Societat Antropogeogràfica a Barcelona

Centre d'Estudis Transfronterers

The Anthropogeographic Society of Barcelona - Crossborder Studies Centre

Xavier Muñoz i Torrent Geographer

Xavier Muñoz in Bear Bute high (Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, South Dakota, USA, 1999)

Born in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain), 27^th September 1962. Graduated (Licenciado) in Geography (Universitat de Barcelona, 1987); Master in Public Management (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 1993); Postgraduated in Public Administration (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 1988) and in Direction and Organisation of Information Systems (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 1997). He was an official servant of the Generalitat de Catalunya (the Catalan Government), 1981-1991, as the Head of the Office of Support of the General Inspection of Services of the Department of Education; with leave of absence. 1993, Field-consultant of an EU's INTERREG I pilot-project, about Research of Planning and Development of the Municipalities of the Alt Empordà and Alt Vallespir. Since April 1994, Head of the Economic and Social Observatory of the City of Terrassa (200.000 inhab.), carrying out the tasks of creation and implementation of the socio-economic information system of Terrassa and development of several research studies about different items related on the economic and social promotion of that City. Since 1996, he is the editorial coordinator of the Statistic Yearbook and the Economic and Social Yearly Report of Terrassa. He is also consultant on information and knowledge management systems.

He has published other books and articles: "L'estructura empresarial de Terrassa al tombant de segle" (2001, in SOLER, M., coord., Història Industrial de Terrassa II, Terrassa); "Vying for European Funds: Territorial Restructuring in Spain" (1996, in, HOOGHE, Liesbet, ed., Cohesion Policy and European Integration. Building Multi-Level Governance, Oxford); Les polítiques europees de cooperació transfronterera. El context normatiu, institucional i de finançament als Pirineus Orientals (1995, book, Barcelona); "Geography, Geographers and Professional Future: An Utilitarist Project" (1993, in Proceedings of the V Congress of the European Geography Association, Barcelona); "Greenspaces in a Crowded City. The Case of Barcelona" (1992, in The European Geographer, núms. 5/6, Lisbon); "A formação e a actividade profissional dos geógrafos em Lisboa, Barcelona e Copenhaga" (1993, in ACTAS, PONENCIAS Y COMUNICACIONES del V Coloquio Ibérico de Geografía, León); "Continuity and Innovations in the Actual Tendencies of the Geographical Studies about Frontiers" (1991, in The European Geographer, núms. 3/4, Lisbon).

He is an active member of the College of Geographers of Spain and of the Anthropogeographic Society of Barcelona, from which he was founder, general secretary and president, and actually he is the manager of its Crossborder Studies Centre. During the 90', he took part very actively in the constitution and organisation of the European Geography Associaciation-EGEA Foundation, from which he was member of its Executive Board and member of the Editorial Board of its review, The European Geographer. He has also been appointed as member of the Council of the Francesc Layret Foundation (Barcelona), devoted to social aims and improvement of labour conditions.

He defines himself as a rationalistic and surrealistic geographer, that likes good-living very much. Although he travelled quite a lot arround the world, he is a convinced africanist and he is completely passioned for the landscape and the people of São Tomé e Príncipe Islands, country that he considers as his second home.

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