I am a Professor at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and Director of the Consolidated Research Group in Fundamental and Applied Anthropology (GRAFO; with 9 tenured researchers and 20 PhD students, recognized by the Catalan Government, 2017–SGR–1325). I received my Ph.D. in Behavioral and Social Sciences from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. After a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Groningen Institute for Educational Research from 2004–2006, I was awarded a Rubicon postdoctoral fellowship by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, which allowed me to work at the Autonomous University in Barcelona. In 2008, I was awarded the Beatriu de Pinos fellowship of the Catalan government, and in 2010 the Ramón y Cajal senior research fellowship of the Spanish Ministry of Education as first in my area. I was also an invited visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford University in 2010 and a visiting lecturer at Bielefeld University in 2015 (for teaching a 4 ECTS MA course in personal network analysis). I am Associate Professor since 2015.
My research focuses on the relational nature of processes of social cohesion and inclusion. In my work, I adopt a network–scientific approach to study how personal relationships mitigate, sustain, or exacerbate segregation and exclusion, particularly in the contexts of poverty and migration. I also contribute to the development of personal network methods (e.g., binational link–tracing; Network Scale–Up Methods) and software (see other academic activities). I have directed and participated in research of the US National Science Foundation, the European Science Foundation, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, and the Spanish Ministry of Education, among others, in the areas of peer socialization, intergroup relationships and network embedding, and social cohesion across categorical divides.
In my projects on social networks and coping with poverty, I collaborate with the charity foundation Caritas, the Red Cross, and the Foundation Health and Community in Barcelona. We also give training sessions to the personnel and volunteers of Caritas in April this year. In the project on Romanian migration to Spain, we have collaborated with the Romanian Consulate, the Romanian Association of Castellón, and the Hispanic–Romanian Institute. My research has been disseminated via the national TV, radio, and national newspapers, e.g., El Mundo and La Vanguardia.
*Lubbers, M. J., Molina, J. L., & McCarty, C. (2021). How do migrants’ processes of social embedding unfold over time?. Global Networks, 21(3), 529-550. https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12297
*Lubbers, M. J., Small, M. J., & Valenzuela, H. (2020). Do networks help people to manage poverty? Perspectives from the field. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 689(1), 7–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716220923959
*Lubbers, M. J., Valenzuela, H., Escribano P.**, Molina, J. L., Casellas, A., & Grau, J. (2020). Relationships stretched thin: Social support mobilization in poverty. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 689(1), 65–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716220911913
*Lubbers, M. J., Molina, J. L., & Valenzuela, H. (2019). When networks speak volumes: Variation in the size of broader acquaintanceship networks. Social Networks, 59, 55–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2018.08.004
*McCarty, C., Lubbers, M. J., Vacca, R., & Molina, J. L. (2019). Conducting Personal Network Research: A Practical Guide. Guilford Publications.
*De la Haye, K., Dijkstra, J., Lubbers, M. J., Van Rijsewijk, L. G. M., & R. P. Stolk (2017). The dual role of friendship and antipathy relations in the marginalization of overweight children in their peer networks: The TRAILS study. PLOS One 12(6), e0178130. 10.1371/journal.pone.0178130.
*Rodríguez–García, D., Solana Solana, M., & Lubbers, M. J. (2016). Preference and prejudice: Does intermarriage erode negative ethno–racial attitudes between groups in Spain? Ethnicities, 16(4), 521–546. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796816638404
*Lubbers, M. J., Snijders, T. A. B., & Van Der Werf, M. P. C. (2011). Dynamics of Peer Relationships Across the First Two Years of Junior High as a Function of Gender and Changes in Classroom Composition. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(2), 488–504.
*Lubbers, M. J., Molina, J. L., & McCarty, C. (2007). Personal networks and ethnic
identifications. The case of migrants in Spain. International Sociology, 22(6), 721–741. 10.1177/0268580907082255
The INCLUSIVITY project is funded by
