1. THE FIRST DECADES (1946-1990) [1]

Our journal, Revista de Fomento Social, came to life in 1946 on the initiative of the Company of Jesus in an attempt to promote and disseminate social Christian thought and, at the same time, serve as a communication channel for different analyses, postures and opinions from the world of social sciences, while maintaining a clear focus on underlying ethical components. For 60 years it has served, to a certain extent, as an unofficial voice on social issues for the Spanish Company of Jesus; a situation which is comparable to that experienced by similar publications in other European countries[2].

We can distinguish a number of periods in its extensive trajectory, defined - as couldn’t be any other way - by internal factors, which came as a result of a changing mentality and practice within the Company of Jesus, affecting both individuals and work groups[3], as well as by external factors on the national and international stage, primarily in the political context. Needless to say that there has always been a close connection between the two. The classification into different periods is a matter of convenience for the purpose of our retrospective. By revisiting said periods, we can see that the pages of the journal mirror the evolution of Spanish society as well as Christian social beliefs. The choice of topics, the focal points and emphases, as well as the currents of thought expressed in the reviews and proposals, are a faithful reflection of social issues in Spain, the philosophical evolution of the Company and, to some extent, of the Spanish church when it comes to social, economic, and political matters. The history of this evolution could not be written without a look at the pages of our journal.

1.1. The early years (1946-1953) Special emphasis on labour and employment-related matters

The first period stretches from the foundation until 1953 and was marked by the influence of its founder and first director, Joaquín Azpiazu. He was a great moralist, sociologist and well versed in the law and his efforts were mainly focused on business ethics and the study of the corporative state. This is illustrated by his works published in the journal during those early years as well as his two renowned books, La Moral del Hombre de Negocios and El Estado Corporativo. His attitude wasn’t that of a revolutionary or one of opposition. He was in favour of bringing about reforms of the economic and political system from within. Azpiazu had, for instance, been one of the main authors of the Spanish Labour Charter of 1938.

The focus of the journal was centred on serious economic, social as well as labour and employment-related issues of our country, which had been plunged into considerable political isolation and was characterised by a pronounced economic self-reliance. During those early years, the influence of the distinguished P. Azpiazu was dominant, as is illustrated by the 55 articles he authored and published under his name or pseudonym over a period of 8 years. The focal point of his concerns, as a well-trained scholar of both the law and economics, was professional business ethics.

In those days, the so-called “social issue” was mainly centred on the relationship between capital and the workforce, as well as labour and employment-related matters. In fact, among the topics dealt with, it was those concerns as well as ethical questions which stood out. That being said, little or next to nothing was said regarding syndicalism and associated issues. There were also regular collaborations relating to the Church’s social doctrine in particular. In general, the large majority of articles related to the Spanish context and rarely touched on questions of international dimensions.

In that same 8-year period, apart from Azpiazu another two names appeared predominantly below the articles of the journal: Martín Brugarola (1908-1988); and Florentino del Valle. Together with Azpiazu, they were the authors of almost half of the articles of this period. Other less frequent contributors were Aresio González de Vega, J.L. Griffith, Angelo Perego, Angel Torres Calvo Fermín de Urmeneta, to name a few.
 
1.2. Stable relations with the regime (1954-1962)

When Azpiazu passed away in 1953, a new era began for the RFS journal, and Manuel Marina (1895-1987) took over the directorship. Those were the years when the Church and the Franco regime, which had come to power after the Civil War, enjoyed a period of marital bliss. No questions were asked, and those in charge of the journal attempted to oil the wheels and cogs of the political, economic, social and labour engine of the established system from within, driven by a motivation for greater justice and equity founded on the social doctrine of the Church, whose formal writings provided arguments with the weight of authority and were frequently reproduced and commented upon. A notable effort was also made to inform of the existence and nature, both nationally and internationally, of modern social institutions such as the so-called Social Weeks, Christian labour movements, Catholic business associations, trade unions, national and international conventions, etc. The same period also witnessed the creation of an employment and labour consultancy.

It is true that, at the time, strong criticism was being voiced regarding the official, regime-sanctioned union called Sindicato Vertical, which was an expression of the desire to obtain greater autonomy from the executive and its government apparatus. That desire was, it must be said, in line with the aspirations of national syndicalism as well as the social doctrine of the Church, as it had been formulated in the encyclical “Quadragesimo anno” in 1931.

During that period, the journal contained regular chronicles: the “Crónica internacional” or International Chronicle (signed by Martín Brugarola[4]) and the “Crónica social de España” or Spanish Social Chronicle, usually written by Florentino del Valle. The early ones were a kind of “observatory” of the real world from an ethical and Christian perspective, and consisted of a 6-8 page summary of the most relevant international events and occurrences. More than a third of all the collaborations on international topics, published in the 50 years since the first issue of our journal, were published in the ten-year period between 1956 and1965. The Spanish Social Chronicle was dedicated to the realities of the Spanish national context, and focused on business, employment and workers’ rights and representation. Chronicles focusing on legal questions and church teachings were also regular albeit less frequent and less systematic features.

That being said, despite the growing focus on international matters during this second phase, generally speaking, the third world was a topic that was rarely tackled. On the national stage, employment-related issues and union matters continued to appear as well as a significant number of articles  focused on the business world.  The social doctrine of the church together with its teachings also appeared frequently. The focus on the national context remained predominant.

As for the most regular collaborators in this 9-year period after Azpiazu, the following meritorious Jesuit writers stand out: Florentino del Valle and Martín Brugarola; to a lesser degree this also includes the frequent collaborations of Manuel Marina and Ángel Torres Calvo.

 
1.3. Years of conflict with the Franco regime  (1963-1974)

In 1963, the Social Development Institute (Instituto de Fomento Social) and its journal incorporated a team of young Jesuits. In the Universal Church, those were the years of the Vatican Council and its enthusiastic yet controversial implementation. Among the Spanish church, even among priests and fervent believers, a more or less hidden critical opposition movement was growing that voiced veiled criticisms of the regime and its political, economic, social and workers institutions. In this new phase, which ended with Franco’s death in 1975, the RFS journal joined those voices by assuming a more critical stance. It advocated the idea of exerting pressure in order to achieve structural reforms based on technical analysis and planning and inspired by Christian social thought. It was not always easy to achieve this in the face of strict censorship, which often resulted in texts being returned, heavily redacted in red. As a result, learning to communicate subtly between the lines became a necessity.

In those days, the focus shifted back to topics of national relevance. The turmoil in Spanish political and social life, and the need for numerous socio-political changes led those in charge of the journal to focus their attention almost exclusively on national issues. It can be said that the world economic crisis - emerging in the shape of the monetary crisis of the early 70s and the Yom-Kippur War towards the end of the year 1973, which had a devastating effect on the price of oil - caught the journal, and the country, by surprise. It did, however, inspire some very early and influential articles by Javier Gorosquieta and Adolfo Rodero[5].

Florentino del Valle continued to write frequently until 1970, and contributions by Victorino Ortega and Javier Gorosquieta, came to dominate the journal during this 12-year period. Both would eventually become directors of the journal[6]. Other names appeared as well, although their impact might have been less pronounced: Víctor Manuel Arbeloa, Manuel Arbeloa, Francisco Belda, Eugenio Recio and Gonzalo Higuera; the meritorious P. Brugarola too, though his contributions were more sporadic.
 
1.4. A new socio-political context (1975-1990)

A new phase began in November 1975. Franco’s death, the political transition and the process of democratic normalisation marked this period profoundly. The journal joined a movement which demanded political and economic freedoms as well as workers’ rights. Once democracy had been formally established with the Constitution of 1978, the RFS journal attempted to accompany the process by promoting structures and solutions that embodied justice, solidarity and fraternity. The extended period of socialist rule was also reflected in one form or another on the pages of the journal. Even today, working to provide critical support, provided from an ethical and Christian perspective, continues to be our guiding principle.

From 1980 onwards, global matters began to receive much greater attention, though social, political and economic issues in Spain remained the principal focus. Browsing through the journal’s issues over the years, we can find truly valuable contributions regarding world crises, the North-South divide, development, etc. Curiously, a focus on Latin America, which had been rare (practically inexistent) in the ten-year period between 1976 and 1985, became considerably more pronounced in that last year.

During the 16-year period marked by the arrival and consolidation of democracy, names like Javier Gorosquieta and Victorino Ortega as well as Gonzalo Higuera, Matías García Gómez, Enrique Menéndez Ureña, Francisco Gómez Camacho, Ildefonso Camacho, Manuel Alcalá and F. Martínez Galdeano stood out for their regular contributions.

2. JOURNAL OF FOMENTO SOCIAL AT UNIVERSIDAD LOYOLA ANDALUCÍA

2. 1. PHASE ONE (1991-2018)

As mentioned earlier, until 1991 the journal’s head office was at the Loyola Centre in Madrid, which had been its home since the mid-fifties. In 1991, at the request of P. Luis Sánchez del Río, then Provincial Superior of the Spanish Company of Jesus, responsibility for the journal was entrusted to ETEA in Córdoba. A significant number of ETEA professors had, in fact, already been regular collaborators.

And so, 1991 was the starting point of one of the most recent stages of the history of our publication. This change of address did not, however, affect content or the editorial line, both of which maintained the spirit of the preceding years. It was, in fact, a simple institutional relocation. As some of the members of the Instituto Fomento Social de Madrid (Madrid Institute of Social Development) went into retirement, and others relocated, INSA-ETEA took the reins. This was the branch of the Company in charge of university-related affairs in Córdoba, which included the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences of the public University of Córdoba.  This meant continuity of spirit and unchanging interests and concerns, which manifested itself in the editorial article of the January-March 1991 issue, and in the content of the issues that followed. This came as no surprise as several INSA-ETEA professors had been collaborating with RFS since the early days.

Three directors were in charge during that period: Alfonso Carlos Morales Gutiérrez (1991-2000), José J. Romero Rodríguez SJ (2000-2005) and José Mª Margenat Peralta (2005-2018). The pool of contributors was not dominated by one writer in particular in those days, but instead collaborators became more diverse and the majority of them were, in fact, lay people. However, not only was there an increase in diversity, collaborators from the “south” began to take on a greater role, and the approach to topics became more interdisciplinary, placing a greater focus on legal and cultural issues, which were one of the journal’s main concerns in its quest for a more equitable society. ETEA professors assumed a significant albeit not dominant presence among contributors. This period is, admittedly, a very recent one, and so perhaps the members of the Editorial Council, who are writing these lines, are not the right people to make a judgement. Being so recent, those years are surely the ones most present in our readers’ minds, and it is they who should assess the value of our work.

The transition to ETEA meant a strengthening of the academic and university character of our journal, while staying faithful to the journal’s foundational and institutional mission. Peer-review and evaluation procedures were established for articles (usually led by members of the Council or other colleagues specialised in the corresponding subject area), and other formal procedures were implemented in order to allow for our publications to be certified for use in renowned academic forums.  It is certainly a sign of this evolution that the journal has gradually and progressively been accepted into national and international databases[7].

It is worth highlighting that the journal has maintained its commitment to its readership with its quarterly publications for almost 60 years, and by the year 2004 had published issue number 236. Few Spanish journals focusing on social science or thought can present such a constant and comprehensive merit sheet.

From our point of view, which is inevitably partial, we see the RFS journal as a reasonably faithful reflection of the Spanish Church and Spanish society in general. As for the former, the second Vatican Council marked a decisive change in direction, which had a direct impact on Spanish Catholics and the relationship between our Church and society as well as between Church and state. All of this is undoubtedly reflected in our journal, which, in addition, has been influenced by the evolution of the Company of Jesus, its mentality and understanding of its mission in the modern world.

We might go even further in our description of those changes in the following lines: gradually, the clerical tone typical of early days became less accentuated, which could be felt in the choice of topics covered and the origin of its collaborators. The range of issues dealt with as well as the target readership became more diverse (greater inclusion of non-believers), the interdisciplinary character became stronger; in short, the “academic” character of the journal became more pronounced.

However, in the midst of all these changes, there were also certain constants, expressions of faithfulness to past values. In this context we could list the following: a permanent concern with ethical values, an emphasis on the social doctrine of the Church, a constant presence as a mouthpiece for critical opinion and engagement (up to 284 editorial articles in its 236 issues, adding up to more than one per issue); a growing focus on formal academic aspects in order to reflect the same standards as other similar publications; a constant effort to apply a rigorous standard in its approach to the topics dealt with while, at the same time, trying to maintain a style that would make it accessible to well-educated readers who might not be specialised in certain fields; a critical and yet constructive spirit that is creative and open to change.

2. 2. SECOND PHASE (2019 ONWARDS)[8]

The RFS journal has been evolving and adapting its content and workings to the changes in the academic environment and society in general since its inception, and particularly so since 1991. It has always remained faithful to its character and the mission received from the Company of Jesus in order to guarantee that it would continue to be a source of perspective and depth when it comes to social issues that affect our world.

In 2018, this duality in character, which has allowed it to stay true to its essence and, at the same time, provided it with the ability to evolve, led to the recognition of the need for certain changes. One of the factors that conditioned this necessary evolution was the reality of academic publications today, which implies a focus on the strengthening of the journal’s impact capacity. This meant operations, management and distribution of the journal had to be reviewed in depth, as fulfilling its mission (to provide perspective and depth on social issues) inevitably required reaching a sufficient level of impact in the academic world.

A direct result of this process was the decision to transform the journal into a total access digital publication, thus complying with the need for free access increasingly required in the academic context. As a consequence, paid subscriptions came to an end with the first issue of 2019. It is undeniable that discontinuing the print edition of the journal was also a result of the need to reduce paper usage and thus the journal’s environmental impact.

Another change that has characterised RFS since 2019 is the inevitable evolution of the concept of social development (i.e. adapting the term to the world we live in today), which has led to an innovative and pluridisciplinary approach to development, a field of study that is central to Loyola University and a distinguishing factor for the institution in charge of the journal. Coming at a key moment, this was meant to boost the journal’s social impact and ability to provide ideas for structural changes to our society, and has thus not only helped maintain but rather strengthened its innate character.

Current journal cover

 

[1] This historical summary is based on the editorial in issue number 200 (January-March1996) that was titled: “Un instrumento para la promoción de la justicia: 50 años de la Revista Fomento Social”, which could be translated as: “An instrument for the promotion of justice: 50 years of RFS journal.”
[2] We cite Projet and Aggiornamenti Sociali, French and Italian Jesuit sister journals.
[3] List of directors: Joaquín Azpiazu S.J. (1946-1953); Manuel Marina S.J. (1954-1958); Florentino del Valle S.J. (1958-1970); Victorino Ortega S.J. (1970-1976 and 1981-1987); Javier Gorosquieta S. J. (1977-1981 and 1987-1990); D. Alfonso C. Morales (1991-2000); José J. Romero S.J. (2000-2005).
[4] Cfr. Editorial Council (1989).- “’In memoriam’: P. Martín Brugarola i Mas (1908-1988)”. RFS, nº 1773, pp. 5-6.
[5] In issue number 111, 1973; both on the International Monetary Crisis. Much later, for example, came the 4-article series by F. Martínez Galdeano on the evolution of the crude oil market under the effects of the Second Oil Crisis (issue 137 to 140, in 1980; issue 144, 1981; issue 145, 1982).
[6] Victorino Ortega (1929-1987) passed away prematurely during his directorship of the journal. Cfr. Javier Gorosquieta (1987).- “El pensamiento social de Victorino Ortega”. RFS, issue 166, pp. 119-132. Javier Gorosquieta  (1929-2001) passed away in 2001. See obituary in  RFS, issue 221, January-March 2001, pp. 5-7.
[7] In fact, the journal can be found on the  index of the following national and international databases: IBSS, of the London School of Economics and Politics; ECONDOC and ECONIS of the University of Kiel (Germany);  RAS, Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies (RAS);  LATINDEX, Information system for Latin American, Caribbean, Spanish and Portuguese science journals;  ISOC, Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC); CBUC, Consorcio de Bibliotecas Universitarias de Cataluña; COMPLUDOC, of the Complutense University of Madrid; DIALNET, of La Rioja University; CIDEC, Centro de Información y Documentación Europea de Economía Pública, Social y Cooperativa of the University of Valencia; SUMMAREV, summary service of the University of Seville.
[8] This summary has been based on the director’s notes from issues 291, 292 and 293.