Ramon Ribera-Fumaz
R4 - Leading Researcher
Urban Geography
Digital urbanism
Post-smart cities
Platform urbanism
Innovation districts
Digital capitalism
Critical geography
Urban political economy
Infrastructures of fulfilment
2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010
I am a Professor of Urban and Economic Geography at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and currently serve as the Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Social and Cultural Transformation (UOC-TRÀNSIC). My academic journey started studying Economics (UAB) then moving to Development (UB) and Geography (Manchester). Since then, I have been combining teaching in disciplinary (mostly in the Economics and Business but also Law and Politics and Humanities and Arts) faculties with researching in interdisciplinary centres (IAS-Lancaster, IN3 and UOC-TRÀNSIC). All of it driven by the desire to understand the geographies of urban transformation and the dynamics of uneven development. I am particularly motivated by the opportunity to explore the complex intersections between economy, culture, nature, technology and space through the lens of critical studies and approaches that break disciplinary conventions.
One of my core research motivations is to challenge prevailing myths about digitalisation. My work seeks to reveal the profound interrelations of the digital with the physical built environment, (local) governance and socio-economic structures and socio-environmental flows. I am deeply committed to critically examining the consequences of technological determinism and solutionism in urbanism. By moving beyond the orthodox smart city narrative, I aim to establish critical approaches that link technological processes with social, political, and environmental justice.
For a decade, I have had the privilege of leading TURBA, where with an amazing team, we have created an interdisciplinary and horizontal research culture. This collaborative environment enabled us to develop innovative lines of research combining social sciences approaches with environmental studies, humanities and the arts.
In my current role leading UOC-TRÀNSIC, I oversee a community of eighteen research groups and 180 researchers. My goal is to foster a rigorous dialogue between theory and practice, ensuring that our collective work in the social sciences, humanities, and arts generates significant social and academic impact. We are interested in understanding social and cultural transformations in relation to digital, environmental, political and demographic change.
PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS
Bunnell, T., Spicer, Z., Miller, B., Abbruzzese, T., Cardullo, P., Chae, S., Ribera-Fumaz, R. Woods, O. 2025. The citizen and the smart city: a global comparison of institutional logics. Urban Geography, 1-26.
Ward, K., Abbruzzese, T., Bunnell, T., Cardullo, P., Chang, I.-C. C., Miller, B., Ribera-Fumaz, R., Shin, H., Spicer, Z., & Woods, O. (2025). A comparison of comparisons: Evidence from an international comparative study of ‘smart cities’. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 43(7), 1217-1239.
Gutiérrez Cueli, Inés, Ramon Ribera Fumaz, y Ismael Yrigoy. 2025. «Espacio Y economía Heterodoxa: Una aproximación Multidisciplinar a Las geografías Del Capitalismo». Revista De Economía Crítica, n.º 39 (julio):2-7. https://doi.org/10.46661/rec.12279.
Kovacic, Z., Garcia Casañas, C., Argüelles, L., Yañez Serrano, P., Ribera-Fumaz, R., Prause, Louisa & March, H. 2024. The twin green and digital transition: High-level policy or science fiction? Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. doi: 10.1177/25148486241258046
Gallois, S., Heras, M., Sella, Carlo, Satorras, M., Ribera-Fumaz, R. & Ruiz-Mallen, I. 2024. Learning to collaborate within transdisciplinarity: Internal barriers and strengths of an art-science encounter. Sustainability Science, 19, 1345-1358.
Charnock, G., Ribera-Fumaz, R., 2023. What’s Talent Got to Do with it? The Collective Labourer and the Rise of Barcelona’s Digital Economy, Antipode, 56 (2): 400-23.
Cardullo, P, González Gil, Ribera-Fumaz, R. 2023. The Decidim ‘Soft Infrastructure’: Democratic Platforms and Technological Autonomy in Barcelona. Computational Culture 9, http://computationalculture.net/the-decidim-soft-infrastructure/
Charnock, G.; Ribera-Fumaz. R., 2023. El distrito 22@Barcelona¿Una “plataforma de innovación” urbana o la urbanización del capitalismo de plataformas? Empiria: Revista de metodología de ciencias sociales, 59,, 159-187. DOI: 10.5944/empiria.59.2023.37965.
Fernández-Ardèvol, Ribera-Fumaz, R., 2023. The Network Society Today, American Behavioral Scientitst, 67(7): 839-846. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642221092800.
Carlos Cámara-Menoyo, Pep Vivas Elias, Ramon Ribera-Fumaz, Jorge León-Casero 2022.. Hacia una agenda urbana del común: un estudio de caso de las reivindicaciones políticas de los comunes urbanos en Barcelona, EURE, 48 (143)dx.doi.org/10.7764/eure.48.143.11
Charnock, G., March, H. & Ribera-Fumaz, R. 2021. From Smart to Rebel city? Worlding, Provincialising and the Barcelona Model,Urban Studies, 58(3): 581-600. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098019872119.
Carlos Cámara-Menoyo, Pep Vivas Elias, Ramon Ribera-Fumaz, 2021. Problematizando los comunes urbanos: hacia una aproximación “provincializada”, Urbe, Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana, 13, e20190185, doi.org/10.1590/2175-3369.013.e20190185
Gonzalez, S.; Oosterlynck, S.; Ribera-Fumaz, R.; Rossi, U. 2018. Locating the global financial crisis: variegated neoliberalization in four European cities, Territory, Politics, Governance, 6 (4): 468-488.https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2017.1318713.
March, H., Ribera-Fumaz, R. 2016. Smart Contradictions: The Politics of making Barcelona a Self-sufficient City, European Urban and Regional Studies, 23(4):816-830. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776414554488.
Charnock, G.; Purcell, T.; Ribera-Fumaz, R. 2014. City of Rents: The Limits to the Barcelona Model of Urban Competitiveness. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38 (1): 198-217. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12103.
Charnock, G.; Ribera-Fumaz. R. 2011. “A New Space for Knowledge and People”? Henri Lefebvre, Representations of Space, and the Production of “22@Barcelona”. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 29 (3): 613-632.https://doi.org/10.1068/d17009.
Ribera-Fumaz, R. 2009. From Urban Political Economy to Cultural Political Economy: Rethinking Culture and Economy in and beyond the Urban. Progress in Human Geography, 33 (4): 447-465.
BOOKS
Charnock, G., Mansilla, J, Ribera-Fumaz, R. 2025. The Politics of Late Urban Entrepreneurialism. The Innovation District. Review of International Political Economy Series in Global Political Economy. Routledge. ISBN 9781032766621.
Charnock, G., Mansilla, J., Ribera-Fumaz, R., eds. 2023. 22@Barcelona: un Distrito de Innovación en Disputa. Barcelona: Icària.
Charnock, G.; Purcell, T.; Ribera-Fumaz, R. 2014. The Limits to capital in the European periphery: Capitalism, Crisis and Revolt in Spain. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-333-71708. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137319944.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Charnock, G., Mansilla, J. & Ribera-Fumaz, R. (2025). Barcelona en Comú: Openings, closures and a bittersweet legacy, En G. Albo, & S. Maher (Eds.), Openings and Closures: Socialist Strategy at a Crossroads: Socialist Register 2025. (pp. 1-14). Merlin Press.
Charnock G., Ribera-Fumaz R. 2025. The urbanization of capitalism: The contemporary relevance of David Harvey’s Marxism, In F Biagi, eds.m Reimagining Urban Marxisms: Rethinking Thinkers, Texts, and Challenges, pp. 22 – 38,
March, H., Ribera-Fumaz, R. 2019. Barcelona: From corporate smart city to technological sovereignty. In A. Karvonen, F. Cugurullo, F. Caprotti, Inside the Smart City: Place, Politics and Urban Innovation, 229-242 . ISBN: 978-0-8153-4868-9.
Ribera-Fumaz, R. 2018. Moving from Smart Citizens to Technological Sovereignty? In P. Cardullo, C. Feliceantonio, R. Kitchin, eds. The Right to the Smart City, 177-191. ISBN: 978-78769-140-7. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78769-139-120191013.
Charnock, G. and Ribera-Fumaz, R. (2017) ‘Barcelona en Comú: Urban Democracy and “the Common
Good”’, in L. Panitch and G. Albo (eds), Rethinking Democracy – Socialist Register 2018, London:
Merlin Press: pp.188-201.
Urban Transformation and Global Change Laboratory. Funding Body: Generalitat de Catalunya. Call: Support to Research Groups (SGR). Principal Investigator: Ramon Ribera Fumaz (UOC). Period: 1/1/2022-31/12/2024.
Keep the City Ticking: Architectures of Fulfilment and the Infrastructures of Migration and Labour. Funding body: Danish Research Council. Call: International Networks: Principal Investigator: Marlene Spanger. Period: 1/6/2024-30/5/2027.
The Digital Turn in Environmental Governance: Insights from the energy and agri-food systems.Funding body: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. Call: Proyectos Estratégicos Orientados a la Transición Ecológica y a la Transición Digital 2021. Principal Investigators: Zora Kovacic (UOC), Lucía Argüelles (UOC). Period: 1/11/2022-30/10/2024.
Realizing potentials of nature-based climate shelters in school environments for urban transformation. Funding body: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and other European National Funding Bodies. Call: ERA-NET Co-fund Urban Transformation Capacities. Principal Investigator: Isabel Ruiz-Mallén. Period: 1/3/2022-28/2/2025. Role: co-investigator. Status: ongoing.
Unleashing future-facing urban hubs through culture and creativity-led strategies of transformative time (T-Factor). Funding body: European Commission. Call: H2020_SC5-20-2019. European project coordinator: Elena Conti (ANCI-Toscana). Period: 1/6/2020-31/5/2024.
Smart Cities in Global Comparative Perspective. Funding body: Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Call: International Networks. Principal Investigator: Byron Miller (U. of Calgary). Period: 1/5/2020-30/5/2023.
Play AUT of the Box, Playable City for all. Funding Body: EIT Community New European Bauhaus. Call: NEB Enhance Grant. Period: 2022. Coordinator: Blanca Calvo and Raquel Colacios (UOC).
ASD Publics: Activating Spaces with Neurodiverse Publics. Funding Body: EIT Community New European Bauhaus. Call: Co-Creation of public space through citizen engagement – EIT Community New European Bauhaus. Period: 2022. Coordinator: Blanca Calvo (UOC).
The political ecology of urban resilience to hydro-climatic events in Spain (RESCITIES). Funding Body: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. Call: Plan Nacional I+D IFNO. Principal Inestigators: Isabel Ruiz-Mallén (UOC), Hug March (UOC). Period: 1/1/2019-30/6/2022.
I am interested in supervising PhD students in any of my four research interests: digital urbanism and digitalization of urban governance; the built environment and the digital economy in urban transformation; the material production of the geographies of digital and rentier capitalism; and, critical and radical geographical approaches to the articulation between space, economy, nature and culture.
CURRENT PHD STUDENTS
Calvo Boixet, Blanca. Fixing through the private sector what markets failed to solve. Inclusionary Housing in Barcelona and Johannesburg. Direction Committee: Ramon Ribera-Fumaz (supervisor), Hug March (co-supervisor, UOC), Margot Rubin (Cardiff University, Committee member).
González-Gil, Paco. Civic labs. Urban experimentation and participatory cities.Direction Committee: Ramon Ribera-Fumaz (supervisor), Paolo Cardullo (co- supervisor, UOC), Juan Freire (Tecnológico de Monterrey, Committee member).
PAST PHD STUDENTS
Zherdev, Nikolay. 2022. The festivalization of the creative city: A study of two creative quarters in Barcelona and Berlin. Supervisors: Ramon Ribera-Fumaz (supervisor), Alba Colombo (co-supervisor, UOC), Mónica Degen (Committee Member, Brunel University). Currently: Postdoctoral Researcher at LISER, University of Luxemburg.
Cámara Menoyo, Carlos. 2018. Comunes urbanos: lecciones desde la Barcelona de principios del siglo XXI. Supervisors: Pep Vivas (supervisor), Ramon Ribera-Fumaz (co-supervisor). Currently: Senior Research Engineer, CIM, University of Warwick.
Berrens, Karla. 2015. Ensounded bodies: making place in London’s East End. Supervisors: R. Ribera-Fumaz (supervisor), Pep Vivas (co-supervisor), Alex Rhys-Taylor (Committee Member, Goldsmith University). Currently: Lecturer in Sociology, Universitat de Barcelona.
Productive models and Sustainability, MSc in Economic Analysis
Global Urbanisms, MSc City and Urbanism
Urban Sociology, BA in Sociology