The studies on Political and Administrative Sciences of the UB commemorate their 25th anniversary
The UB celebrated the 25th anniversary of its studies on Political and Administrative Sciences. A ceremony in the Faculty of Law combined the memories of the beginning of these studies and tribute to the first lecturers with reflections on the future of political science in the current information society. “The researchers of political science have created social confidence to become models; every time you appear as experts, you are building the university”, stated the rector, Joan Guàrdia, in his speech.
The UB celebrated the 25th anniversary of its studies on Political and Administrative Sciences. A ceremony in the Faculty of Law combined the memories of the beginning of these studies and tribute to the first lecturers with reflections on the future of political science in the current information society. “The researchers of political science have created social confidence to become models; every time you appear as experts, you are building the university”, stated the rector, Joan Guàrdia, in his speech.
The emeritus lecturer Jordi Capo gave a conference in which he listed some of the issues political science has on the table. He talked about the political experts of last centuryʼs fifties such as David Easton and Karl Deutsch, ad their cybernetic models to explain that “the information is the electricity of the political system”. In this line, he contemplated whether the political system is in a position to regulate the power of big companies that base their activities on great amounts of information. “Isnʼt the digital world the political system after all?”, he asked.
Capoʼs words were followed by the speech of the dean of the Faculty of Law, Xavier Pons; the head of studies of the bachelorʼs degree on Political and Administrative Sciences, Ana M. Sanz, and Professor Pablo Oñate, elected president of the International Association of Political Sciences. All of them stressed the value of pioneering researchers on political sciences of the UB, such as Cesáreo Rodríguez-Aguilera, the emeritus Pere Vilanova and Jordi Capo or Miquel Caminal, who passed away.
Former students Mercè Cornudella and Julián Claramunt remembered their college times as students of Political and Administrative Sciences. Cornudella, who said those were “the best years of my life”, talked about the “enthusiasm the lecturers showed” and said that “we did not only want the degree, but we were looking for answers to understand the world, to know more about the mechanisms of power”.
The event closed with a performance by David Ellis Rovira, fourth year student of the bachelorʼs degree in Political and Administrative Sciences. The student played a trombone version of Beethovenʼs Ode to Joy, a piece that the European Union adopted in 1972 as the hymn to celebrate peace, unity in diversity and democratic values.