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Transnational networks for regenerative development in Europe

CEI researcher Ana Margarida Esteves’s project “EuroREGEN: Transnational networks for regenerative development in Europe: A comparative perspective on grassroots mobilisation and policy advocacy” has been awarded funding by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). The project is developed in partnership with Centro de Estudos Sociais (CES) at the University of Coimbra, and Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social (CIS) at Iscte.
About the project

Industrial mass production and globalized supply chains bring numerous challenges and risks. Climate change, resource scarcity, financial instability, rising economic and political polarization, and associated threats to human livelihoods require systems-based, multidimensional solutions that promote resilience from the ground up. Such solutions need to address the root cause of these issues: a paradigm of development that reduces well-being to quantitative criteria, underestimating the importance of social and ecological relationships.

Regenerative approaches to development treat natural and human processes as inherently linked. The EuroREGEN project will undertake a comparative analysis of how transnational networks of autonomous initiatives working at the scale of the local community (Community-Led Initiatives or CLIs) in Europe mobilize within and across national borders and engage public institutions in order to promote favourable institutional environments for regenerative development.

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Ana Margarida Esteves

Ana Margarida Esteves is a Research Fellow at the Center for International Studies of the University Institute of Lisbon, Iscte and Guest Assistant Professor of the Department of Political Economy of the same institution. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology from Brown University (Providence, RI, USA) where she was a Fulbright Fellow. Her research and teaching encompass the relations between the social and solidarity economy, the commons and the sustainability transition movements; synergies between nature, culture and technology; and the application of critical pedagogies, as well as strategies of non-formal education, to social mobilization and the promotion of participatory democracy. She is a founder and member of the International Editorial Committee of the journal "Interface: A journal for and about social movements" (www.interfacejournal.net). She is also a member the RC47: Social Classes and Social Movements of ISA - International Sociological Association and part of its editorial platform Open Movements / Open Democracy (https://www.opendemocracy.net/openmovements ). In 2020, Ana Margarida became a member of SEADS (Space Ecologies Art and Design), a transdisciplinary and cross-cultural collective of artists, scientists, engineers and activists that is actively engaged in deconstructing dominant paradigms about the future and develops alternative models through a combination of critical inquiry and hands-on experimentation.". Previous to joining CEI-IUL, Ana Margarida Esteves held teaching positions at Brown University, Universidade Federal Fluminense (Brazil), Tulane University (New Orleans, USA) and Sunway University (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). She is a Visiting Research Fellow at Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) and Scuola Normale Superiore (Florence, Italy).