The Scientific Committee

• Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Barcelona. Professor of Philosophy at the University of Girona.
• Vice-Rector for Research and Knowledge Transfer at the University of Girona (2000-2002).
• Coordinator of the Philosophy Study (1996-2000).
• Tutor of Humanities at the Open University of Catalonia from 1995 to 2006.
• Member of the Board of Directors of the Catalan Society of Philosophy since 2002
• Member of the Consolidated Research Group of the Generalitat “Ferrater Mora Chair Philosophy Research Group” (File No.: 2014 SGR 1657)
• Member of the Observatory of Applied Ethics in Social Intervention, at the Arnau d'Escala Campus, since 2004. He has been its director since June 2013.
• University Ombudsman at the proposal of the rector and by agreement of the Social Council.
• 1st Deputy Mayor of Girona City Council for Participation, Information and Citizen Relations (1995-99), for Education (1999-2003) for Presidency and Education (2003-06)
• Minister of Education and Universities of the Generalitat of Catalonia (May-November 2006)

He has been and is a key figure in our organization. He worked on the development of the first Charter of Educating Cities, 1994, and on all the versions to update it, 2004 and 2022.

He has participated in many Congresses as a speaker, moderator and in some cases as a member of the Scientific Committee. He has given seminars on “The Educating City” to many political and technical teams in many cities around the world.

• Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Administration at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2021)
• Professor of Political Science and Administration at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (1990)
• Doctor in Economic Sciences from the University of Barcelona (1980)
• Minister of Universities (December 2021 – November 2023)
• Deputy Mayor for Culture, Education, Science and Community at Barcelona City Council (July 2019 – July 2021)
• Responsible for the culture area of Barcelona City Council (January 2018 – May 2019)
• Researcher and visiting professor at several American and European universities. Prince of Asturias Chair at Georgetown University in 2003.
• Founder and researcher of the Institute of Government and Public Policies of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

He has always been linked to the Educating Cities movement. As Commissioner for Culture in the Barcelona City Council and later as Councilor for Culture, he promoted a mandate plan: EDUCATION AND CULTURE. A proposal to build a single public policy project and very focused on the achievement of cultural rights by all citizens. In the subject of the Congress, his experience and trajectory in the government of the city of Barcelona are of particular interest to us.

• She is a philosophy professor, exhibition curator and creator of projects that connect the arts, education, and philosophy with everyday life.
• Member of the founding group of the Institute for Research in the Teaching of Philosophy (IREF) which he directed from its opening in 1985 to 1995. His participation in congresses and conferences is a permanent line of work in his professional activity.
• Creator and curator of exhibitions such as Mysterious Creatures (1992), The Magic Box (1993), Seeing the Light: Eugènia Balcells (1996), Remembering is Making Memory (1997), The City of Words (1998) Oteiza (2000), Frequencies (2009) and Light Years (2012) by Eugènia Balcells, all of which are equipped with wide-ranging educational projects.
• Since 1990 he has participated in collaborative projects with museums including LACMA in Los Angeles, California, or the Tate Modern in London and with art education centers for children such as Barnahus in Bergen, Norway, or Arte in gioco in Milan, Italy.
• In 1995 he created the Education Department of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA), which he directed until 1999 and since then he has worked regularly with the Eugènia Balcells Foundation.
• In 2003, together with Ramon Espelt and Pep Subirós, he created Gao lletres, an agency dedicated to the conception and development of cultural and educational projects from the perspective of culture as a public service.
• He currently focuses his interest on writing.

Her intellectual and critical dimension and, on the other hand, her experience as a curator of many art and history exhibitions give us the knowledge and experience to address two of the axes of the Congress theme: “critical thinking” and “creative citizenship”.

• Geographer specializing in urban studies and territorial planning, topics on which he has published a good number of books and scientific articles.
• Educated at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (doctorate in Geography) and Johns Hopkins University (Masters in International Affairs), he has been director of the Metropolitan Studies Institute of Barcelona (1988-1999),
• Member of the Parliament of Catalonia (1999-2003) and Secretary for Territorial Planning of the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia (2003-2011).
• He is currently a full member of the Institute of Catalan Studies and a professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, where he returned in 2011 to teach undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral courses in the Department of Geography. He also directs the UAB's Research Group on Energy, Territory and Society (GURB).
• In recent years, he has also been a visiting professor at the School of Environment and Development, Manchester, at the Instituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia and at the Dipartimento di Architettura of the Università di Sassari, as well as a lecturer at universities in Brazil, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Mexico, Portugal and Chile.

His experience as a teacher in the Department of Geography of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UAB and especially his experience in managing the development of the Neighborhood Plan program of the Generalitat de Catalunya and recently of the Neighborhood Plan of the city of Barcelona, allows him to have knowledge about the urban territory as a space that builds communities and at the same time also the opposite of exclusions. A necessary perspective from someone who has the knowledge of the academic and at the same time the technician who executes public policies.

• Doctor in Pedagogy from the University of Barcelona.
• Researcher in higher studies in Practical Philosophy (DEA) at the University of Barcelona.
• Master's degree in Applied Creativity from the University of Santiago de Compostela.
• Graduated in Philosophical subjects from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil).
• Graduated in Business Pedagogy from the State University of Minas Gerais (Brazil).
• Specialized in Philosophy for Children by Montclair State University (USA).
• Degree in Pedagogy from the State University of Minas Gerais (Brazil).
• Director of Casa Creativa and CREARMUNDOS.

A disciple of the American philosopher Matthew Lipman and, therefore, of "Philosophy for children 3-16", Angèlica brings us thoughts and reflections on the construction of critical thinking and especially on how through educational processes tools can be acquired to develop it. On the other hand, Angèlica obtained her doctorate with a thesis, at the time pioneering, on "creative citizenship". Theory and conceptualization of which she is a true specialist.

Angèlica also has a long history of links with the IAICE and has participated in meetings of various networks and in some Congresses.

• She is an Anthropologist, Social Educator and Agricultural Technical Engineer.
• Partner-worker of Garúa S. Coop.
• Professor-collaborator of the UNESCO Chair in Environmental Education and Sustainable Development (UNED).
• Co-author of more than twenty books related to social ecology and numerous articles.
• President of the Transitions Forum.
• Member of the editorial board of Hegoa.
• She was Confederal Coordinator of Ecologists in Action between 2005 and 2014.

Yayo has been involved in the drafting of the latest version of the Charter, in which she has significantly incorporated the ecofeminist perspective. Her intellectual and activist background and experience will provide us with ideas and proposals for the future in this regard that the Congress will have to incorporate. Especially when we address the issues of “community building” with the rights and duties that arise and of course also when we work in the field of “critical thinking”.

• Professor at the Open University of Catalonia.
• PhD in Political Science from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
• His research focuses on the analysis and evaluation of cultural policies, especially in the field of cultural rights and social inequalities.
• He has carried out various advisory and training tasks for public and private institutions, and has contributed to promoting and evaluating cultural and educational programs.
• He was co-coordinator of the first Survey of participation and cultural needs in Barcelona. And he participated in the development of the public policy: “Culture and Education in Barcelona”.

Professor Nicolás Barbieri also assumes a large part of the responsibility for coordinating the Thematic Network that we are working with 30 cities in the State and which has as its theme the same as that we propose for the Congress: "Education and Culture strategies for the construction of the city/community and the development of critical and creative thinking".

His works, his publications, are very oriented towards cultural rights and access to and participation in culture. His research has been located basically in the city of Barcelona and in some of its metropolitan area. The results of this research can be very useful and relevant to us in the development of the strategies that we can develop from culture for the construction of communities, and as a vector of change and transformation.

• She is director of the Rural Life Museum of the Carulla Foundation (L'Espluga de Francolí, Tarragona) and president of INTERARTS.
• Doctor in Educational Sciences, specialized in the field of cultural and educational policies.
• She directed the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policies and Cooperation at the University of Girona and is a professor of cultural management and mediation in different Latin American university programs.
• Always interested in the connections between the world of culture, education and sustainability.
• He presides over the Interarts Foundation, which works on international cultural cooperation, and the ConArte International Association for the arts in education.

Gemma brings us her background and experience as a teacher at the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policies and Cooperation at the University of Girona and as the current director of the Rural Life Museum in l'Espluga de Francolí. These two perspectives, the most theoretical and the most pragmatic, allow her to land on the path to generating strategies and concrete proposals. Gemma is currently passionately promoting programs to connect the ARTS and SCHOOL, between CULTURE and EDUCATION.

• Musical pedagogue and choral director.
• Graduated from the University of Barcelona, in 1991 she completed the CAP in Music and worked for 10 years as a secondary school music teacher.
• From 1996 to 2001 she was a music teacher at the IES Miquel Tarradell in the Raval neighborhood.
• He has directed the children's choir l'Esquitx, of the Coral Sant Jordi of Barcelona and also the Children's Choir and the Girls' Choir of the EMM Can Ponsic.
• Since 2002 she has been a professor in the pedagogy department of the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC).
• From 2001 to 2008 he was head of studies at the Municipal Music School of Can Ponsic (Barcelona), managed by the ARC Música foundation.
• In 2004, he launched Xamfrà, a music and stage center for social inclusion in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona. And in order to ensure its sustainability, in 2013 he created the virtual space El Teler de Música, a social enterprise of musical educational resources.
• Since 2017, he has directed the EducARTs project, which is part of the Barcelona Neighborhood Plan, a socio-educational project that introduces the arts as tools for managing emotions in schools and high schools in the neighborhoods of the North Zone of Barcelona.
• He is also a member of the Secretariat of Children's Choirs of Catalonia.
• In 2014 he won one of the Civic Action Awards from the Lluís Carulla Foundation.
• In 2019 he won the AEMCAT Award (Association of Music Teachers of Catalonia) for his professional career.

Director of XAMFRÀ, the Raval Music and Stage Center and professor at ESMUC, the Catalan School of Music. Ester has a long career in the world of artistic education in vulnerable sectors of the city of Barcelona. This experience allows her to have a theoretical discourse on culture and education and equity, based on the daily realities of very fragile environments. Ester is down to earth because she works with families in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona every day. And she knows how important and necessary it is for the arts and culture to reach everyone. And she also knows how this culture, these artistic experiences leave deep traces in the lives of those who have enjoyed them, in the lives of her students.

We need Ester to lift our heads, but above all, to keep our feet on the ground.

• Retired secondary school teacher since July 1, 2017.
• Degree in Philosophy and Letters (Contemporary History Section) (UAB, 1975). Teacher of Catalan (UPC, 1982).
• Doctorate in Social Sciences Teaching (UAB, 2004).
• I have taught at the private charter school (Escola Pia de Granollers) from 1978-79 to 2016-2017, teaching History in Baccalaureate, Ethics, Social Sciences and Catalan Language in ESO.
• From the 2006-07 academic year to 2012-2013, she was an associate professor in the Department of Didactics of Social Sciences at the Faculty of Education Sciences of the UAB.
• He has participated in ARIE research projects and has been a member of the Research Group on Didactics of Social Sciences (GREDICS).
• She has also been part of the Ethics and Education Group of the UAB ICE from 1996 until it changed direction in 2015. She was the coordinator of this group between 2005 and 2015.
• Currently, she is a member of the Advisory Board of Can Jonch, the Center for Culture for Peace in Granollers. Founding member of GRANA, an association that promotes the educational volunteer project in Granollers. She is also a driving member of the En-Raonar group to build democracy, which aims, among other issues, to ensure the renewal of democracy, recovering its founding meaning and generating spaces for reflection and debate that allow for peaceful coexistence.

Committed to active continuing education in the city's schools through a volunteer program that meets the demands for support and reinforcement made by schools and institutes.

Agnès, a philosopher, writes regularly for the local newspaper, El 9 NOU, where her words generate debates, sometimes dilemmas, and above all, she draws horizons. Her experience as a teacher, philosopher, thinker, and social activist will provide us with a multifaceted vision that we obviously also need.

• 2024 Doctorate in Educational Innovation and Intervention.
• 2022 Master's Degree in Inclusive Education. University of Vic – UCC (Faculty of Education): Vic, Catalonia.
• 2008 Bachelor's degree in Humanities.
• 1999 Diploma in Religious Sciences.
• Diploma in Theology Faculty of Theology of Catalonia (ISCREB): Barcelona, Catalonia

Josep Castillo can contribute his experience as a teacher at the Faculty of Education of the University of Vic and also at a secondary school in Granollers. With him we will be able to know and, therefore, be well informed about the experiences lived in the classrooms and the interests, concerns and motivations that move them. Josep will have specific responsibilities in the Youth Congress.

• Master in Public Service from ESADE, has been working for the local community for 34 years.
• She graduated with a degree and extraordinary prize in Educational Sciences from the UB.
• Currently, she is coordinator of the Barcelona Provincial Council's Sports and Physical Activity Area and, in the 2019-23 term, she was coordinator of the Institution's Education, Sports and Youth Area.
• She has been head of the Education service at the Hospitalet del Llobregat City Council, the Viladecans City Council and coordinator of Personal Services at the Molins de Rei City Council.
• She has also collaborated, for 15 years, with the FMC as a technical advisor to the Education Commission and the Social Rights Commission.
• Representing this municipalist entity, he has been a member of the Joint Commission with the Department of Education of the Generalitat and has been part of, among others, the commissions: the National Pact for Education, Adult Training, School Segregation, Timetable Reform and Jury of the Education Awards of Catalonia.

Teresa has a long career in the field of public policy management in local administrations. She has held positions of responsibility in several cities in the metropolitan area as well as in the Barcelona Provincial Council. Her involvement in the Educating Cities movement also goes back a long way. Her knowledge and experience will allow us to understand the complexities inherent in local administrations and their legal and administrative structures. And, therefore, with this knowledge we will be able to observe and assess the viability of many of the proposals and strategies that are proposed.

•  He is Professor of Sociology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and director of the Globalization, Education and Social Policies (GEPS) research group at the UAB.
• He is also co-coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Group on Educational Policies (GIPE) and director of the Erasmus+ European Master GLOBED: Education Policies for Global Development. He has been Special Professor of Education and International Development at the University of Amsterdam, member of several expert groups on education of the European Commission and consultant to various Public Administrations and international organizations (European Commission, OECD, UNESCO, UNICEF, Council of Europe).
• A specialist in the sociology of education and educational policy, he has been a guest lecturer at several European and Latin American universities.
• He has conducted research in the field of sociology of education and educational policy in Spain, Europe and Latin America.
• Between 2006 and 2010 he was deputy to the Catalan Ombudsman for the defense of children's rights.
  Xavier Bonal will provide us with his knowledge from the field of Sociology of Education and from his experience in applied research work at the local level, especially in studies of school segregation.