Margarita León is an Associate Professor in the politics department of the Universitat Autònoma Barcelona and a senior Research fellow at the Institute of Government and Public Policies (IGOP) of the same university. From 2003 until 2010 she was a lecturer in European social policy (SSPSSR, University of Kent). She was a Marie Curie fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. She holds a PhD from the London School of Economics (2000) and a MA in Sociological Research from the University of Essex (1995). She has co-edited with A.M. Guillén The Spanish Welfare State in European Context (2011 Ashgate) and edited The Transformation of Care in European Societies (2014, Palgrave).  She has published in many international journals such as Journal of European Social Policy, Comparative European Politics, South European Society and Politics, and  European Journal of Women Studies 

Research interests

Over the past years I have carried out research in a number of interelated fields within comparative public policy. My main research interests are welfare state reform, changes in the Sourthern European welfare state, work-life balance and care policies. My most recent research evolves around the Social Investment paradigm  for social policies. investing in children: politics, policies and outcomes (ECECWEL) is an ongoing research project funded by the Spanish Research & Development programme that looks at the political conditions under which the development of the Social Investment paradigm takes place unveiling tensions and contradictions among different political actors and the differing mobilization capacity and public opinion support.

Keywords

Comparative public policy, welfare state research, social policy, gender policy, political systems