large scope of these instruments, larger than common people think and even directly concerned people could imagine; and, on the other hand, the effectiveness of these instruments, also bigger than what is commonly believed, in particular, because of the improvement in the effectiveness of dispute-settlement mechanisms.
The Observatory of Globalisation will try to produce intelligible and, at the same time, specialised information on the evolution of international economic relations that can be useful to the academic, economic, political and social sectors. This information will be available in the web page of the Observatory and through publications in co-operation with other entities. At the same time, the Observatory organises courses, lectures and conferences that fit the specific needs of interested people. It gives particular attention to co-operation projects with University Institutions of Latin America and United States of America.
From its beginning, the Observatory of Globalisation has considered a priority to develop its relations to non-University Institutions and actors. It co-operates with political institutions and social agents (entrepreneurial sector, trade unions,...). This co-operation looks to provide expertise in international relations and the international economic regulations field as well as to organise activities that may be interesting for both sides.
The
Observatory has
promoted and presently directs the WTO Chair,
created by agreement between the University of Barcelona, the WTO and the
Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona, and focuses mainly to activities in Latin
America. It is the first Chair of its kind with full participation of the WTO as
institution. He started its activities in 2002.
The
Observatory has
also launched in 2002 with FLACSO-Buenos Aires a joint
MA programme on International Economic Relations. This programme will
be fully developed in Buenos Aires.
The
Observatory receives
two grants from the regional Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de
Catalunya): a general one, to support the overall activities of the
Observatory, and a specific one, to finance the joint programme with
FLACSO-Buenos Aires.
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