Dr Marina Pera

• Phd in Politics, Public Policies, and International Relations (Autonomous University of Barcelona). 2022
• M.A. in Sociology (Columbia University, USA). 2014
• M.A. in Sustainable Human Development (University of Girona). 2011
• B.A. in Sociology (Autonomous University of Barcelona). 2009

Marina holds a PhD in Politics, Policies and International Relations (Autonomous University of Barcelona), a M.A. in Sociology (Columbia University, New York), a M.A. in Human Sustainable Development (Girona University) and a BSc in Sociology (Autonomous University of Barcelona). She currently is a postdoctoral fellow at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She was a visiting scholar at INLOGOV (University of Birmingham) in 2023 and she is a visiting scholar at Barcelona University. 

Her interdisciplinary research focusses on urban governance, co-production of policies between local governments and citizens organisations. Her doctoral research explored the civic management facilities (municipal assets transferred to local grassroots organisations) in the city of Barcelona as opportunities for democratic enhancement and community strengthening. The research focused on identifying and understanding the circumstances that enable civic management facilities to become democratic and community development practices.

In the past few years, Marina has published about the relation between urban commons and the local state “Towards democratisation of Public Administration:

Public-Commons Partnerships in Barcelona”; “Commons-led co-production: a strategy for the emancipatory politics of the commons”; “Governmentality, the local state and the commons: an analysis of Civic Management facilities in Barcelona” and democratic innovative policies “The Embeddedness of Public-Common Institutions: The Citizen Assets Programme in Barcelona”. She has been engaged in research projects in which she studied the new municipalism in Barcelona (Protolocal Project) and the commons initiative at the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (Coproducció Procomú).

Public Management and Governance module of the Public Leadership and Management MSc programme.

Research interests

Coproduction of policies; Participatory governance; Asset transfer policies; Community policies; Urban commons. 

Current projects 

DEPART. The right to participate in the cultural life of the city: inequalities and equity policies. PI: Dr Nicolás Barbieri (UOC). Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Role: Researcher.

ECOSOCITIES. Agendas for urban recovery and citizenship practices facing the ecosocial crisis: discourses and initiatives. PI: Dr Marc Pradel and Dr Santiago Eizaguirre (UB). Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Role: Researcher.

Future challenges for Barcelona’s civic heritage. Ajuntament de Barcelona. Presenter at the round table (2022).

Manuscript reviewer: International Journal of the Commons and The Journal of Social Entrepreneurship.

Board member atWilder Journal on Democracy, Participation and Deliberation edited by Platoniq.