José Luís Sampedro opens the academic year of Business and Economics

The inauguration of the 2011/12 academic year at the Faculty of Business and Economics will take place on 3 November at noon in the conference hall. José Luís Sampedro, writer and economists, will give the opening conference entitled "Return to the Future". Diplomas will be handed out to the best graduates of the 2010/11 academic year. The event can be watched online.

25/10/2011

José Luís Sampedro (Barcelona, 1917) studied economics and was named professor of economic structure at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He was visiting professor at the universities of Salford and Liverpool in England and lecturer at the Bryn Mawr College in the US. Sampedro collaborated in the beginning years of the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies as a guest lecturer from 1971 to 1975.

More interested in the sociological part of economics, in the 1960s Sampedro gave classes at the Centre for Sociological Studies and Research together with José Luís Aranguren, Enrique Tierno Galván, José Antonio Maravall and José Vidal-Beneyto. The project was strongly focused on social objectives and aimed to offer an alternative to the academic programmes existing under Franco's regime. Sampedro was consultant to the Minister of Commerce and to the former Banco Exterior de España. From 1977 to 1979 he was appointed senator by royal commission.

Sampedro's views stand out for his commitment and criticism towards capitalism and neoliberalism. He is author of Conciencia del subdesarrollo (1973), El mercado y la globalización (2002) and Economia humanista. Algo más que cifras (2009). He recently wrote the prologue in the Spanish edition of the anti-capitalist best seller Indignez-vous! by Stéphane Hessel.

He is author of several novels such as El río que nos lleva (1961), Octubre, octubre (1981), La sonrisa etrusca (1985) and El amante lesbiano (2000). He also published various short story collections, theatre plays, poems and the memoirs Escribir es vivir (2005).

Sampedro became a member of the Spanish Royal Academy in 1990. He has received several awards for his literary works and his contributions to humanist thought, including the International Award Menéndez Pelayo, the Order of Arts and Letters of Spain, the Medal of the Order of Carlemany of Andorra, and many more. In 2009 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Seville.

More information: Faculty of Economics and Business Studies