IN²LISBON - Innovative and Inclusive Lisbon

IN²LISBON - Innovative and Inclusive Lisbon"" will investigate whether and how public policies and private investments that announce “innovation” in two neighbourhoods of Lisbon (Beato and Marvila), Portugal, promote or neglect the social inclusion of subaltern groups (women, ethnic minorities and low-income residents) and diversity in this city.

These interventions are advertised as vehicles for the establishment of “innovative and creative industries”; for the creation of an “open, entrepreneurial city and a world reference”; and the consolidation of Portugal's status as a “cosmopolitan, open and innovative” country.

However, the governance of this urban renewal process can also reproduce privileges and hierarchies, and even reinforce dynamics of urban segregation and inequality within the city.

The Beato and Marvila area offers a privileged vantage point for the interests of this investigation, due to the clear articulation between urban renewal operations, on the one hand, and the existence of municipal and national symbolic strategies aimed at repositioning Lisbon and Portugal on the global map.

Second, due to the scale and the fast pace that characterize this process in the context of a post-crisis economic recovery phase.

Third, due to its timing: since the beginning of the current pandemic, many plans, deadlines and ideas for these projects are being discussed, and IN²LISBON will also be well positioned to contribute to this debate.

The researcher will count on the contribution and partnership of the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa), with excellent academic resources, namely the stimulating and productive research group Environment, Territory and Society.

Based on this unique experience, the researcher intends to assume a more qualified and powerful position to continue his academic career in Brazil.