Sónia Alves
Sónia Alves holds a BSc in Geography, a master’s degree in Urban Planning and a PhD in Sociology.
She is a research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences of University of Lisbon and a visiting researcher at BUILD - the Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University. At the ICS she is a member of the research groups SHIFT: Environment, Territory and Society, and Observa: Environment and Society Observatory (ICS-ULisboa), and a founding member of the Urban Transitions Hub.
Her research is guided by several overarching and often intersecting themes in the fields of human geography, housing policy and urban planning – fields that, although distinct, each offer perspectives necessary for grasping a complex reality.
As a geography teacher with a bachelor’s degree in geography who completed a teacher education program, she worked for fifteen years in public primary and secondary schools in the north of Portugal.
In 2012, after finishing her PhD, she returned to academia and has undertaken extensive research on comparative welfare state regimes, the social geography of cities and the differential impact of urban and housing policies on social groups and areas within cities.
In 2017, with the PLANAFFHO project (Grant agreement ID: 747257), she was awarded a Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual Fellowship. The project, completed between 2018 and January 2020 at the University of Cambridge, focused on how urban planning has been used in three capital cities (Copenhagen, Lisbon and London) to address problems of housing shortage, affordability, and the segregation of housing tenures.
In July 2022, as the co-Principal Investigator of the project DASH: Deliver sAfe and Social Housing, she won a second Marie Skłodowska-Curie award for a Staff Exchanges action that will fund an international consortium of universities, research institutions, businesses and other non-academic organizations in four European countries (Portugal, Denmark, Germany and Serbia) to develop new knowledge and skills on the field of housing provision.
She is currently the Principal Investigator of the project SUSTAINLIS - Sustainable urban rehabilitation and vulnerable populations in the historical centre of Lisbon (PTDC/GES-URB/28853/2017), which has investigated the effects of housing and urban policies and practices on highly vulnerable citizens living in Lisbon’s historical centre. More details can be found at: http://www.ceg.ulisboa.pt/sustainlis/; and the co-Principal Investigator of the Research Project “LOGO - The LOcal GOvernance of housing policy. A study of municipal housing strategies”, which was recently awarded funding by the FCT.
Artigo em Revista

Capítulo de Livro
Relatório
Policy Brief
Tese
Recensão
Acta

Artigo/Secção em Site
Designação | Encontro | Data |
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Estudos de caso e Avaliação: uma reflexão a partir do campo das políticas urbanas e de habitação | Ciclo de aulas abertas intitulado "Teoria, Investigação e Prática Profissional" | 21/10/2021 |
Innovative Approach and Perspectives of Applied Geography | 5th Serbian Congress of Geographers | 10/09/2021 |
Delivering on affordability: strategies and actions | Housing Week ‘Concrete actions for Social and affordable Housing in the EU’ | 26/01/2021 |
The impacts of recent reforms in Portugal’s private rental sector | Recent Trends in Rent Regulation | 21/01/2021 |
A Lei de Bases da Habitação. As bases do direito à habitação, a tarefa pública de habitação e os seus instrumentos de Execução | Conferência inaugural do Curso de Direito do Urbanismo e da Habitação | 07/02/2020 |
Planning policies and affordable housing: A cross-comparative analysis of Portugal, England and Denmark | Conference on the Global Dynamics of Social Policy | 25/10/2018 |
Land-use planning and housing – issues of supply and affordability in England and Portugal | Planning Research Conference 2018- Alternative Futures for Planning UK and Ireland | 03/09/2018 |
Outcomes of Urban Requalification under Neoliberalism: A critical appraisal of the SRU model | European Sociological Association Research Network 37 (Urban Sociology) - III Midterm Conference Inequality and uncertainty: current challenges for cities | 27/06/2018 |
Conceptualising the differences and commonality in spatial planning | Professionalism, Policy and Practice: Exploring the Relationship between Theory and Practice in Housing Studies | 11/04/2018 |
Land-use planning and the provision of affordable housing in Portugal | Migrations – Impacts, Law and Spatial Planning 12th Annual Conference of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law, and Property Rights | 23/02/2018 |
Models of urban rehabilitation under neoliberalism and austerity: the case of Porto | Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity: Fostering the European Dimension of Planning. 30th annual AESOP 2017 Congress | 14/07/2017 |
Ethnic Housing Segregation and the Roma/Gypsy Population: a portuguese perspective | Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity: Fostering the European Dimension of Planning. 30th annual AESOP 2017 Congress | 11/07/2017 |
The quest for social mix: the Copenhagen experience | Cities for Us: engaging communities and citizens for sustainable development / Cidades para Nós:envolver comunidades e cidadãos no desenvolvimento sustentável | 02/06/2016 |
The Role of the Welfare State and Housing Policies as a Medium and Outcome of Rising Inequalities in the Cities | Building Bridges: Cities and Regions in a Transnational World | 05/04/2016 |
Políticas de Habitação em Portugal: tendências recentes e cenários futuros | 1º Encontro de Prospetiva "Pensar o futuro, preparar a mudança" | 11/09/2015 |
Social housing in Portugal and Denmark: a comparative perspective | ENHR, Lisboa, 2015 | 01/07/2015 |
Affordable housing and urban regeneration in Portugal: a troubled tryst? | ENHR, Lisboa, 2015 | 29/06/2015 |