Network

Alba Ballester

Autonomous  University  of  Barcelona.  Expert  in  water  governance,  risk governance  and  water  conflict  management.  BS  in  Education;  BA  in  Social  and  Cultural Anthropology;  MS  in Sustainable river  management  and  integrated water  management;  MA  in Social  and  Cultural  Anthropology;  MA  in  Cultural  Tourism.  She  has  been  teaching  Social Anthropology at University of Zaragoza (Spain). She has worked as a consultant on sustainable water  management,  as  a  public  participation  advisor  in  water  planning,  and  as  a  facilitator  of participatory  processes,  for  different  public  administrations,  consulting  companies,  and  non-governmental organizations from the water sector. Her research has focused on the analysis of public participation on water planning, social capacity building in relation to floods management, the  design  of  natural  hazards  prevention  public  policies  and  the  analysis  of  new  forms  of collective action.

Charlotte Fernandez

Charlotte Fernandez is a sociologist and holds a Master in Urbanism and City Planning from Pompeu Fabra University and Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

Charlotte’s research interests cover several fields, including social innovation in the public sector, digital democracy and social movements, participatory city planning, smart cities environments and governance. She has collaborated in other IGOP-UAB research projects, in particular, studying the impact of the financial crisis in Spain, particularly its social consequences on social cohesion and citizens’ ability to provide bottom-up solutions. She’s now member of the research group URGOCIS.

Joan Subirats

He is professor of political science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and researcher and director of the doctoral program of the Institute of Government and public policy at the UAB. His fields of research include the analysis of public policies, the democratic innovation, public participation and local and regional government. He has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor of the Prince of Asturias Chair at Georgetown University (2002-2003). He has also been visiting professor at the universities of California (Berkeley), CIDE-Mexico, New York and Rome. He has published numerous books, among them urban policies in Spain (2011), public policy analysis and management (2008), poverty and social exclusion in Spain (2004), twenty years of autonomous regions in Spain. The laws, public policies, institutions and public opinion (2002) or territory and Government (2001).

Josep Espluga.

PhD in sociology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, master in prevention of risks by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Associate Professor of the Department of sociology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, researcher at the Institute of Government and public policy (IGOP), Member of the Group Globalization, Education and social policy (HUMPS) and collaborated with the research group on Agriculture, Livestock and food in the Globalization (ARAG-UAB). Coordinates the postgraduate diploma in Local Revitalization Agroecological (IGOP & ICTA) and the Minor in sustainable development and Global citizenship at the UAB. Previously he has been research fellow at the Department of urban development of the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (Università degli Studi di Venezia), researcher with the Centro Nacional de Conditions de Trabajo (INSHT), and a visiting researcher at the Institute for Studies of Science, Technology and Innovation – ESRC Innogen Centre (University of Edinburgh). His research focuses on a sociological approach to the relationship between health and work, town and country planning and the environment and more specifically, about the social perception of technology risks and environmental conflicts.

Jens Newig has been full professor of sustainability governance at Leuphana University Lüneburg since 2010. He has been leading research projects on participatory and collaborative governance (such as the ERC-funded project EDGE – Evaluating the Delivery of environmental Governance using an Evidence-based research design). In empirical terms, he has been researching and published on governance approaches in implementing water and flood risk policy, with a focus on participation and governance learning.

Blog and research group website: http://sustainability-governance.net

Elisa Kochskämper is a research associate in the Research Group Governance, Participation and Sustainability led by Jens Newig at Leuphana University Lüneburg since 2013. She has worked in the project EDGE – Evaluating the Delivery of environmental Governance using an Evidence-based research design; mainly investigating collaborative and participatory planning in European water and flood risk governance under the EU Water Framework and the EU Floods Directive. Her PhD project explores possibilities for systematic learning in water governance such as adaptive management or public participation.

Blog and research group website: http://sustainability-governance.ne

Dr. Dave Huitema is a Professor of Environmental Policy at the Netherlands Open University and the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is a political and policy scientist, and deputy chair of the Department of Environmental Policy Analysis at the IVM. His research interests include policy learning & experimentation, policy entrepreneurs, and policy innovation in polycentric systems. Dave leads a research cluster on adaptive governance involving about 15 colleagues from the IVM and other institutions. He is Vice-Chair of European Cooperation in Science and Technology (‘COST’) Action: ‘Innovations in Climate Governance’, which spans 29 countries. Dave is author and (co-editor) of several books and many peer reviewed articles on issues related to water and environmental governance, and has won several distinguished prizes for his work from professional bodies in the fields of policy and public administration.

Dr. Stefania Munaretto is senior researcher of environmental policy and governance (with a focus on water and climate) at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), VU University Amsterdam. At IVM she conducts research in the context of EU funded projects, and is involved in teaching and students supervision. Her research interests include adaptive governance, science-policy interactions, policy change, policy entrepreneurship, policy experimentation, policy instrument design, learning and participatory decision-making. She works and publishes on these issues drawing on various empirical studies in the field of water and climate change as well as different theoretical perspectives. As research methodologies she has gained experience with case study analysis, international case studies comparisons, policy games and simulations, focus groups, interviews, and surveys. Within the CAPFLO project she leads the design of a participatory tool for building social and civic capacity for flood mitigation, and the implementation of the assessment and participatory tools in the Dutch case study.

Douwe de Voogt is a junior researcher in IVM’s department of Environmental Policy Analysis. Besides his primary involvement in the CAPFLO project, Douwe also contributes to the INNOVCITIES project based at IVM, addressing institutional innovation for adapting to climate change in water governance in cities.
Douwe’s areas of interest include environmental policymaking and in particular water (supply) governance. His thesis, for the MSc Environment and Resource Management, addressed urban water governance in Santiago de Chile, specifically focusing on how climate change adaptation planning has emerged through institutional changes. The research included three weeks of fieldwork in Santiago de Chile.

Erica Melloni is the director of the Administrative and Institutional Policies Unit of IRS. Her main research interests are: territorial development and governance, capacity building and participatory processes for the design, implementation and delivery of public policies and services.

Bruno Dente is professor of Public Policy Analysis at Politecnico di Milano and scientific adviser of IRS. He is a high level expert, with over 40 years of experience in public policy analysis and evaluation. His main research fields are: reform of public administration; environmental policies, with a particular focus on participatory processes and conflict management in this field; governance and strategic planning.

Giancarlo Vecchi is full time researcher at Politecnico di Milano. His main research fields are: public policy analysis and evaluation, governance and modernization of public administrations with particular reference to judiciary systems, local and territorial development policies. Past president (1998-2013) of the Administrative and Institutional Policies Unit of IRS, he is now a scientific adviser of the Unit.

Marco Bianconi is a planner with more than ten years of experience in academic research and private sector consultancy. His areas of interest include strategic and urban planning, and territorial development. He has collaborated with teams in various UK and Italian institutions, with private consultants and with academics across Europe. He is a chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute.

Cristina Vasilescu is a researcher within the Administrative and Institutional Policies Unit of IRS. Her main research fields are: public policy analysis and evaluation, with a particular focus on European policies; local development policies and Cohesion policy; institutional capacity and capacity building in public bodies; social accountability and transparency in public institutions and participatory processes.

Lila Oriard Colín is an expert on informality, transformation of historical centres and city planning in Latin American, South Asia and European context. Lila got her PhD in development planning at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London on the topic of informality. The title of her thesis is “Street vending and the transformation of space, the case of the Tepito neighbourhood in Mexico City”. She is currently a Research Associate at the University of Paris­Est Creteil working on community resilience to mitigate flood risk in Europe. She got a Master degree in urbanism from the Institute of Urbanism in Paris. Lila was Teaching Fellow at the Centre for Environmental and Planning Technology in Ahmedabad, India for two years (2013-­2015). Besides her academic background, Lila has worked for 9 years in urban planning for a private firm in France.

Florine Ballif, born 1974, is assistant professor at the Institut d’Urbanisme de Paris (Urban Planning Institute of Paris), University Paris Est, since 2009. She teaches urban policies, urban and regional planning in Europe, planning and security issues.She holds a bachelor in Politics and a Master and PhD in Urban Planning (2006). After her doctoral research focused on the Belfast’ peacelines, she investigates further the link between security issues and planning. Her research interests focused also on local planning decision-making. She is a member of the editorial board of Métropolitiques/Metropolitics since 2010.

Corinne Larrue (1957) is Full Professor at the University of Paris Est Créteil and Member of the Lab’Urba Research Center. She was previously, since 1991, associated professor then full professor (2002) at the University of Tours. She is currently Director of the Paris School of Planning (since January 2014), and has been from 2008 to 2012 deputy manager of the CNRS Research Center CITERES (Cité Territoire Environnement Société) at the University of Tours. She holds a PhD in Regional Economics and Planning (1983). Her major field of research has been policy analysis with emphasis on environmental and regional policies. She has been working on the issue of sustainable development policies for 15 years.

Gilles Hubert is full professor at the University of Paris Est Marne and member of the Lab’Urba research center. His areas of research expertise includes urban environment, water management and flood hazards. In relation with the flood risk management, his research interest concerns the public policy analysis, with a particular focus on the impact assessments of these policies on the practices of inhabitants, stakeholders, local partners and decision makers. He recently carried out a research on the upstream Seine river basin, in order to study how the flood risk was taken into account at various scales simultaneously. He is currently leading several PhD students working on flood resilience.