CIS - Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas

Salustiano del Campo was born in 1931 in La Línea de la Concepción, in Cádiz, developing a good part of his academic career in Madrid. He graduated in Law in 1954, obtaining in 1955 a scholarship from the Population Council Inc. That allowed him to further his studies at the University of Chicago, where he remained until 1957, earning the Free Press award in the general and specialty examination of the Doctorate in Sociology of said University. Upon his return to Spain, in 1959, he obtained the extraordinary prize in the Doctorate of Political Sciences with a thesis on The Spanish family in transition, being appointed in 1960 to the Chair of Sociology at the Faculty of Political Sciences of Madrid.

His academic career was consolidated in 1962, when he won the competition for the Chair of Sociology at the Faculty of Political, Economic and Commercial Sciences of the University of Barcelona. At the University of Barcelona he carried out an active task in favor of the establishment and development of the teaching of Sociology, leaving several disciples and an appreciable influence on many economics students, in whom he aroused interest in social issues and sociological approaches. . In 1967 he won the Chair of Sociology in Madrid, in the Faculty of Political, Economic and Commercial Sciences, from which he actively contributed to the development of the current Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology of which he was Dean between 1977. and 1980, and Director of the Department of Social Structure from 1971 to 1999.

His teaching work presented innovative facets with respect to what used to be the usual practices of the Spanish University in the sixties and seventies. He held seminars with outstanding students from various courses, whom he introduced to the practice of empirical research, especially in survey techniques, which later became so popular. Many current professors of the discipline found in these seminars a stimulus for their sociological vocation and received the first invitations to publish bibliographic comments or articles in Social Sciences journals.

In 1979 he was elected Full Academician at the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, which he joined in 1980 with a speech on The life cycle of the Spanish family, being the third Professor of Sociology incorporated into said Academy - after Manuel Sales y Ferré and Severino Aznar-. In 1984 he was elected Treasurer of this institution and Secretary in 1985 (reelected to date). Likewise, in 1994 he was appointed Second Vice President of the Institute of Spain and in 1997 First Vice President.

One of the main facets to highlight in the intellectual and social career of Salustiano del Campo is his work as promoter and director of different publications with social and economic content. Technical Secretary of the Journal of Political Studies in 1957, Director of the Sociology Studies Collection of the Institute of Political Studies in 1961. Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Political Economy, of the Journal of Social Studies and of the International Journal of Sociology . Director of the Spanish Magazine of Public Opinion and founder and Director of the Anales de Sociocología Magazine in Barcelona. This work was later promoted as Director of the magazine "El Mediterráneo" (from 1983 to 1984) and as President-Editor of Imagen Semanal (from 1986 to 1988).

A second aspect to highlight in his intellectual career has been his research activity, being the main promoter and founder of a pioneering institution in carrying out public opinion studies in Spain, such as the Spanish Institute of Public Opinion (IOP) – today CIS -, of which he was appointed CEO in 1963 and Director from 1967 to 1971.

A third aspect of his work has been the editing of general works on Sociology and Social Sciences, among which the direction of the UNESCO Dictionary of Social Sciences stands out, a great work published in two volumes and which has had special prominence in the areas of Sociology in all Spanish-speaking countries, as well as the Treaty of Sociology – also in two volumes – which, since 1985, has seen several editions.

Fourthly, we must highlight his collaboration in the United Nations, especially in matters related to population studies. In 1960 he was Associate Social Affairs Officer in the Social Affairs Office of the United Nations Secretariat in New York. From 1969 to 1973 he was representative of Spain on the United Nations Population Commission. From 1974 to 1982 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Spanish National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO. In 1976 he was elected representative of Spain for a second four-year period on the United Nations Population Commission.

Salustiano del Campo's scientific production has been very extensive. He has published twenty-four books of his own, another seventeen as editor or co-author, and nearly two hundred monographs and scientific works. His fundamental works can be placed in five large thematic areas. Firstly, there are family studies, which began with his doctoral thesis published in 1960 with the title The Spanish Family in Transition, as well as other later works such as The Development of the Spanish Family in the 20th Century (Alianza Editorial, 1982). ; Sociological analysis of the Spanish family (Ariel, 1985); The "new" Spanish family (Eudema, 1991); Families: Sociology and Politics (Complutense University, 1995), etc. A second topic is population and demographic policy, a subject on which he has published several of his most notable books: Analysis of the Spanish population, Ariel, 1972; The demographic policy of Spain, Edicusa, 1974; The demographic explosion and birth regulation, Síntesis, 1997, etc. A third aspect is social indicators, with works such as Social indicators under debate (FOESSA, 1972). A fourth theme is that of social changes and especially, in the last stage, social trends, issues that he has addressed in his book Society. From 1972, within the Spain of the 70s trilogy; The Middle Class Society (Austral, 1989) and Studies on Social Trends in Spain (1960-1990) (BBV Foundation, 1993) Finally, a fifth area of reference are his academic works on Sociology, among which is his first manual on Modern Scientific Sociology, whose first edition is from 1962. As more recent works we must mention the History of Spanish Sociology (Ariel, 2001), Profile of Spanish Sociology (Catarata-Universidad Complutense, 2001) and The institutionalization of Sociology (CIS 2001), whose origin is found in the initiatives promoted by him in the Commission for the Celebration of the Anniversary of the One Hundred Years of the First Chair of Sociology, a Commission that he chaired.

Based on a task so broad and so rich in content, it is not an exaggeration to say that the figure of Salustiano del Campo occupies a particularly prominent place in one of the decisive stages of the development and institutionalization of Sociology in Spain, a stage that would not have been possible without his pioneering work, without his research work, without the many doctoral theses that he directed (62), without his ability, in short, to encourage and guide many sociologists, who currently carry out their activities in different fields of this discipline.

On the human and professional side, all of us who have worked with Salustiano del Campo have been able to count on his encouragement and a great capacity for selfless and objective support that has not always been easy to find in the Spanish University. In the university departments that he has directed and in the sociological tasks that he has undertaken, he has known how to incorporate people with different orientations and trajectories. The integrative spirit that he showed during the last period of Franco's rule was an example of a university and universalist vocation. During those years there were many people of different ideologies who collaborated with him, showing the extent to which he valued, above any other extra-academic consideration, the capacity for work, the desire for research and the seriousness, rigor and responsibility when it came to undertake an academic or research task.

For these reasons, on the occasion of Salustiano del Campo's retirement, a group of friends, colleagues and disciples wanted to give him well-deserved recognition with a tribute book. The book was promoted by a Commission made up of eight Professors of Sociology from various Universities: María Ángeles Durán, researcher at the CSIC and President, at that time, of the FES (Spanish Federation of Sociology), Rodolfo Gutiérrez, Professor at the University of Oviedo , Julio Iglesias de Ussel, Professor at the University of Granada, Antonio Izquierdo, Professor at the University of La Coruña, Carlota Solé, Professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Carmelo Lisón Tolosana and Manuel Navarro, Professors at the Complutense University of Madrid and José Félix Tezanos, Professor at UNED.

Due to the special attention paid by Salustiano del Campo to the study of Structure and social dynamics, this was the topic chosen as the central reference of the tribute book, in which all Professors of Sociology at the Spanish University were invited to participate. as well as several members of the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences and several renowned professors from Universities in other countries with whom Salustiano del Campo had had a special intellectual relationship. The members of the Commission also incorporated the names of some tenured professors, especially recognized in the treatment of the topics addressed. This list of collaborators could not include all those who would have wanted to participate and many of those who expressed this to the Editorial Commission understood that the logical limits of a book like the one published were the only element that forced a selection of the collaborations.

The result of this initiative has been a 1,248-page book, which has been published thanks to the selfless support of the CIS, especially its President, Professor Ricardo Montoso, as well as the editorial managers, Jaime Peón and Mercedes Contreras, who They put so much effort and care into the editing. The book is divided into six parts, with a biographical prologue and a final interview, making a total of seventy contributions. The first part includes several texts that consider various theories of change and introductory approaches. In the second part, the major changes and social processes are analyzed. In the third, political changes, in the fourth, economic changes and processes, in the fifth, cultural changes and anthropological approaches and in the sixth, other change processes, with special attention to technological innovations.

The book published in tribute to Salustiano del Campo can be considered a must-see work for all those who want to delve into the study of Structure and social change in the context of the complex societies of our time. Furthermore, the book, in itself, is a good example of the degree of maturity reached by Sociology in Spain and the consolidation of a process of institutionalization in which so much effort was put, precisely, by the person to whom it is dedicated. Hence, as such a tribute work, it is a good demonstrative exemplification of the value and results of a commendable task.