DONDENA Seminar - Gabriel Brea-Martinez
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“Understanding the Long‑Run Determinants of Inequality and Social Mobility: A Demographic Perspective from Historical Catalonia”
SPEAKER: Gabriel Brea-Martinez (Lund University)
ABSTRACT:
This presentation will show recent and ongoing research on socioeconomic inequality and social mobility conducted by the Historical Demography Research Unit at the Open University of Catalonia and the Centre for Demographic Studies in Barcelona. Drawing on socioeconomic and demographic data in the very long run, spanning from the 15th to the mid-20th century, we address the following questions:
How did socioeconomic inequality evolve over time within family formation, and what were its main determinants?
What was the relationship between inequality and social persistence from a demographic and familial perspective? How did social mobility transform, and what shaped its trajectory?
Can individual decision-making mitigate socioeconomic persistence?
Overall, our results help to better understand how inequality in SES attainment persisted across periods, but also how individuals’ and families’ behaviours can help to mitigate in a period of absence or less presence of welfare states.
BIO:
Gabriel Brea-Martinez is a historian and demographer with a PhD from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2018). He is currently an Associate Professor at the Open University of Catalonia and a Senior Researcher at the Department of Economic History and the Centre for Economic Demography at Lund University. His research focuses on long-term socioeconomic inequality and social mobility, spanning from preindustrial and industrial societies to contemporary periods, with particular attention to their links with demographic behavior.