On Saturday, 17 December 2011, the 14th Local Studies Conference was held on Law and Economics; Autonomy and Progress in Bot (Terra Alta County). The title of this year's edition was "Economic Present and Future Opportunities". The conference is organized by the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC), Bot Town Hall and the Catalan Society of Legal Studies, which forms part of the Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC).
This is the fourteenth edition of the conference, which began when the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya was founded (on the Ebro campus). Each year, the conference addresses a specific topic of current affairs. This year's edition is on the complex relations between political power and financial markets, bearing in mind the impact of these relations on the general population and specifically the weakest economic sectors, which urgently need alternatives.
Also participating in the organization this year were the Universitat Internacional de la Pau, the president of which is Dr. Arcadi Oliveres of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and the Rotary Club of Sant Cugat del Vallès.
A number of papers were read at this year's conference, including: "Political Power and Markets: Relations of Submission" by Dr. Arcadi Oliveres, who is also the President of the Justice and Peace Association of Barcelona; "Alternatives and Resources of the Earth" by Javier Sánchez, a member of La Vía Campesina, a movement that works for the recognition of basic peasant rights; "Public Policies and the Welfare State" by Dr. Muriel Casals, the president of Òmnium Cultural and a professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and "The Need for Alternatives in Today's World" by Dr. José María Tortosa, a researcher at the Interuniversity Institute for Social Development and Peace of the Universidad de Alicante. During the conference, the book Actes de la XIII Jornada d’Estudis Local (Proceedings of the 13th Conference of Local Studies), held in 2010, was also presented.
