"The development of social relationships is the key to overcoming the crisis. We have to strengthen the civil society so as not to depend completely on politics or economy and so that there can be exchanges which benefit both parties instead of just responding to economic equivalence". This is what the British sociologist Margaret Archer, a professor at the University of Warwick had to say when giving a speech at the first edition of the ICS Lectures, at the Institute for Culture and Society in the University of Navarra.

Professor Archer gave, as an example, the creation of time banks or skills in which people offer their services- classes, arrangements, advice, caring for children and the elderly…in exchange for other services. It´s not just a matter of the maximization of cost-benefit, but rather about how can we collaborate so that everyone will win, she highlighted.

In this regard, she emphasized trust as being a fundamental value of social relationships: "Before, families stayed together and lived in the same neighborhood for generations. This does not exist anymore: we interact with strangers all the time. Nevertheless, we still keep the old forms of solidarity".

Likewise, Professor Archer alluded to the non-legitimation of politicians in the social sphere, which is mainly due to the fact that they do not discuss the big issues and do not have a vision of the common good". Thus, she encouraged not to think "that the only possible system is a government -understood as a bureaucratic regulation- up above and a mass of individuals down below, because that leaves out the social relationships in the middle, which is where we can have innovative thinking on practical issues"

Migrants compensate the labor market

Lastly, she referred to migration in the context of the crisis. "In Europe – she highlighted – radical positions blaming migrants for taking the jobs away from the nationals and benefiting from the services of education and health are gaining importance. But just the opposite is true:  They compensate the labor market, taking the jobs that qualified young people do not want."

Without migration, we would not have the level of social care that we have: the European citizens would not accept certain jobs with lower-than-minimum wage and harsh conditions" she said. In reference to this, she pointed out that the questions concerning migration are "used to distract attention from other social realities that we are living."

Margaret S. Archer's received her bachelor's degree and Ph.D. in Sociology from the London School of Economics. She pursued further studies at the Université Paris-Sorbonne (France). She has held teaching positions and has done research in British institutions: University of Cambridge, London School of Economics and University of Warwick.  She is currently leading the project 'From Modernity to Morphogenesis' at the College of Humanities at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland). She is a founding member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Social Sciences (UK). Also noteworthy is the fact that she was the first woman to hold the presidency of the International Sociological Association.

This expert made these statements within the ICS Lecture on Humanities and Social Sciences, which served to inaugurate a series of annual conferences at the Institute for Culture and Society. Taught by internationally renowned researchers, her aim is to present some of the topics that are being investigated in the eight ICS projects.