Belén Castro, member of a group of national experts

Nora Fernandez Fernandez 

Last Friday, June 2, the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy presented the group of women experts in charge of drawing up a roadmap for effective equality between men and women, in economic and social matters. 

The group is made up of 26 women leaders in the Social Economy sector, which defines production and distribution relations by the principle of solidarity and does not pursue profit. Among the professionals are Belén Castro, a professor at the URJC, and Carmen Marcuello, a professor at the University of Zaragoza, as national and international academic experts. 

Within the URJC, Belén Castro is coordinator of the Emerging Research Group on Labor Market and Economic Analysis (EMERLAB). Beyond research, from the team "special emphasis is placed on the need to interact with students by involving them in these issues." In this sense, the group has participated since 2020 in the Social Economy University Week, an inter-university initiative that is held in March and whose objective is to bring these concepts closer to the student body.  

Both Professor Castro and the rest of the research team wanted to show "their enthusiasm and pride in contributing to quality research and its dissemination in the field of Social Economy, promoting the collaboration of the URJC with other universities and institutions and contributing to the transfer of knowledge to society”. The objective of this working group is framed within the context of the axis related to Gender, within the 2023-2027 Social Economy strategy. 

Commitment to the Social Economy  

Recently, the URJC professor has also participated in the preparation of the OECD report, published in March 2023, Beyond pink-collar jobs for women and the social economy. 

At the national level, Castro has formed part, together with Professor Rosa Santero, of the technical advisory team in the elaboration of the Spanish Social Economy Strategy 2023-2027, approved in April of this year. In addition, both teachers are the authors of various reports on the impact of this type of economy, which have been included by the OECD in 2021 as a case study, in the field of development of methodologies for measuring the impact of the Social Economy.

Likewise, Belén Castro is the main researcher of the competitive national project 'Women, Cooperativism and Social and Solidarity Economy. Contribution to equal participation in the economy and society' that integrates 23 researchers from 15 universities in Spain and Latin America. Rosa Santero, Víctor Martín and Lidia de Castro, professors at the URJC, also participate in this group.