The entire casteller world, in one click
The URV creates a thematic guide with a wide range of publications and content
BarcelonaThe human tower world is full of publications covering the past and present from many different areas. In both bibliographic and audiovisual formats, you can review the history of human towers, delve into the inner workings of a group, recall great achievements, read a children's story... Now, all these resources are unified in the repository created by the URV Chair for the Study of Human Towers, which can be found by clicking on the link.
The proposal, as explained by the Chair's director, Marta Calull, was to "bring order" to all the publications that have been produced over the years. The work was carried out in collaboration with the URV's Learning and Research Resource Center (CRAI). The initial proposal was to compile bibliographic publications, but the documentary section and the list of various programs on human tower themes were eventually added.
The guide opened this April with nearly 130 references to books, research papers, and educational resources in the bibliographic section and 26 audiovisual documentaries, in addition to television and radio programs.
The Chair, however, is working to expand the collection and is in the process of collecting the publications of the same groups. It has issued a call for applications to incorporate them.
Digitization process
Another of its objectives is the digitization of publications. Recently, the URV has reached an agreement with the Cossetània publishing house to publish the volumes of the Enciclopèdia Castellera in digital form. The first four are now available.
One of the projects that has also been initiated is to create the Encyclopedia in web format. This option will allow the contents to be updated and made more accessible to users.
Projects on security and climate change
The Chair also aims to develop projects to reflect on the world of human towers. For this reason, it has participated in the work on proposals for improving the Human Tower Competition and is currently involved in two projects related to safety and climate change.
The first project is studying the accident rate among children who build human towers when they fall, compared to the risk of accidents while playing soccer. The project, carried out by a research group at the URV Faculty of Medicine, has lasted two years, and the results are expected to be released after the summer.
At the same time, work is being done to analyze the impact of climate change and rising temperatures on the world of human towers. The project began last year and has continued this season. This Sant Joan season, members of the study were in Valls, where temperatures reached nearly 34 degrees.