Arturo Alvarez-Roldan
Arturo Alvarez-Roldan
Associate Professor of Social Anthropology — University of Granada (Spain)
About me
I am an Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Granada (Spain) and principal investigator of the research group SEJ-208: Estudios socioculturales aplicados.
My research encompasses five main areas: (1) drug markets, regulation, and public policy; (2) education and ethnic minorities; (3) gender, health, and caregiving in the context of multiple sclerosis; (4) the history of anthropology and the production of anthropological knowledge; and (5) visual anthropology, with particular attention to ethnographic film, audiovisual forms of inquiry, and the relationships between human and machine vision.
Methodologically, I combine ethnography, mixed methods, computational text analysis, concept mapping, and social network analysis to investigate social representations, cultural knowledge, collective identities, and processes of social classification.
UGR Profile — ESCA — ORCID — GoogleScholar — ResearchGate
Current Research Projects
Ecologies of Cannabis Cultivation in Spain (ECCE-CANN)
Funding: Spanish State Research Agency (AEI)
Reference: PID2025-174907NB-I00
Role: Principal Investigator
Duration: 2026–2029
Cannabis cultivation in Spain has evolved into a complex ecosystem linking home growing, Cannabis Social Clubs, and commercial indoor production. ECCE-CANN investigates these interconnected cultivation ecologies through ethnographic fieldwork, qualitative interviews, socio-legal analysis, and comparative research. By examining how legal ambiguity, informal economies, and technical knowledge shape cultivation practices, the project aims to advance anthropological and socio-legal understandings of contemporary cannabis governance.
Team: Arturo Alvarez-Roldan, Juan F. Gamella, Iván Parra, Rafael Clua García, Carmen Castilla Vázquez.
Work in Progress
Drug Policy and Cannabis Studies
Alvarez-Roldan, A., Parra, I. & Gamella, J.F. (2026). Contentious Legality: Explaining Hybrid Regulatory Configurations in Cannabis Legalization.
Alvarez-Roldan, A., Parra, I. & Gamella, J.F. (2026). Cannabis y legalidad en disputa: ambigüedad normativa y reconfiguración de la ilegalidad.
Alvarez-Roldan, A., Parra, I. & Gamella, J.F. (2026). Illicit urban farming: Indoor cannabis cultivation in a marginalized Spanish district.
Social Representations and Ethnic Minorities
- Alvarez-Roldan, A. & Al-Sarraji, M. (2026). Affective structuring of prejudice: The social representation of the Roma in Iraq.
Visual Anthropology
Alvarez-Roldan, A. (2026). When films become anthropology: Cinematic devices and the production of anthropological knowledge.
Alvarez-Roldan, A. (2026). From Educated Attention to Machine Vision: A Genealogy of Machine Perception.
Health
- Alvarez-Roldan, A. & Bravo-González, F. (2026). Understanding diagnostic trajectories in multiple sclerosis: a mixed-methods study of patient journeys, health system responses and delayed diagnosis.
International Law and Global Order
- Alvarez-Roldan, A., Parra, I. & Gamella, J.F. (2026). Contentious legality and the transformation of international order: War, power, and legal contestation after 1945.
Accepted for publication
- Alvarez-Roldan, A. (forthcoming) Making ethnographic knowledge collectively: Collaboration, mediation, and authorship in the Torres Strait Expedition (1898–99). History of the Human Sciences.
Selected Articles
Alvarez-Roldan, A., Parra, I. & Gamella, J.F. (2026). Contentious legality in decentralized governance: The rise and decline of cannabis social clubs in Spain. International Journal of Drug Policy, 150, 105205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2026.105205
Alvarez-Roldan, A. (2026). Collaborative ethnography in the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait (1898–99): Alfred C. Haddon and John S. Bruce. Encyclopédie Bérose des histoires de l’anthropologie.https://doi.org/10.70601/2oa8swr
Alvarez-Roldan, A., & Bravo-González, F. (2025). Masculinity in caregiving: Impact on quality of life and self-stigma in caregivers of people with multiple sclerosis. Healthcare, 13(272), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13030272
Alvarez-Roldan, A., Parra, I., & Villanueva-Blasco, V.J. (2023). Attitudes toward cannabis of users and non-users in Spain: a concept mapping study among university students. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 21, 3952–3970. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-022-00835-9
Gamella, J. F., & Alvarez-Roldan, A. (2023). Breaking secular endogamy. The growth of intermarriage among the Gitanos / Calé of Spain (1900–2006). The History of the Family, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/1081602X.2022.2159852
Alvarez-Roldan, A., García-Muñoz, T., Gamella, J. F., Parra, I., & Duaso, M. J. (2023). Differentiating people who use cannabis heavily through latent class analysis. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, 18, 31. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13011-023-00540-3
Bravo-Gonzalez, F., & Alvarez-Roldan, A. (2019). Esclerosis múltiple, pérdida de funcionalidad y género. Gaceta Sanitaria, 33(2), 177–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaceta.2017.09.010
Alvarez-Roldan, A., Parra, I., & Gamella, J. F. (2018). Reasons for the underachievement and school dropout of Spanish Romani adolescents. A mixed-methods participatory study. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 63, 113–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2018.02.001
Alvarez-Roldan, A., Gamella, J. F., & Parra, I. (2018). La legalización del cannabis: Un experimento americano de consecuencias globales. Revista Española de Drogodependencias, 43(4), 22–38. https://red.aesed.com/upload/files/v43n4-1-cannabis.pdf
Alvarez, A., Gamella, J. F., & Parra, I. (2017). The legalization of cannabis derivatives in Spain: Hypothesis on a potential emerging market. Adicciones, 29(3), 195–206. https://doi.org/10.20882/adicciones.807
Parra Toro, I., Alvarez-Roldan, A., & Gamella, J. F. (2017). Un conflicto silenciado: Procesos de segregación, retraso curricular y abandono escolar de los adolescentes gitanos. Revista de Paz y Conflictos, 10(1), 35–60. https://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/revpaz/article/view/5965/5592
Alvarez, A., Gamella, J. F., & Parra, I. (2016). Cannabis cultivation in Spain. A profile of plantations, growers and production systems. International Journal of Drug Policy, 37, 70–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2016.08.003
Books and Edited Volumes
Irefrea (2024). La evidencia en prevención de la tríada tabaco-alcohol-cannabis. https://irefrea.org/wp-content/uploads/Manual_PTAC_2024-05-02.pdf
Álvarez Roldán, A., Martínez Casanova, N., & Martínez Rossi, S. (2008). La memoria amenazada. Relatos de vida e historia sociocultural de Puebla de Don Fadrique. http://hdl.handle.net/10481/4610
Gamella, J.F., & Alvarez, A. (1999). Las rutas del éxtasis. Drogas de síntesis y nuevas culturas juveniles. Ariel.
Gamella, J.F., & Alvarez, A. (1997). Drogas de síntesis en España. Patrones y tendencias de adquisición y consumo. Delegación del Gobierno para el Plan Nacional sobre Drogas.
Vermeulen, H.F., & Alvarez Roldán, A. (Eds.). (1995). Fieldwork and Footnotes. Studies in the History of European Anthropology. Routledge.
García García, J.L., Velasco Maíllo, H., López Coira, M.M., Cruces Villalobos, F., Díaz de Rada, A., Alvarez Roldán, A., & Orgaz Romero, A.I. (1991). Rituales y proceso social. Estudio comparativo en cinco zonas españolas. Ministerio de Cultura.
Teaching
I currently teach the following undergraduate courses in the BA in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Granada.
Visual Anthropology
Ethnography and Qualitative Data Analysis
The following open teaching materials (in Spanish) are available through Zenodo:
- Thematic Text Analysis with R. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15667595
- Semantic (Cultural) Domain Analysis with R. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15667110
- Concept Mapping with R. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15659666
Contact
Email: aalvarez@ugr.es
University of Granada — Spain