On 27 November 2025 at 18h, Sónia Alves will give a lecture titled ‘From Theory to Practice — and Back: Interpreting Urban Change through Housing and Urban Theories’. You are invited to join us in classroom 9.06 in the K1 building. Since Sónia will join us online, it is also possible to join online via this link: https://unistuttgart.webex.com/unistuttgart-en/j.php?MTID=mcdc76f8d692679e30dd075e3337691fa.
The Lecture
Using Porto as a case study, this lecture explores how theoretical perspectives can help make sense of urban change and housing system transformations. It traces how successive reforms, crises, and EU programmes have shaped governance and regeneration practices, showing how concepts from institutional theory—such as path dependence, critical junctures, and multilevel governance—illuminate the social and spatial transformations observed in Porto. The session concludes by inviting students to reflect on anti-segregation and anti-gentrification measures through an international comparative lens.
The Lecturer
Dr. Sónia Alves is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research explores the intersections of housing, urban governance, and institutional change. Drawing on human geography, urban planning, and sociology, her work investigates how housing systems, spatial inequalities, and public policies evolve and interact across scales.
