Co-founder of IDRA, the Barcelona Urban Research Institute, Jaime has dedicated more than 15 years to analysing housing issues and their relationship with urban inequality, as well as to the co-creation of transformative instruments. He is an International Doctor in Economic Anthropology (University of Barcelona, Graduate Center of New York and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales) and Master in Cultural Studies from the University of London. He has worked as a researcher and professor at the University of Barcelona directing the module Political Economy of Housing (Master’s in Urban Studies) and also at the UAB’s Institute of Government and Public Policies.

He has researched and written on the social roots of housing bubbles; housing as an asset and its relationship with the welfare system; the financing of the construction sector; the social impacts of the rental market; and the political economy of the Spanish state, among other subjects. His article on the relationship between financial capital, housing and social divisions was considered by the IJURR (International Journal of Urban and Regional Research) as one of the 25 most relevant articles from in the past 40 years. He currently coordinates several European R&D&I projects at IDRA.

He has actively participated in the creation of instruments such as the Union of Renters (Sindicat de Llogateres) set up to influence the housing market and promote systemic changes, as well as in the design of innovative public policies. He is also a member of the FdC and Urban Front think-tanks that promote critical thinking in communities and organizations and promote the creation of tools at international level for intervention in the housing market.