Jamie was a regular presence in Moura in spring, where he has developed research work under the RurAction project under the guidance of ADCMoura, one of the participating social enterprises.
“I’m an architect, professor and researcher. My work revolves around urban and, more recently, rural space development projects in disadvantaged regions, both inside and outside the UK. In parallel to practice, I taught as a senior teacher in London architecture schools, where I developed a teaching-learning program that integrates practice, research and co-production methods with communities and postgraduate students, which address specific socioespaciais challenges. I firmly believe in the synergies between practice, research and teaching and in the bet of working on the nexus. This ledme to participate in the Leibniz-Institut for Research on Society and Space (IRS) and Technische Universität Berlin in October 2017 to write my doctoral thesis. I graduated from Glasgow school of art, Macintosh school of architecture, with a bachelor’s degree in architecture (Riba part I) and I later received a professional degree in architecture (Riba II), awarded by teachers Florian Beigel and Philip Christou , and in professional practice in architecture (Part III) of the metropolitan university of London, Sir John Cass school of art, architecture and design. During this period I was co-founder and member of the board of a local civil society organization, which became a registered charity and was pre-selected for the small charity of the year award. More recently, I attended academic conferences in Hannover and Oxford. At Leibniz University of Hannover, I presented a communication on social innovation and space transformation in rural regions, entitled: “We are all together”. At Oxford Brookes University, my communication addressed innovation in higher education and research mapping methodologies in the city, entitled: “(Audio-visually) mapping redbridge”. I have been taught and been curator of several exhibitions in London and the UK, and I am also author of several collaborative works, published in architecture and urban design magazines. Currently, I am a member of the Einstein research group, Nylon, hosted at Georg Simmel Centre for metropolitan studies, and I am also part of an international network of urban research and of the international network EMES.
My research project is entitled “The spatial dissemination of social innovations. How and under what conditions do innovative social practices ” travel “?” My doctoral thesis considers space transformation as a product of social innovation through three case studies. The European rural regions cover the cases and include: Essex (UK); Uckermark (Germany); Mühlviertel (Austria) and Alentejo (Portugal). In my thesis I question how the spatial spread of social innovation is counted through the reconfiguration of material-atschool practices and the simultaneous process of coevolution, adaptation and movement in / between regions and internationally.
Although there has been much progress in this area in recent years, due attention has not been given to the movement dynamics inherent in social innovation, especially in rural regions and what happens as practices move and are reconfigured. Research into this gap can be particularly relevant as “spatial dispersion” is often present in working definitions and in the advanced conceptualization of social innovation. It is to this research gap that my thesis will seek the theoretical advances produced through the so-called “material turning”, with particular attention to the work of the feminist theoretical and quantum physics, Karen Barad, influenced by Gabriel’s perceptions of the afternoon End of the century, as for micro-processes at work within the social. It is through this theoretical framework that I develop and develop an appropriate and innovative mapping methodology to reveal the “distributed agenciais forces” operating in the spatial dissemination of social innovation in disadvantaged rural regions. In my research interests include themes such as: “theoretical advances through new materialism”, “Co-production and agency scattered in spatial transformation processes”, “spatial diffusion and social innovation in rural regions and mapping methodologies Experimental”. Click here to learn more about my research
Thanks to ADC Moura for the interview and the picture!