UB DIBA Chair on Plain Language in Public Administration
One of the most persistent demands of 21st century society is the right to understand the information and documents received from public authorities. Hence, the governments of democratic societies are promoting processes of simplification and clarification to ensure clear communication with citizens and establish relationships of trust between government and the people.
The UB-DIBA Chair on Plain Language in Public Administration aims to promote reflection on the need to transform current complex administrative language in order to achieve the ideal of accuracy, simplicity, clarity and friendliness in communicative exchanges and thus help bridge the gap between government bodies and the people.
The Chair will focus on all kinds of communication channels, especially the communication offered by administrations through their websites and online offices. More specifically, the Chair aims to study the quality of the administrative communications of the Barcelona Provincial Council (DIBA), especially documents related to tax management and collection procedures, in order to identify best practices and propose improvements.
Director
Presentation
Objectives and planned actions
The Chair’s main objectives are to analyse the quality of the administrative communication of the Barcelona Provincial Council (DIBA), specifically in the area of tax management, and to enhance the communication processes used by this administration. The ultimate goal is to ensure that dialogue between citizens and the DIBA is an easy, straightforward, transparent, simple and effective interaction.
The Chair will mainly focus on the following areas:
- Analysis of the quality of communication at the local level in general and at tax management bodies in particular.
- Activities and studies to obtain improvements in processes, forms, documents, etc., that are directly applicable to the communication of local public authorities for the exercise of citizens’ right to understand.
- Local, national and international dissemination of the knowledge generated, especially in the towns of the province of Barcelona.
The Chair’s actions will be carried out through:
1. Training:
- Organization of courses, workshops, conferences and seminars.
- Prizes for UB bachelor’s and master’s degree final projects on topics falling within the scope of the Chair.
- Promotion of expert meetings in the field of plain language.
2. Research:
- Sharing knowledge by attending conferences, giving seminars, etc.
- Undertaking research projects.
- Creation or inclusion of the Chair in thematic research networks, think tanks, and national and international research networks on topics falling within the scope of the Chair.
- Technical and scientific meetings to incorporate the Chair’s activities into Next Generation networks and strategies.
3. Knowledge dissemination and transfer:
- Promotion of publications on topics of interest related to plain language in public administration.
- Organization of conferences on plain language.
- Collaboration on the promotion of technical and dissemination events with regard to the various fields of knowledge falling within the scope of the Chair.
Team
Professor of Hispanic Linguistics at the University of Barcelona. Coordinator of the Academic and Professional Discourse Studies (EDAP) consolidated research group. Principal investigator of competitive projects funded by different ministries. Researcher on international projects. Visiting lecturer at European and American universities. Plain language advisor for institutions such as the Spanish Ministry of Justice, the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, government agencies (Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT)), the Catalan government, etc. Member of the Advisory Board for the ‘New Language Economy’ strategic economic recovery and transformation project (PERTE).
Associate professor in the Faculty of Philology and Communication at the University of Barcelona. She has held management positions at the university for more than a decade. Member of the Academic and Professional Discourse Studies (EDAP) consolidated research group. She has participated in various competitive research projects focused on the description of professional discourses and comprehensible communication. Her main line of research is the analysis of the Spanish lexicon. She is currently a researcher for the project El derecho a entender la comunicación tributaria. Análisis y clarificación del discurso empleado en los procedimientos de recaudación [The right to understand tax communication: analysis and clarification of the discourse used in tax collection procedures]. She teaches legal writing at the Judicial School of the Spanish General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). She does external linguistic consulting work.
Associate professor at the University of Barcelona and member of the Academic and Professional Discourse Studies (EDAP) consolidated research group. Her main areas of teaching and research interest are academic discourse and legal-administrative discourse, in particular, persuasive speaking and plain language.
She has participated in several national and international competitive research projects. She also teaches courses for the master’s degree in Advanced Legal Studies and at the Judicial School of the Spanish General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and has been a teacher in training sessions organized by the CGPJ.
Advisor on plain language for companies, financial institutions and public bodies.
Professor (Serra Hunter lecturer) at the University of Barcelona. His main teaching and research interests are grammar, pragmatics and professional discourse analysis (especially, legal and administrative). Member of the Academic and Professional Discourse Studies (EDAP) consolidated research group. Researcher for competitive projects funded by different ministries. He teaches legal writing at the Judicial School of the Spanish General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). Advisor on writing and plain language for public institutions (Spanish Ministry of Justice, CGPJ, Spanish Public Prosecutor’s Office, Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Spanish Tax Agency or (AEAT).
Adjunct lecturer in the Faculty of Philology and Communication. Member of the Academic and Professional Discourse Studies (EDAP) consolidated research group. He participates as a researcher in the working team and is a member of the steering committee for the project El dret a entendre la comunicació tributària. Anàlisi i clarificació del discurs emprat en els procediments de recaptació [The right to understand tax communication: Analysis and clarification of the discourse used in tax-collection procedures]. Specialist in administrative discourse and plain language, both of which fields of knowledge he addressed in his doctoral thesis. He does external consulting work as a plain language consultant. He is a teacher at the School of Public Administration of Catalonia, the Barcelona City Council, and for the Legal Writing Workshop at the Judicial School of the Spanish General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ).
Full professor of financial and tax law at the University of Barcelona. Coordinator of the Tax Law and Fiscal Policy consolidated research group. Researcher for competitive projects funded by different ministries. Visiting professor at European and American universities. Member of the Taxpayer Protection Council (Spanish Ministry of Finance). Member of the Spanish Association of Tax Advisors (AEDAF) expert group on tax procedures and guarantees. Co-editor of the journal Revista Diritto e Pratica tributaria internazionale.
Language services coordinator for the Barcelona judicial district (Catalan Ministry of Justice). Adjunct lecturer in the Department of Catalan Philology and General Linguistics. Collaborating lecturer on language law and legal language at the Catalan Centre for Legal Studies and Specialized Training. Speaker at many courses, conferences and seminars on legal terminology and legal regulation of language at various universities and author of several works on these subjects. Certified translator. Member of the editorial board of the journal Revista de Llengua i Dret.
Adjunct lecturer in the Department of Catalan Philology and General Linguistics at the University of Barcelona, with teaching in the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Philology and Communication. Consultant on oral and written communication for public administration (Catalan government, Parliament of Catalonia, Public Administration School of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council, Barcelona Provincial Council, etc.) for more than twenty years. She has worked as a linguist in the Language Service of the Barcelona court system and as a communication teacher on the undergraduate and master’s degree courses in Business Administration and Management at Esade.
A PhD in Information and Communication, he is a lecturer and researcher in the Faculty of Information and Audiovisual Media at the University of Barcelona. He has taught at universities in Germany, Croatia and the Czech Republic. His main areas of teaching and research interest include audiovisual documentation, digital formats, content creation and search engine positioning. He participates in several projects as a member of the Information, Communication and Culture Research Centre (CRICC) and the Communication and Audiovisual Media (In-COMAV) teaching innovation group. He has authored several works on digital communication, information management and related topics. He collaborates as a popular science writer in the written and digital press, where he highlights the human dimension of technology.
Associate professor of the History of Law at the University of Barcelona. Coordinator of the Faculty of Law’s programmes at the UB University of Experience. Coordinator of work placements at the ‘Dret al Dret’ [Right to Law] Legal Clinic. Academic secretary of the University of Barcelona Professional Development Institute (IDP-ICE).
Founder and director of the Prodigioso Volcán agency. Journalist who launched the digital editions of El Mundo, El País and other media. He is an advisor to companies and media on digitalization and communication issues. He has been a member of the advisory board of Fundación del Español Urgente [Urgent Spanish Foundation, Fundéu], of which he was president. He was editor of the book Escribir para Internet, co-authored the book Twittergrafía, Ciberactivismo, Presentaciones de impacto, and served as an advisor to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) for the chapter on online writing of its style guide. He teaches journalism at the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation and has taught classes and given talks on communication at the University of Navarre, CEU, ISDI and other universities in Europe and America.
Pre-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Latin American Studies (IELAT) at the University of Alcalá. He holds an undergraduate degree in International Relations and Political Studies with honours and is a recipient of the Medal of Academic Merit (UMNG). He is specialized in Public Policy (Uniandes) and holds a master’s degree in Constitutional Law (CEPC). He was a legislative advisor to the Colombian Congress for ten years. He is currently completing his doctoral thesis on plain language in relation to collective action and political readability applied to good governance. He is a member of the Research Group on Law and Justice and of the Culture of Lawfulness Programme at UC3M and of the Plain Language Network of Colombia.
He is an associate professor in Philosophy of Law at the University of Barcelona (UB). He coordinates the ‘Dret al Dret’ [Right to Law] Legal Clinic (UB). He has directed the UB’s Equality Unit. He has been a member of the Bruc town council for the last 7 years, where he ais currently in charge of public health, social services, the elderly and culture. He has been active in unions for more than 20 years. He has chaired the UB Teaching and Research Staff Board and is currently a member of it.
