Portal
I am an ICREA Research Professor trained in urban and environmental planning (PhD, MIT, 2011). My research is situated at the intersection of urban planning and policy, social inequality, and development studies. I also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Studies from Science Po Lille (2000) and obtained a Master’s in International Development at the Université de Paris-1 Sorbonne (2001). In addition, I pursued a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management at Harvard University (2004). I work to make my research meaningful for and engaged with local environmental justice activists and municipalities, as before starting my PhD in 2006, I held several positions in international development NGOs. I spent 10 years of my professional life in the United States (Boston) before returning to Europe in 2011 with a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship.
I am currently the coordinator of the ICTA research line "Cities and Environmental Justice" and direct the ERC-funded project GREENLULUS (June 2016- May 2021). I also direct the Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability, a groundbreaking research laboratory carrying comparative and interdisciplinary research, developing new teaching methods and courses, and promoting learning on justice and inclusion for planning sustainable, green, and healthy cities. I am physically based at IMIM, the Hospital del Mar Institute for Medical Research, where I also coordiate the research group "Healthy Cities and Environmental Justice." Among others, I am one of the initiators of POLLEN, the umbrella organization of political ecology researchers, groups, projects, networks, and "nodes" across the globe
Research interests
Most of my research is centered on studying processes and dynamics that lead to more just, resilient, healthy, and sustainable cities, bringing together theory from urban planning, public policy, urban and environmental sociology, and urban geography. My projects examine the extent to which urban plans and policy decisions contribute to more just, resilient, healthy, and sustainable cities, and how community groups in distressed neighborhoods contest the existence, creation, or exacerbation of environmental inequities as a result of urban (re)development processes and policies.
Currently, my focus is on four main research areas: 1) The politics of the green city as a growing global planning orthodoxy; 2) The social and racial manifestations and impacts of green gentrification for historically marginalized residents 3) Urban planning for health and wellbeing, with a focus on health equity and justice 4) Justice and inclusivity in climate adaptation planning, including distributional and procedural insecurities produced by adaptation plans, interventions, and land use configurations and regulations.
Key Words
- Comparative urban planning.
- Environmental policy and planning.
- Urban environmental and spatial justice.
- Environmental gentrification
- Political economy of urban development and sustainability planning
- The re-politicization of sustainability.
- Environmental and social movements.
- Vulnerability and resilience in climate adaptation planning.
- Food justice and sustainable urban food systems.
- Healthy cities and healthy communities
