Urban Transformation & Global Change Lab

We examine the processes of collaborative creation of knowledge in digital as well as non‐digital environments for a myriad of purposes related to urban transformation, and with a focus on social innovation. We analyse science education practices at schools, community-based initiatives in informal contexts and citizens’ participation in formal decision‐making processes to provide critical insights into the political, ecological, social and cultural dimensions of knowledge transmission, learning and co‐production.

We critically study how socio-environmental governance is reshaped through technological, social and environmental change. We explore and contribute to socio-ecological transformations that involve different actors with attention to issues of social and environmental justice. In particular, (1) We look closely at the changing political ecology of urban water, (2) at the digital turn in environmental governance, (3) at the social economy of rural change.

We investigate how global urbanization and urban life are produced in and beyond the city and explore how we can rethink the co-production of space in a context of accelerated digitalization, climate emergency and increasing inequality. In particular, we inquire on (1) new urban models and design solutions to face digitalisation, climate emergency and social change; (2) algorithmic, innovation and/or experimentation driven forms of urban governance and policy; (3) the geographies of urbanization and the territorial articulation between the rural and the urban.

We inquire into how contemporary processes of change derived from technology, environmental change, and other global trends, affect our understanding of classical concepts of political science and social theory. This research area focuses on the theoretical implications of politics, technology, and environment at different scales: on concepts such as democracy or identity; multi-scalar including the local, regional, national, and transnational; and approaches from political, social and science theory