Research Activities

Current and recent research projects:

 

Coordination of DESAFIO, an international and comparative research project focused on the democratization process in the field of water and sanitation in South America (2013-2015). DESAFIO brings together researchers from the WATERLAT network and other institutions, and is funded by the European Union under the 7th Framework Programme.

Coordination of WATERLAT, a Research Network on Governance and Citizenship in Water Management and Environmental Health (with a focus on Latin America), funded by the Leverhulme Trust during 2009-2011 and currently self-funded.

WATERLAT is linked to the international research network GOBACIT, which develops activities around the topic of "Governance, citizenship, water management, and environmental health in developing countries". This work explores the interface between water resources management, the management of water and sanitation services, and their impact on human health. GOBACIT has partners in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America and is structured along seven analytical dimensions: socio-political and cultural, economic-financial, policy-institutional, socio-spatial, techno-infrastructural/operational, health, and ecological-environmental. For information on this network send an e-mail to GOBACIT.

He is also developing research on the tensions and contradictions characterizing the movements for social and environmental justice. In this work he is focusing particularly on sociological debates in Latin America around problems of social change and development. This is part of a wider research programme on the development of the social sciences in Ibero America.

Previous research activities included:

2003-2005. Co-ordination of the Research and Teaching Programme on "Water and citizenship in Mexico", Centre for Mexican Studies, University of Oxford (2003-2005).

October 2001-June 2004. Coordination of the project "Barriers to and conditions for the involvement of private capital and enterprise in water supply and sanitation in Latin America and Africa: seeking economic, social, and environmental sustainability (PRINWASS)" (European Commission - 5th Framework Programme, INCO-DEV, Contract ICA4-CT-2001-10041). PRINWASS (2001-2004) was a comparative study of water and sanitation policies in Africa, America and Europe. Please, check the project's web site for information and downloadable materials.

1998-2000. Metropolitan Cities and Sustainable Use of Water (METRON), Case Study: London, Environment and Climate Programme, Framework IV - program project, DGXII, European Commission. The local project, directed by Dr Erik Swyngedouw, focused on the case of London, and formed part of a comparative study of sustainable practices of water management in urban areas including the cases of Athens, Amsterdam, Seville and Tel Aviv co-ordinated by the University of the Aegean (Greece).

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