Biographical Notes

Margit Mayer (Technical University of Berlin, Germany)

Margit Mayer has taught comparative and North American politics at Freie Universität Berlin since 1990 and is associate professor at the Center for Metropolitan Studies at Technical University Berlin. Her research focuses on comparative politics, urban and social politics and social movements. She has published on various aspects of contemporary urban politics, urban theory, (welfare) state restructuring and social movements. She co-authored Nonprofits in the Transformation of Employment Policies (2004), co-edited Urban Movements in a Globalizing World (2000), Cities for People not for Profit (2013), and Neoliberal Urbanism and Its Contestations (2013). Currently she is co-editing a volume on Urban Uprisings: Challenging the neoliberal city in Europe (forthcoming 2015), and writing a monograph on urban social movements and the state. She serves on the board of the International Graduate Program ‘Berlin-New York-Toronto’ organized by the three Berlin universities. She served as editorial board member of The International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, on the Editorial Committee of the book series “Studies in Urban and Social Change” (Blackwell). She has won the 2014 RJ-AvH fellowship for Göteborg University, Sweden.

Greig Crysler (University of California, Berkeley, USA)

Greig Crysler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture of the University of California, Berkeley. He obtained his professional degree in Architecture from the Architectural Association in London, and has extensive experience in architectural practice in Canada and the UK. He completed his Ph.D. in the Graduate Program in Architectural History and Theory, at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He teaches introductory courses in architectural theory and criticism, and graduate seminars that explore the relationship between architecture and social processes such as nationalism, globalization and the politics of identity. In 2010, he launched a new class at the intersection of architecture, ethics, and activism. Crysler was Program Director of the “Arcus Endowment” of the College of Environmental Design (CED) for a decade. During that time, he oversaw the development of an international awards program for critical and creative activity at the intersection of gender, sexuality, and the built environment. He coordinated the annual “Arcus Endowment” Lecture, and worked with students and faculty to develop numerous events and public programs at CED around LGBTQ issues.

Crysler’s research focuses on the history of architectural theory, and the role of architecture in processes such as nationalism, globalization, and the cultural politics of difference. His first book, Writing Spaces: Discourses of Architecture, Urbanism, and the Built Environment, 1960-2000, was published by Routledge in 2003, and examines debates on space and social theory in the context of scholarly journals from across the built environment disciplines since 1960. Crysler is co-editor, with Stephen Cairns and Hilde Heynen, of the Sage Handbook of Architectural Theory, published by Sage in 2012. This major collection contains over 40 chapters of original research by prominent scholars from around the world. The Handbook addresses contemporary issues in architectural theory from standpoints that are cross-cultural, comparative and interdisciplinary in outlook.

Tiago Castela (Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal)

Tiago Castela is an urban historian and a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, integrating the research group on Cities, Cultures, and Architecture (CCArq). He holds a PhD in History of Architecture and Urbanism from the University of California, Berkeley (USA), and a ‘Licenciatura’ professional degree in Architecture from the University of Lisbon (Portugal). His doctoral dissertation discusses the history of the illegalized working-class suburban subdivisions of the Lisbon area of Portugal, foregrounding the role of the government of informality in the formation of a dual planning regime during the late Twentieth Century. His current research prolongs this genealogy of planning in the postwar development project by exploring the history of colonial urbanism in Mozambique from the end of the Second World War to independence, focusing on the ways in which Portuguese state planning managed the informal production of urban peripheries in present-day Maputo. He is the coordinator of the exploratory research project “Urban Aspirations in Colonial/Postcolonial Mozambique: Governing the Unequal Division of Cities, 1945-2010,” undertaken at the Center for Social Studies for the Portuguese state Foundation for Science and Technology.

Before starting his doctoral research as the recipient of a Fulbright Grant, he worked as an architect, notably as project coordinator for the Theatre and Auditorium of Poitiers, France at the office of Carrilho da Graça in Lisbon. He also was the coordinator of the multidisciplinary design team that received first prize in the international competition for the Administrative Center of the Autonomous Community of Extremadura in Mérida, Spain.

João Cabral (Faculty of Architecture, University of Lisbon, Portugal)

Architect (Higher School of Fine Arts, Lisbon, Portugal), Honours Diploma Urban and Regional Development Planning (Architectural Association, London, United Kingdom), PhD (Urban and Regional Studies, University of Sussex, United Kingdom), Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon, Portugal, as well as researcher at CIAUD (Research Center for Architecture, Urbanism and Design). Research interests and teaching activities range from urban planning, policies and methodologies to regional development, territorial governance, and spatial planning systems. Has been involved in research projects on governance and policies in urban regions in Europe, as well as in South and North America, comparing and evaluating spatial planning practices and urban regulation systems.

João Carlos Afonso (architect and Deputy Mayor for Social Rights, Lisbon Municipality, Portugal)

João Carlos Afonso is an architect and the Lisbon Deputy Mayor for Social Rights. He obtained his professional degree from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon, Portugal. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Urban Design from the Lisbon University Institute, Portugal, and is a PhD Candidate in History and Theory of Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, Portugal.

José Castro Caldas (CES-Lisbon and Observatory of Crises and Alternatives, University of Coimbra, Portugal)

José Maria Castro Caldas is an economist and a Senior Researcher at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. He is a member of the research group on Science, Economy and Society (NECES), of the Observatory on Crisis and Alternatives, and of the Risk Observatory. He was previously Assistant Professor at the Economics Department of the Lisbon University Institute, Portugal and a researcher at the Dinâmia research center. He graduated in Economics and concluded a Master in Mathematics Applied to Economics and Management at the Higher Institute of Economics and Management of the University of Lisbon, Portugal, and holds a PhD in Economics from the Lisbon University Institute, Portugal.

His present main research interests include: personal and collective deliberation, institutional economics, and the history of economics. He recently authored Economia(s) with Francisco Louçã (2009) and Escolha e Instituições: Análise Económica e Simulação Multiagentes (2001), as well as articles published in Revue de la Regulation, Journal of Economic Issues, The Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Revista Crítica de Ciência Sociais and Cambridge Journal of Economics.

Jorge Figueira (Department of Architecture and Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal)

Jorge Figueira is an architect and architectural theorist. He graduated in Architecture at the University of Porto, Portugal in 1992, and completed his PhD in Architecture at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, in 2009. He is currently the Director of the Department of Architecture of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra, Portugal, where he is Assistant Professor. He is a researcher at the Center for Social Studies. In addition, he teaches for the doctoral program of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, Portugal.

He is the local coordinator at the University of Coimbra of the research network on heritage “Red PHI: Patrimonio Historico-Cultural Iberoamericano”. He was the curator of the exhibition “Álvaro Siza. Modern Redux”, at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in São Paulo, Brazil in 2008, as well as the editor of Álvaro Siza: Modern Redux (2008). He is the author of several books on contemporary architecture, including Reescrever o Pós-Moderno (2011), Macau 2011 (2011), O Arquitecto Azul (2010), and A noite em arquitectura (2007). He has published texts in several professional journals in Portugal and elsewhere, including AV Monografias, Arqtexto, aU, Arquitectura Viva, Casabella, A+U, and SAJ (Serbian Architectural Journal).

António Brito Guterres (Lisbon University Institute, Portugal)

António Brito Guterres is a researcher at the DINAMIA’CET research center on socioeconomic change and the territory of the Lisbon University Institute, Portugal, and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Urban Studies from the Lisbon University Institute. His thesis addressed the social and cultural impacts of rehousing policies. He graduated in Social Work at the Higher Institute of Social Work of Lisbon, Portugal. He has experience in various projects of territorial development, in particular as the Director of the Vale da Amoreira Operation of the Critical Urban Areas Initiative, and as the coordinator of the Performance Arts Center in the same neighborhood. He currently works for the Aga Khan Foundation Portugal, focusing on issues such as participation, governance, education, youth, diversity, and pluralism. He is also part of URB, a process for the development of a TV series about the diversity and imaginations of everyday life in the Greater Lisbon area, and works as a freelancer and a volunteer with grassroots organizations and informal groups; he often lectures on participation, urban regeneration, gentrification, the commons, and about the role of arts and culture in urban development. He is a member of the International Network for Urban Research and Action (INURA).

Maria Paula Meneses (Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal)

Maria Paula Meneses is an anthropologist and a Senior Researcher at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, Portugal, integrating the Research Group on Democracy, Citizenship and Law (DECIDe). She holds a PhD in Anthropology from Rutgers University (USA) and a MA in History from St. Petersburg University (Russia). Maria Paula Meneses is also a member of the Center for Social Studies “Aquino de Bragança” (CESAB) in Maputo, Mozambique. She lectures in various doctoral programs: “Postcolonialisms and Global Citizenship”, “Governance, Knowledge and Innovation”, and “Law, Justice, and Citizenship in the 21st century.” She also co-coordinates the Ph.D. Program on Postcolonialisms and Global Citizenship. Previously she was a Professor at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique.

She recently published, with Bruno Sena Martins, the results of a research project on colonial violence and the cold war in southern Africa, As Guerras de Libertação e os Sonhos Coloniais (2013); as well as the results of another project on legal plurality in an urban context, using Luanda, Angola as a case study. Her current work focuses on the question of the struggles over citizenship in Mozambique in the 1970s-1980s, with the transition to independence. Another project, focused on southern Africa in the second half of the Twentieth Century, aims to explore the two divergent political paradigms: the “white dominant” southern Africa project led by apartheid South Africa, and the nationalist struggles that aimed to broaden the emancipation project. Her work has been published in journals, books and reports in several countries, including Mozambique, Spain, Portugal, Senegal, United States, England, Germany, Colombia, among others. Recent publications include, co-edited with Boaventura de Sousa Santos, volumes on Epistemologies of the Global South (2009, 2010, 2011, and 2014), integrating contributions of scholars from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe; and, with Júlio Lopes, O Direito Por Fora do Direito: As Instâncias Extra-Judiciais de Resolução de Conflitos em Luanda, Angola (2012).

José Manuel Pureza (Faculty of Economics and Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal)

José Manuel Pureza is a researcher at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, Portugal, of which he is the current Head of the Scientific Board. He is Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra, where he coordinates the Master in International Relations and the PhD program on International Politics and Conflict Resolution. He is also the scientific coordinator of the PhD Program on Human Rights in Contemporary Societies offered by the Center for Social Studies and by the Interdisciplinary Research Institute of the University of Coimbra. José Manuel Pureza has been visiting professor at various universities: Universidad Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina; University Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain; Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil; Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; University of the Basque Country, Spain; and University of Deusto, in Bilbao, Spain.

He is currently member of the Board of the Portuguese Political Science Association and member of the Portuguese Association for the United Nations. He is also member of the Specialized Panels Established Pursuant to the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s Optional Rules for Arbitration of Disputes Relating to Natural Resources and/or the Environment, as well as Conciliator within the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. His current research priorities include peace studies, namely theoretical constructions of peace and critical security studies, human rights, and international law.

Sílvia Roque (Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal)

Sílvia Roque is a Researcher at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, Portugal, integrating the Humanities, Migrations, and Peace Studies Research Group (NHUMEP). She received her PhD in International Relations (International Politics and Conflict Resolution) from the University of Coimbra, Portugal. She also holds a Master degree in African Studies from the Lisbon University Institute, Portugal, and a ‘Licenciatura’ in International Relations from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

Ana Cordeiro Santos (Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal)

Ana Cordeiro dos Santos is an economist and a Researcher at the Science, Economy and Society Research Group (NECES) of the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. She received her PhD from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, Netherlands, and her Masters from the University of Roskilde, Denmark. She has a ‘Licenciatura’ in Economics from the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal. Her research interests include methodology of economics, experimental economics and behavioral economics, and she has published on these topics in various journals. She has recently started working on the topics of financialization and household indebtedness. She is the author of The Social Epistemology of Experimental Economics (2010).

Tiago Mota Saraiva (architect, ateliermob, Lisbon, Portugal)

Tiago Mota Saraiva is an architect and an urban planner. He holds a ‘Licenciatura’ (professional degree) in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon, Portugal. He also holds a postgraduate diploma in Architecture, Territory, and Memory from the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. As a practicing architect, he worked at the office of Massimiliano Fuksas in Rome, Italy, among others. At the office of Fuksas he was project coordinator, notably for the Shimon Peres Center for Peace in Israel. Presently, he is managing partner at the ateliermob office, where he has practiced since its creation in 2005; the office’s work has since achieved various awards, including the first prize in Future Cities’ “Planning for the 90%” international competition (2012), the first prize in the public competition for a plan for Amareleja, Portugal (2010), the first prize in the public competition for a new cemetery in Moura, Portugal (2008), as well as the first prize in the international competition for the dynamization of the margins of the middle Tagus river (2007).

He was a member of the Executive Board of the Portuguese Architects’ Association from 2003 to 2007. In addition, he was an invited Assistant Professor at the Modern University of Lisbon, Portugal in 2007, and at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon, Portugal from 2007 to 2008. He has published articles on architecture and urbanism in professional journals and in newspapers, including L’ Architecture d’Aujourd’hui or Le Monde Diplomatique (Portuguese edition). He presently writes a weekly opinion article for Jornal I.


Mariana Paisana (architect, Rés do Chão, Lisbon, Portugal)

Mariana Paisana is an architect, born in Lisbon in 1986. She studied architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon. She also studied for one year as a visiting student at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Rome “La Sapienza,” Italy. After her graduation, she worked for three years at the architecture studio of B. V. Doshi—Vastu Shilpa Consultants—in Ahmedabad, India, initially as an Inov-Art scholar of the Portuguese state Culture Secretariat. She is now living and working in Lisbon, developing a project of social entrepreneurship called “Rés do Chão” (i.e. “ground floor” or “near the floor”).