06 October 2025
Bilbao Campus
Did you know that every time a city council hires someone to clean a street or a government body buys school buses, it is not just acquiring a service, but could also be helping to transform society? Beloke Alea Arrate, a researcher in law at the University of Deusto, is an expert on the subject. In her doctoral thesis she studies precisely how public procurement - i.e. the purchases made by governments and administrations with our taxes - can become a tool to promote social policies.
This research has recently been enhanced by her participation in the UNIC-MiReKoc Summer School in Istanbul, an international learning environment that last July brought together students, researchers, and local communities to generate knowledge with real impact. This was a turning point in her academic career that is part of the European University of Cities in Post-Industrial Transition (UNIC), an alliance of ten European universities, including Deusto, which works as a network to address key challenges facing our cities, such as migration, diversity, sustainability, urban health and the arts, among others.
Sharing and debating with people from so many countries and experiencing migration realities first-hand has made her see even more clearly that the law cannot be disconnected from society and everyday life. As the researcher explained, public procurement is not an end in itself but a means to address the major social challenges of our time, generating what she calls social value—that is, tangible benefits for the community, such as inclusive employment or sustainable practices. "Every time a government awards a contract, it is deciding how to invest our taxes. It is not a technical matter reserved for lawyers: it concerns the schools that are built, the buses we use, the cleaning of our streets, and whether those decisions help create quality jobs, reduce inequalities, or protect the environment,” she stated.
Read here the full interview published on the Viviendo Deusto blog here
