Our Research Projects

COSMOS

COSMOS (Commons and Social Movements for Societal transformations) is a research project funded by the Spanish government's "Programa Estatal de I+D+i". During the last years we are witnessing the emergence of a series of social mobilizations that embody what we call "commoning". The Occupy Movement in the United States, the Indignados in Spain and Greece, the Gezi Park in Istanbul and the Environmental Justice Movements in the global south express this increasingly visible form of struggle through and for the commons.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Environmental Justice (ENVJUSTICE) is a research project funded by European Research Council (ERC) advanced grants. The project maps environmental conflicts along the supply chain expanding and updating the EJAtlas database, while developing the vocabulary of the degrowth and global environmental justice movements.

EVOCLIM

Behavioral-evolutionary analysis of climate policy: Bounded rationality, markets and social interactions (EVOCLIM)

This is an ERC Advanced Grant project that supports a team of 4 junior and 3 senior researchers who jointly develop agent-based models with populations of heterogeneous and boundedly rational agents. This offers three advantages: one can evaluate the effectiveness of very different climate policy instruments in a consistent and comparative way; one can examine policy mixes by considering interaction between instruments from a behavioral as well as systemic perspective; and one can simultaneously assess policy impacts mediated by markets and social networks.

GREENLULUS

GREENLULUS: (Green Locally Unwanted Land Uses) is a project funded with an ERC starting grant. It analyzes the conditions under which urban greening projects in distressed neighborhoods redistribute access of environmental amenities to historically marginalized groups. The study takes place in 40 cities in Europe, the United States, and Canada.

HAMLETS

In many parts of Europe, including one third of Catalonia’s territory, sustainable development of small villages is under threat due to, among other factors, depopulation or ageing, while some migrants or unsettled people are looking for a new place to live. This RecerCaixa project (2017-2020) is based on the hypothesis that (international and internal) immigrants have the potential to make social, economic and environmental contributions to the sustainable development of some European small villages. PI: Ricard Morén-Alegret, UAB

NATURVATION

Naturvation: (NATure-based URban innoVATION) is a 4-year project, funded by the European Commission and involving 14 institutions across Europe in the fields of urban development, geography, innovation studies and economics. We will seek to develop our understanding of what nature-based solutions can achieve in cities, examine how innovation can be fostered in this domain, and contribute to realising the potential of nature-based solutions for responding to urban sustainability challenges by working with communities and stakeholders.

PROCOMONS IN BARCELONA

PROCOMONS IN BARCELONA: The financial crisis of 2008, the austerity policies that followed it and the urban uprisings around the planet during 2011 (Arab Spring, 15M, Occupy Wall Street, etc.) revealed the inability of governments to meet the growing social needs of the population and, at the same time, gave rise to the emergence of new responses that offered solutions outside the state and the market.

RESEARCH ON DEGROWTH

Since 2010, ICTA researchers have launched a research and advocacy initiative around the topic of degrowth, coordinating 9 special issues in scientific journals, and preparing a post-growth dynamic system model for the European Green Party. Research focuses on grassroots initiatives and economic policies for a degrowth transition.

SEVERAS

Rural areas in Spain are experiencing unprecedented environmental and social changes. Climate change and biodiversity loss are occurring alongside depopulation and the abandonment and intensification of rural landscapes. Understanding inter-connections of environmental and social stressors, and their impact on rural development is paramount to devise policy that can enhance the wellbeing of rural populations whilst promoting sustainable land uses.

TRANSMENA

The Middle East and, to a lesser extent, North Africa are regions where power resources are closely linked to the control of energy resources, thus the geography is crucial. Transnational Dynamics and Actors in the MENA Region: A historical Genealogy of Elites and Social Movements in between the local and global level (TRANSMENA) is a Spanish government funded project (2016-2020). It approaches the theoretical debate about the links of geopolitics and globalization processes, and applies this analytical framework on the relations between the global-regional-local levels to the tensions that are occurring in the Middle East and North Africa. PIs: Laura Feliu & Ferran Izquierdo, UAB.

URBANA

UrbanA: (Arenas for sustainable and just cities) Launched in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany in January 2019, UrbanA is a three-year collaboration to gather knowledge and experience for sustainable and just cities generated by prior projects and to translate this knowledge into action. The Urban Arenas will be co-creative spaces, known as Arena events, in Rotterdam, Barcelona, Berlin and Brussels where city-makers and city-thinkers from across Europe and across disciplines will gather to reflect on the urban knowledge that research projects have already identified, and to generate promising and actionable approaches to the creation of sustainable, inclusive and thriving cities that foster deep forms of democracy and citizen empowerment.

WEGO

WEGO: (Well-being, Ecology, Gender and cOmmunity – Innovation Training Network (WEGO-ITN)) With funding by the European Union the Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska – Curie, Well-being, Ecology, Gender and Community – Innovation Training Network (WEGO-ITN) is made up of 20 institutions. It will host 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) creating the first European ITN on Feminist Political Ecology (FPE). As the first international feminist political ecology research network of its kind, WEGO-ITN aspires to tackle socio-ecological challenges linked to policy agendas.

Our research projects