International

Lab’URBA is strongly committed to an international outlook.

Lab’URBA has been actively engaged in an internationalisation process of its research and members for several years, resulting in the current broad range of internationally oriented activities. These take five main forms:

• Collaborative and comparative international research

• A strong presence of Lab’URBA in academic networks and learned societies

• International editorial activities

• Firm support for the internationalisation of PhD careers

• Hosting of international colleagues

Lab’URBA conducts collaborative and comparative international research that contributes to debates on the interplay between global socio-economic and ecological transformations or crises and urban action and spaces. These studies are frequently supported by European research grants (H2020, Europe, Erasmus+) or international contracts (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, FACE Foundation), led or co-led by laboratory members.

Lab’URBA maintains a strong presence in central networks and learned societies within the fields of urban studies, urban engineering, social geography, and urban planning. Members serve on the coordinating bodies of established scientific networks (European Network of Housing Research; Research Committee on Sociology of Urban and Regional Development; Urban Climate Change Research Network) and contribute to creating new partnership networks around specific or emerging themes (European Reinventing Cities network; International Diffuse Cities and Urbanisation network). This presence is also reflected by active participation in international conferences that shape research in urban studies.

Members of Lab’URBA engage in international editorial activities that attest to the laboratory’s recognition and contribute to its European and broader influence: publications in English-language peer-reviewed journals (40% of articles published between 2018 and 2023), editing or co-editing books in English with reputable publishers (Routledge, Wiley, University of California Press); editing or co-editing special journal issues; and a sustained commitment to peer-reviewing for prominent international journals.

The laboratory strongly supports the internationalisation efforts of PhD students, reflected by a growing number of joint PhD supervisions (co-tutelles), cross-writing workshops with the Department of Planning and Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine, active integration into international networks through participation in European and global conferences, and support for publishing in English.

Lab’URBA regularly hosts international colleagues — researchers and faculty members from foreign universities — as well as early-career researchers (PhD candidates and post-docs) involved in laboratory activities, thereby enhancing the laboratory’s international visibility.

List of Invited Researchers in 2024:

• Rym Mouni BACHTARZI, University of Guelma (Algeria), PhD candidate
• Lorenzo BELLINI, Politecnico di Torino (Italy), PhD candidate
• Pablo BERMUDEZ PASTOR, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), PhD candidate
• Karin GRUNDSTROM, University of Malmö (Sweden), Faculty member
• Roger KEIL, York University – Toronto (Canada), Faculty member
• Thomas MOORE, University of Liverpool (United Kingdom), Faculty member
• Oscar PEREZ MORENO, University of Antioquia (Colombia), Faculty member
• Alfonso SUAREZ, Universidad de Oviedo (Spain), PhD candidate
• Nivaldo VIEIRA, Federal University of Bahia (Brazil), Faculty member

List of Invited Researchers in 2023 :

• Melora KOEPKE, Simon Fraser University (Canada), Postdoctoral fellow
• Oscar PEREZ MORENO, University of Antioquia (Colombia), Faculty member
• Elie FEGHALI, Lebanese University (Lebanon)
• Zhejian MO, South China University of Technology (SCUT, Guangzhou), Faculty member
• Massimo IZZO, Politecnico di Milano (Italy), PhD candidate
• Nedjoua BOUARROUDJ, University of Constantine (Algeria), Faculty member
• Morgane RUDAZ, University of Geneva (Switzerland), PhD candidate