Marc Parés

Marc Parés is an Associate Professor of Geography at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB Geography Department) and a researcher at the Institute for Government and Public Policies (IGOP), where he led the Research Group on Urban Governance, Commons, Internet, and Social Innovation (2014-2019). Currently, he is the Coordinator of the UAB Bachelor’s Degree in Geography, Environmental Management, and Spatial Planning.

His background is in Environmental Sciences (BSc, 2001), Political Sciences (BA, 2004), and Geography (PhD, 2006). He joined the UAB Geography Department in 2002 with a predoctoral fellowship (2002-2006), and was a visiting scholar at the University of Sussex in 2003. After obtaining his doctoral degree in 2006, he joined the IGOP as coordinator of the former Research Group on Participation and Social Movements (2006-2013).

After a two-year postdoctoral fellowship (2007-2009) at the University of Manchester (School of Environment, Education & Development), he returned to the UAB Geography Department, serving as a lecturer from 2009 to 2014. From 2014 to 2016, he received an EU Marie Curie Fellowship, serving as a visiting scholar at New York University (Sociology Department, Wagner School of Public Service) and KU Leuven (Planning & Development). In 2017, he secured a position as Associate Professor. Between 2019 and 2023, he served as a Member of Parliament in the Catalan Parliament.

He has three six-year research periods (tramos de investigación). In 2018, he obtained the accreditation of Full Professor by the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency (AQU). In 2024, he was awarded the Pasqual Maragall Legacy Award for Research.

He has participated in over 75 research projects, serving as the Principal Investigator (PI) in more than 50, and has produced over 85 publications (27 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 2 books with prestigious international publishers). He has published in journals such as Urban Studies, City & Community, Urban Affairs Review, Housing Studies, Urban Research and Practice, Urban Geography, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and Environmental Policy and Governance.

His research has focused on the fields of Urban Governance, Neighborhoods, Citizen Participation, Urban Political Ecology, Environmental Management, and Social Innovation. He has led European Projects on Housing (Yes We Rent!), Floods (CAPFLO), and Social Innovation (SOCRISIS) and has participated in national research projects on Neighborhoods (Barrios y Crisis), Urban Governance (REDES and TRANSGOB), and Water Governance (PART-DMA).

He has supervised 7 doctoral theses and is currently supervising one more. According to Google Scholar, he has accumulated 2,554 citations (h-index 28), with 5 publications having more than 100 citations and 50 publications having more than 10 citations.