Biography of Miguel Beltrán Villalva

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Miguel Beltrán (Granada 1935), Master of Arts in Sociology by the Yale University and Extraordinary Award for Bachelor's Degree and Doctorate, is professor emeritus in the Department of Sociology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, where he was director and vice-dean of its Faculty of Economics and Business. He has been a tenured lecturer at the Universities of Florence and Catania, an associate lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science, a visiting fellow at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris and a visiting lecturer at universities in Germany, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Brazil and Chile.

He is currently a member of the Editorial Board of the Revista Española de Sociología (RES), and has served on the Editorial Boards of the Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas (REIS) and the Revista Internacional de Sociología (RIS). He was secretary general of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, of the Instituto de la Opinión Pública and of the Ministry of the Presidency. In public recognition of his academic contribution he was awarded the  Grand Cross of the Orden Civil de Alfonso X el Sabio in 2003

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His main fields of work and specialization have been the sociology of knowledge and science, social theory, inequality and social structure, and the sociological study of  public administration. His books include La élite burocrática española (1977); Ideologías y gasto público en España 1814-1860 (1977); Ciencia y sociología (1979); Los funcionarios ante la reforma de la Administración (1985); La productividad de la Administración española: un análisis comparativo (1991); La realidad social (1991); Sociedad y lenguaje. Una lectura sociológica de Saussure y Chomsky (1991); La acción pública en el régimen democrático (2000); Perspectivas sociales y conocimiento (2000); La estructura social (2004); and Burguesía y liberalismo en la España del siglo XIX: sociología de una dominación de clase (2010).

In December 2008, the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas published Sociología y Realidad Social, a book that pays tribute to him on the occasion of his retirement.