MAPS
MADRID NODE
https://estudioscriticosurbanos.com/The team located in the city of Madrid that makes up the NOMADIC project is mainly, although not exclusively, based around the Grupo de Estudios Críticos Urbanos (GECU), a research group recognised by the (UNED), although it is also present in other research institutes and universities on the Iberian Peninsula.
GECU is committed to a deep, rigorous and critical analysis of the contemporary city. We conceive cities as spaces of interaction where structural inequalities are manifested and reproduced. Our work focuses on research to identify these dynamics of segregation, exclusion and socio-spatial inequality, understanding social science as a tool to promote equity, emancipation and participation of all kinds of groups, especially those who suffer discrimination and live in situations of social vulnerability.
To this end, we promote different resources: participation in debates and conferences, open publications and the development of courses are just some of the examples of our activities aimed at disseminating our research.
TEAM: Jorge Sequera Fernández (IP) / Celia Fernández Carro / Juan José Villalón / Ana Santamarina / Javier Gil / Francisco José Fernández-Trujillo / Gomer Betancor / Pablo Martínez / Álvaro Mazorra / Alberto Crespo/ Víctor Riesgo
ROMA NODE
https://www.stcity.it/We are the research team at Sapienza University of Rome exploring how digital platforms are reshaping urban space and place from political and economic perspectives. Our work focuses on topics such as short-term rentals and tourism platforms, temporary populations and mid-term rentals, student mobility and studentification, platform economies, and rentier capitalism. We are also actively engaged in disseminating our research findings in public contexts, with the aim of influencing areas such as short-term rentals regulations and public housing in various Italian cities.We also investigate the impacts of remote work on urban mobility, the rise of digital labor and the gig economy, public digital platforms, and digitally mediated sex work and hookup platforms. Finally, adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, our research critically addresses the impacts of digital transformations on urban socio-spatial justice, both in Italy and beyond.
TEAM: Filippo Celata/Cesare Di Feliciantonio 7 Silvia Lucciarini/ Dario Guarascio7 Giuseppe Croce/ Daniela Festa / Gianluca Bei / Barbara Brollo /Ilaria Rossi / Alessandra Esposito / Andrea Pietrangeli Paolo Bertetto / Francesca Brunori / Jacopo Tramontano/ Nicola Venneri
PORTUGAL NODE
Jordi Nofre (PI-Portugal) holds a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Barcelona (2009). Since 2019 Dr Nofre is FCT Associate Research Professor [Investigador Principal FCT; 2019-2025] in Urban Geography at the Interdisciplinary Center of Social Sciences at NOVA University of Lisbon. His
research includes 3 main topics: (i) Nightlife, tourism and urban change; (ii) Social geographies of youth in Euro-Mediterranean countries; and (iii) Environment, society, and global change.
João Seixas holds a PhD in Geography from the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, a PhD in Sociology of Territory and Environment from ISCTE-IUL, and an MA in Urban and Regional Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Dr Seixas is Pro-Rector of NOVA University Lisbon and Assistant Professor in Urban Geography at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences. His research focus on urban studies, politics, urban and metropolitan planning, and urban and regional development, and is author of multiple scientific articles of national and international scope.
Gonçalo Antunes holds a PhD in Geography and Territorial Planning from the NOVA University Lisbon, and currently is Associate Professor in Urban Geography and the Faculty of Social and Human Sciencies. Dr Antunnes is also Head of the Department of Geography and Regional Planning, and has recently been
Visiting Scholar at Universidade de São Paulo (2024). His scientific interests broadly include urban studies, emphasising housing policies, real estate market, urban policies, urban geography and territorial planning.
Pedro Cortez holds a BA in Political Science and International Relations (2018) from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at NOVA University Lisbon, and a MA in Sociology (2022) from the same institution with a MA thesis entitled "Gentrification in the Periphery: Residential Evictions and Symbolic Forms of
Space Loss in Almada.
BUENOS AIRES NODE
https://gecu.com.ar/We are a team of sociologists who, since 2012, have been conducting research in the Cultural Studies Department of the Gino Germani Research Institute at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires, within the framework of research projects funded by the UBA Secretariat of Science and Technology and CONICET. The GECU is made up of trained researchers, graduates and undergraduate students, CONICET and UBACyT research fellows, and postgraduate thesis students. Our lines of work are oriented towards the analysis of the differential uses of the city from a perspective that articulates Urban Studies with the Sociology of Culture, emphasising three main areas: modes of production of urban space, modes of inhabiting, and modes of circulating through the city.
The purpose of the Cultural and Urban Studies Group (GECU) is to contribute to the training of young researchers in the fields of sociology, anthropology and urban planning, to develop a space for theoretical and methodological debate on issues of urban conflict, to promote exchange with research teams and projects both at the IIGG and at other research institutions addressing similar topics, and to
develop dissemination, outreach and transfer activities that have an impact both in the academic sphere and on public opinion.
TEAM: Juliana Marcús/ Martín Boy/ Joaquín Benítez/ Martina Berardo, Dianela Gahn/ Agustina Marquez/ María Agustina Peralta/ Diego Vazquez, Lucía Gamino/ Marcos Jaramillo/ Emilia Tamburri/ Magdalena Felice.
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO NODE
https://divcsh.izt.uam.mx/depto_sociologia/This study group is interested in analysing the social transformations and new patterns of human mobility that the platformisation of life is producing both locally and globally. We have focused our reflection on the complex web of social, economic, political, cultural and socio-spatial factors that influence the choice of Mexico City as the labour epicentre of international remote workers, better known as digital nomads.
Our working group aims to make a reflective contribution to the NOMADIC project by analysing social issues, contemporary flows of human labour mobility and the digital transformation of everyday life and its contribution to the expansion of the platform economy in Mexico. We take digital nomadism and its link to other forms of platform labour as the central focus of the enquiry. Some of the questions that guide our reflection on digital nomadism are: What is the economic contribution of the presence of digital nomads in Mexico, how do they experience urban life, what effects do government policies to attract digital nomadism have on the real estate market, and what is the impact of digital nomadism in Mexico?
TEAM:
Adrián H. Cordero. Geographer, educated on both sides of the Atlantic. He is interested in issues such as gentrification, touristification, and urban conflicts.
José Franco. Researcher of human mobility using mixed methods at the UAM-I (Mexico). Doctor of Anthropology, demographer, and economist.
Denisse Rosas. Human geographer, professor, and researcher passionate about urban issues, teaching, and the intersection of culture, space, and identities.
Carlos Juárez. Sociologist interested in the study of work in the entertainment industry and the career
paths of cultural workers.
MADRID NODE II
www.todoporlapraxis.esdegree in Visual Arts, a degree in Education and is a professor of visual arts at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, as well as a Master's degree in Contemporary Art History and Visual Culture from the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Complutense University of Madrid.
The various works that make up their practice seek to construct other possible imaginaries, analysing current contexts from the challenge of creating, addressing and embracing radical discourses that are antagonistic to hegemonic cultural impositions. They seek to install knowledge and spaces for critical thinking, activating new transcultural subjectivities as a decolonisation of dominant thought. They carry out processes of research, production and action in both geographical and symbolic territories, using agitprop, counter-advertising and visibility or guerrilla communication in critical devices that challenge aesthetic and political narratives.
TEAM: Jo Muñoz/ Diego Peris
NEW YORK NODE
https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/sophie-gonick.htmlSophie L. Gonick is Assistant Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU with an emphasis on Global Urban Humanities. A scholar of urban planning and history, poverty, and race and gender, Gonick was educated at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned both a Master’s in City Planning (2010) and a Ph.D. (2015). Before joining SCA, she was an Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow at NYU’s Center for European and Mediterranean Studies.
Her work emerges at the intersection of planning history, critical race and gender studies, and debates on migration, integration, and inclusion, particularly within the context of Southern Europe. Most recently, she has considered housing mobilizations in contemporary Madrid against two interlocking histories: the Spanish experience with urbanization and Europeanization across the last century, and the more immediate story of South American migration in the wake of the crises of the 1990s. Revealing the links between rural indigenous protest and Europe’s urban social movements, she has sought to destabilize hegemonic epistemologies of urban scholarship and pedagogy beyond dichotomies of Global
South and North Atlantic. Additional work has focused on the endurance and evolution of needs-based squatting, property regimes, and the institutionalization of protest and contestation. She is currently developing a new project on municipalism and urban protest across the North Atlantic in the age of right-wing populism.
SEVILLE NODE
https://grupo.us.es/gdru/The Geography and Regional and Urban Development Research Group (GDRU) is part of the Andalusian Research, Development and Innovation Plan (HUM-177). Its members, with diverse academic and professional backgrounds, are affiliated with the Universities of Seville and Pablo de Olavide (Spain), as well as the University of Aachen (Germany), the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage, the Andalusian Institute of Statistics and Cartography, and the Provincial Council of Seville.
The main lines of research developed over more than two decades of existence are diverse, with a particular focus on topics such as territorial development, socio-economic and spatial dynamics in urban and rural areas, public policies, territorial planning, landscape and heritage, and processes of economic and social innovation.
Its research activity is part of almost thirty competitive research projects with international, national and regional funding (Framework Programme, EU; National R&D&I Plan, Spain; National Council for Science and Technology, Mexico; Foundation Carrefour, France; Andalusian Plan for Research, Development and Innovation, Projects of Excellence of the Regional Government of Andalusia,
Andalusian Studies Centre Foundation, etc.). This research activity has resulted in a hundred articles published in influential national and international scientific journals, as well as books and book chapters.
This project has received funding from the HORIZON-MSCA-2023-SE-01-01 under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101183165.