ISOCAC Ideologies i Societat a la Catalunya Contemporània (Ideologies and society in the contemporary Catalonia – ISOCAC) is a constituted research group of the Contemporary History and Didactics of Social Sciences areas at the University Rovira i Virgili (URV). The group was created in 2009 and its research encompass the history and political culture in Catalonia, with a particular emphasis on the public usage of history and memorial heritage. In addition to this field of study, ISOCAC makes the most out of the interdisciplinary character of the group to stress the transference strategies of knowledge created by utilizing history professionals, the university community, and also the surrounding social environment
The project Los espacios y la memoria de la sociabilidad popular en la Cataluña contemporánea (Spaces and the memory of the popular sociability in contemporary Catalonia) is an example of the research carried out by the ISOCAC, mainly focused on the different ways of popular sociability and its evolution. This study encompasses the three main blocks of the 20th Century history in Catalonia: it begins with the diversification and politicization processes of those spaces during the first third of the century, particularly, during the Second Republic; it goes through its extermination during the Franco time; and it ends with the analysis of the continuities and the interruptions between the democratic period and the republican precedent.
The research carried out by the group is reflected in a database developed from 2011 to 2013 and contains information from 12,200 associations from Catalonia between 1870 and 1980. From 2013, with the aim of collecting information from more than 20,000 associations in modern Catalonia, the database was opened to different institutions, as well as local and regional study centres. This collaboration has allowed the incorporation of a great deal of local information, such as monographics, studies, oral evidences, historic documents, etc.) that otherwise would have remained unknown. Once ready, this database encompassing the different Catalan associations will be a fundamental public tool for historians and those interested in the memory of these associations.
ISOCAC, as a touchstone of different active agents within the local scene, has achieved to weave those local memories into a wider story, providing it with a deeper meaning, as well as significantly increasing its visibility. Therefore, it demonstrated the possibilities of the academic world to take action by providing the elements and stories from which to expand and encourage the right of citizens to memory.