Each term, the Cañada-Blanch Centre at LSE organises a Fellows' Workshop, where the visiting LSE-Miguel Dols Fellows present their research projects that they have worked on during their stay at the School.
Meet our fellows
Zésar Arranz Conte, PhD candidate at the University of Zaragoza (Spain)
British participation in transnational radical conservatism: between the Old Continent and Neoliberalism
This paper proposes a conceptualisation of Western Radical Conservatism that encompasses both the Anglo-American “New Right” and authoritarian regimes such as Francoism. Drawing on a transnational perspective and archival research, it explores the intellectual exchanges, personal encounters, and shared worldview linking radical conservatives across Britain, the United States and continental Europe, including Francoism. Notwithstanding significant national differences and distinct ideological traditions, the paper argues for the existence of a common political culture characterised by hierarchical values, anti-egalitarianism, and civilisational anti-communism. In doing so, it challenges the exceptionalist treatment of the New Right and rethinks its place within a broader radical conservative genealogy.
Wladimir Cerda, PhD candidate at the University of Oviedo (Spain) / Catholic University of the North (Chile)
Immigration, Occupational Downgrading, and Native Labour Market Outcomes in Europe
This paper investigates whether occupational downgrading of immigrants propagates adverse labour market outcomes to native workers across European regions. Using EU-SILC microdata and a panel of 31 NUTS-1 regions (2010–2023), we document substantial occupational misallocation among immigrants, particularly non-EU nationals and women. Exploiting a shift-share instrumental variable, we find that downgrading redirects competitive pressure downward across the skill distribution, reducing employment and wages among low-skill natives. These results are concentrated in structurally weaker regional labour markets with high downgrading intensity, suggesting that the key channel is occupational misallocation rather than the scale of immigration inflows.
Dr. Vassilis Tselios, Professor of Regional Analysis and Policy at Panteion University (Greece)
Climate-related regions’ vulnerability and European citizens’ wellbeing associated with climate change
Wellbeing is influenced by several social, economic, political and environmental factors. Climate change, which is a contributor to climate-related natural disasters, is a factor that affects wellbeing. The elements of wellbeing are at risk from climate change, and as climate crisis intensifies, it increases the risk. Since societies are expected to experience more extreme natural hazards and increased exposure and vulnerability to natural disasters, regional government has an important role to play in the implementation of climate-related policies that support wellbeing. Using European Social Survey and regional databases, the aim of this project is to explore whether climate-related regions’ vulnerability affects wellbeing associated with climate change. We argue that the effect of regional vulnerability to climate change and to the green transition on citizens’ wellbeing is moderated by the level of environmental value of citizens.
Cristián Eyzaguirre, PhD candidate at the University of Chicago (US)
Failed Constitutions: The Lost History of Constitutions that Never Got Adopted
Comparative constitutional scholarship draws its lessons about constitution-making almost exclusively from constitutions that entered into force. This creates a form of survivorship bias: our understanding of what makes constitution-making succeed is based only on the cases that succeeded, while the processes that produced a full draft but failed before adoption are largely absent from the analysis. This article addresses that gap by introducing the Failed Constitution-Making Dataset, which reviews 235 polities from 1787 to 2023 and identifies 116 episodes in which a competent public authority initiated constitution-making, the process produced a replacement draft, and the draft never entered into force. The data show that constitution-making has become markedly more fragile since 2000, with the failure rate rising from single digits for most of the twentieth century to over 40 percent in the 2020s. The data also show that the reason constitution-making processes fail has changed. Historically, the typical cause was executive reversal: a ruler accepted constitution-making under pressure and later withdrew support. That pattern has declined as constitution-making has become more participatory and inclusive. But the same features that make modern processes more democratic, such as citizen consultation, multi-party drafting bodies, and referendums, also bring in more actors who can block adoption and multiply the stages at which a draft can be rejected. The result is that the procedural features most associated with legitimate constitution-making are disproportionately present among recent failures, and the case evidence identifies specific mechanisms through which they can impede adoption. This does not mean participatory and inclusive processes should be discouraged, but it does suggest they carry adoption-stage costs that a literature built almost entirely on successful cases has not captured.
Alejandro de Rosa Cañete, PhD candidate at the University of Valencia (Spain)
The Expanding Protection of Judicial Freedom of Expression in the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights
This presentation examines the evolving approach of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) towards the freedom of expression of judges under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. While judicial office requires independence, impartiality and public confidence, judges remain holders of fundamental rights. Through an analysis of four landmark judgments, Wille v. Liechtenstein (1999), Kudeshkina v. Russia (2009), Baka v. Hungary (2016) and Danileţ v. Romania (2025), the presentation argues that the Court has progressively strengthened the protection of judicial speech, particularly where it concerns judicial independence, democracy and the rule of law.
Marco Mari, PhD candidate at Politecnico di Milano / Bocconi University (Italy)
Who Governs? The Institutional Role of Firms in Local Development and the Future of Industrial Policy — Fieldnotes from the UK and Spain
As part of the corporate statecraft research program (https://corporatestatecraft.com), this report presents preliminary findings on how industrial firms have shaped — and been shaped by — the institutional and economic development of their local communities in the UK and Spain. Drawing on recent fieldwork, including conversations with the chief executives of Inditex and Porcelanosa and a former British trade minister, it examines how firms differ in the character of their presence and their mode of intervention in the developmental trajectories of the places they inhabit. These differences, I suggest, offer a way of reading the current condition of the British and Spanish economies, and their relative readiness for the industrial and political challenges ahead.
Dr. Xiangming Tao, Assistant Professor in Innovation and Project Management at the University of Sussex (UK)
From Deterrent to Driver: Geopolitical Risk, Government Effectiveness, and Opportunity Entrepreneurship
Geopolitical risk (GPR) has become an increasingly salient source of macro-level uncertainty, yet its implications for opportunity-motivated entrepreneurship (OME) remain insufficiently understood. Prior research offers competing expectations: one stream emphasizes the suppressive effects of uncertainty and crisis on entrepreneurial entry, while another highlights the opportunity-generating potential of disruption. Drawing on real options theory and institutional theory, we reconcile these perspectives by developing a nonlinear account of how GPR shapes OME at the country level and how government effectiveness conditions this relationship. Using a multi-source panel of 43 economies from 2005 to 2018 and System Generalized Method of Moments estimation, we find a U-shaped relationship between GPR and OME: opportunity-driven entrepreneurial entry declines at low to moderate levels of GPR but recovers at higher levels. Government effectiveness attenuates this curvature by weakening the initial decline and tempering the subsequent rebound.
Ricardo Martínez de Vega Perancho, PhD candidate at the University of Oviedo (Spain)
Development Traps and Populist Rhetorical Contagion: Evidence from VOX and the Partido Popular in Spanish Regional Parliaments
Do regional development traps amplify populist rhetorical contagion? Using a supervised classifier applied to plenary debates in Spanish regional parliaments (2014–2025), we measure Partido Popular (PP) populist rhetoric across four dimensions (anti-elite, people-centrism, and host-right). We then estimate whether VOX entry induces rhetorical accommodation and if this response is stronger where development-trap risk is higher. The paper therefore extends the left-behind places literature from populist demand to mainstream political supply, exploring the geography of populist rhetorical contagion.
Meet our chair
Prof. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose is the Princesa de Asturias Chair and a Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics. He is the Director of the LSE Cañada Blanch Centre. He was formerly the Head of the LSE's Department of Geography and Environment between 2006 and 2009. He was formerly the President of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) (2015-2017) and served as Vice-President of the RSAI in 2014. He was also Vice-President (2012-2013) and Secretary (2001-2005) of the European Regional Science Association.
More about this event
The Cañada Blanch Centre at LSE sets out to achieve the Fundación Cañada Blanch's goal of developing and reinforcing links between the United Kingdom and Spain. This is done by fostering cutting-edge knowledge generation and undertaking joint research projects between researchers in the United Kingdom and the LSE on the one hand, and Spain on the other hand.
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