Lecturers & Staff

Keywords: transformations of social space, urban interventions

Globalization, transnationalism, migrations and transformations of urban spaces: The impact of transnationalization, and more specifically, of transnational migrations in specific urban spaces; the constitution of migrants communities, diasporas and neighborhoods in urban spaces; the interethnic and intra-ethnic relations and the changes in urban neighborhoods; households of migrants and the feelings of “home”;  the constitution of ethnic clusters and economies; the transnational urbanism perspective and the analysis of the urban changes; the feelings of belonging and non-belonging, the urban uprootings and re-groundings in a global context. All these shifts can be considered in relation with the current period of crisis and change

Transnational families and households in urban spaces: Recently, it has been shown the emergence of different kinds of transnational families and households that, despite the spatial dispersion of some of its members, continue to maintain regular relations between them and a certain notion of being a domestic unit. Therefore, students are invited to examine any of the following topics: What forms adopts these households in cities like Brussels, Vienna, Copenhagen and Madrid; how these households  are configured on a multi-scale level, and how are involved in their constitution factors of each scale, from the local to the global; how are reconfigured the productive and reproductive activities inside these families and households, and what are the consequences in the urban spaces; how are re-articulated the relations between these households, the public policies, the markets, and the other aspects of local urban life in the different urban spaces; what trajectories of change follow these households; where are located the households with which they maintain a regular contact and a sense of unit; what shifts take place in the gender and intergenerational relations inside these households; how it takes place within these households distance relationships among its members; how these relationships are articulated with those that take place in the spaces of proximity; and what forms of virtual and face-to-face communication use their members in order to keep in contact and  reproduce the  network of transnational or global households as a domestic unit.

The analysis of the urban spaces from a gender and intersectional perspective: Gender perspective and urban spaces. Gendered spaces in the city: social practices and symbolic and imaginary representations. Gender and places. Intersectional perspective and the examination of the interactions between social agents with different social origins, ages or gender in public urban spaces. Ages of the city: changes along the life course. Disability, accessibility and dependency. Mobilities, immobilities and social practices by gender, age and other diversities.

The higher education students in the urban spaces: It is possible to exam the following topics: the changes in the volume of students of higher education; their socio-demographic characteristics -with special attention to their age, gender, social and educational familiar background, forms of livelihood, etc.-; their academic characteristics –area of their studies, type of university, etc.-; dedication to their studies and work; forms of accommodation and household; social conditions of life in the city; internal an international mobility. All these topics should be studied from a comparative approach, taking into consideration the cases of Vienna, Brussels, Copenhagen and Madrid, and in relation to the changes that have taken place in the last years.

Keywords: urban policies, urban politics, governance and participation, innovation

Urban policies and politics: Urban policies are more than local policies, since they can be designed and implemented at different levels of government (local, regional, national and supranational) and they are not only planning policies, but all the policies that are involved in the production of urban social space (Housing, Education, Health..). We are interested in how those policies are designed, implemented and overall politically justified, in order to realize the differences and similarities across times, cities and countries and the existence or absence of a city model. The analysis of urban policy narratives as well as the focus on the policy coherence are perspectives more than welcome.

Urban governance and political conflict: Urban governance is the complex system of including spaces of participation in the development of urban decisions. According to Ansell and Gash (2008: 544): ‘[a] governing arrangement where one or more public agencies directly engage non-governmental actors in a collective decision-making process that is formal, consensus-oriented, and deliberative and that aims to make or implement public policy or manage public programs or assets’. In that sense, we would like to explore the consensus and dissensus moments of urban decision makers. Moreover, we are also particularly interested in those new social and urban activisms which are exceeding the capability of those consensus and deliberative spaces from perspectives of radical democracy, reinventing and appropriating spaces and also producing new urban policy perspectives.

Inequality and the right to the city: Inequality and its spatial expressions in city are two relevant study objects, but also the appearance of new civic claims and demands to revert them. The right to the city could be studied through the analysis of new civic approaches to fight socially against the effects of inequality, the analysis of new initiatives to create new types of social space in urban contexts, and the understanding of new narratives about urban rights.

Urban Innovations: Innovation is a complex concept, attached to different purposes, meanings, instruments and interactions. Innovation is a transversal principle of local government areas, but it is also included in new ways of searching for social answers to urban problems. Since cities are considered sites of experimentation and live labs, new topics about how innovation is imagined, designed and produced in urban spaces by a wide range of actors is relevant nowadays. Looking at the coherence of innovative actions, the capability of incentive them, and the production of fragmented spaces are topics that should be analysed using comparative and longitudinal perspectives.

Keywords: segregation, inequality, urban identity, city centre, migration, children, public space

City Marketing and Urban Identity: Globalization has caused the need for the external promotion of cities and the creation of new local identities. That impact on the exterior and interior of the city, allows some social sectors identify themselves with these new identities and others feel excluded. This process affects both the population and the economic sectors that are attracted by these new identities. In this sense, we study the population and commercial gentrification and new images. Thus also immigration and urban identity is developed.  Migration processes have led to new projects in our cities new problems of coexistence between old and new citizens.

Urban regeneration and population changes: The industrial crisis has generated new scenarios that should respond through urban policies regeneration by the public, private or partnership institutions which generate new tensions and conflicting dynamics with citizens.  It seems that new social sectors are favored by these policies and others who are excluded. The analysis of “who are these policies for” is the focus of interest.

Vulnerable groups in the city: children, women: Cities are designed and aimed at groups of economic and symbolic centrality and they usually exclude groups such as women, children, immigrants, elderly, disabled, etc. We research about how to empower these sectors and analyze experiences and measures to do so.

Public space and the city: Public spaces in the city are the essence of the city, those spaces where the mixture, the difference, opening the encounter with the other, take place. Social practices in the public space (squares, streets, public facilities, etc.) of the various groups in the city (women, children, immigrants, visitors, tourists, etc.) we are interested in assessing the significance that the city acquired its meaning as meeting and mixing.

Sociology of tourism and the city: The impact of tourism in the city is connected with the new urban identities that promote the city and in addition to new images of middle and creative classes that make the culture and entertainment central. In this sense, the analysis of equipment and travel services serves to connect these with the new urban identities and their impact on the total of the city. in this same line, also we are interested in the analysis of urban historical centres and external identity projection.

Keywords: governance, social innovation, urban policy and regeneration, participation, social exclusion, and in general the consequences of urban evolution for society