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Local Energy Communities: An Opportunity for Sustainable Value Creation and Employment in peripheral Regions of Europe?

Over the course of the last two years, the Berlin-based think tank Das Progressive Zentrum organised, in cooperation with numerous partner organisations, the trans-European civil society project DIALOGUE ON EUROPE.

Within this framework, experts and practitioners from across Europe gathered in four so-called ‘Thinking Labs’ to deliver fresh ideas and to independently elaborate concrete policy recommendations on four European key areas: Migration & Integration, Populism, Social Cohesion, and Sustainable Growth. The overall project has been supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.

The coordinator for the workgroup on transition to renewable energies at the Thinking Lab on Sustainable Growth is CEI-IUL researcher Ana Margarida Esteves.

The results are available in a Policy Brief, co-authored by Ana Margarida Esteves, which will be forwarded to the institutions and governments of the EU.

Ana Margarida Esteves’ contribution is entitled “Local Energy Communities – An Opportunity for Sustainable Value Creation and Employment in peripheral Regions of Europe?

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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).