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
I have been the co-founder and the group leader of TURBA at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya since 2014 and trained as an economist (BSc UAB, MSc equivalent U. Barcelona) and geographer (MA, PhD U. Manchester). Having studied and worked in Economics (UAB, UB, UOC, UMIST, Taifa), Geography (Manchester) and Interdisciplinary departments and research centres (IAS-Lancaster, IN3-UOC) between Spain and the UK, I am interested in the urban geographies of capitalism from an interdisciplinary perspective, mainly focusing on the spatial, technological, and cultural dimensions of uneven development, based on historical-geographical materialist approaches.
My current research interests are, first, on understanding models of digital urbanism and digitalization of urban governance such as smart cities, technological sovereignty, platform urbanism, and in general, AI and algorithmically-driven governance; second the role of the built environment and the digital economy in urban transformation, with a particular focus on Innovation Districts and the platformization of urban economies; third, the material (i.e. infrastructure, nature and labour) production of the geographies of digital and rentier capitalism in and beyond the urban; and, encapsulating all these interests, in critical and radical geographical approaches to the articulation between space, economy and culture.
Kovacic, Z., García Casañas, C., Argüelles, L., Yáñez Serrano, P., Ribera-Fumaz, R., Prause, L., & March, H. (2024). The twin green and digital transition: High-level policy or science fiction? Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486241258046
Gallois, S., Heras, M., Sella, C. et al. Learning to collaborate within transdisciplinarity: internal barriers and strengths of an art–science encounter. Sustain Sci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-024-01495-5
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, published online 28/9/23. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12984.
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.
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.
Cámara-Menoyo, C., Ribera-Fumaz, R., Vivas i Elias, P. 2021. Problematizando los comunes urbanos: hacia una aproximación “provincializada”. Urbe, Rev. Bras. Gest. Urbana, https://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.
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.
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.
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