Seminar (TURBA Lab): "Research Trajectories and Urban-Rural Challenges"

The Urban Transformation and Global Change Laboratory (TURBA Lab) is pleased to invite you to the Seminar: «Research Trajectories and Urban-Rural Challenges: A Seminar with TURBA Lab's Juan de la Cierva Fellows», given by Paloma Yáñez, Marina Pera and Amalia Calderón, the three Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral researchers affiliated with the TURBA Lab to present their research trajectories and ongoing projects.

The seminar will be held, in hybrid format, on Friday, January 30 at 11:00 am (CET) in Room U1.14 of Can Jaumandreu (Building U).

Venue

Can Jaumandreu (Building U - U1.14)
c/ Perú, 52
08018 Barcelona
Espanya

When

30/01/2026 11.00h

Organized by

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Urban Transformation and Global Change Laboratory (TURBA Lab)

Contact

rcolacios@uoc.edu

Program

Abstract

Across the three presentations, the seminar will address key questions in urban and rural studies related to environmental justice, social inequalities, policy innovation, and communitarian practices. Drawing on mixed methods, participatory approaches, and close engagement with public institutions and grassroots actors, the speakers will reflect on how their work engages with pressing urban and rural challenges, including sustainability transition, climate adaptation, social and solidarity economies, and collective forms of resilience.
 
Beyond presenting individual projects, the seminar aims to foster dialogue around shared methodological concerns, conceptual frameworks, and future research directions. The session is conceived as an open and informal space for collective discussion, exchange, and feedback, offering an overview of the diverse yet interconnected lines of research developed within the lab.
 
The session will be structured around three 20-minute presentations, each followed by 10 minutes of Q&A, with additional time reserved at the end for a collective discussion across the themes that emerge.
 
 

Bios

Paloma Yáñez is a social anthropologist and filmmaker specialising in agroecology, science–policy interfaces, and climate justice. She is a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral researcher at the TURBA research group at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Her research addresses challenges related to digitalisation in agriculture, agroecological governance, regenerative farming practices, and soil health. She also explores climate impacts on vulnerable populations through projects on indigenous fire management in Latin America (in collaboration with NASA) and energy vulnerability among older adults during heatwaves in Madrid and Warsaw.

Marina Pera is a Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Fellow at Turba Lab (TRÀNSIC), Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. She holds an M.A. in Sociology from Columbia University and a PhD in Public Policy from IGOP-UAB. Her research focuses on policy innovation and communitarian practices, examining state-supported initiatives as sites of resilience in contexts of intersecting inequalities. Currently, she leads a project on the co-produced Ateneus Cooperatius policy, implemented with the Generalitat de Catalunya and actors from the social and solidarity economy. Her work has been published in City, Culture and Society, Urban Geography, and the International Journal of the Commons.

Amalia Calderón Argelich is a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral researcher at the TURBA research group at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and is affiliated with BCNUEJ. Her work sits at the intersection of environmental justice and urban planning, examining how urban greening and climate adaptation strategies shape inequalities and vulnerabilities in cities. She focuses on climate gentrification and green transitions in the Barcelona metropolitan area, using mixed methods and participatory processes. Her research also incorporates feminist urbanism and explores inequities in green infrastructure and public space use by marginalized communities.