Team

Direction

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Mayo Fuster Morell is the lead researcher of Dimmons Research Group of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). In addition, she is a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society – Harvard University. She is the director of the Barcelona UOC Chair in digital economygathering the Open University of Catalonia, the Barcelona City Council and Barcelona Activa.

She is the Chair of the COST ACTION P-WILL on intersectional feminist applied to platform economy (2022-2026), a pan european network of more than 50 countries and 150 members hosted by UOC. She is the UOC’s lead researcher of the Spanish National program project “Gender Digital project on gender equality in the digital sphere. She wss the UOC’s lead researcher of the European projects PLUS: Platform Labor in Urban Spaces. She also was the lead researcher of the european project DECODE Citizens Owned Data Ecosystem and at the IGOP’s European Project: P2Pvalue: Techno-social platform for sustainable models and value generation in commons-based peer production in the Future Internet.

In 2010, she concluded her PhD thesis at the European University Institute in Florence on the governance of common-based peer production, and has numerous publications in the field.

@lilaroja //  mfuster [at] uoc.edu // Publications // Website


Postdoctoral researchers

Susana Galán Team

Susana Galán, postdoctoral researcher and coordinator of the research line in Digital Gender

At Dimmons, she coordinates the COST Action Platform Work Inclusion Living Lab (PWILL), of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology, and the project “Gender equality qualities of the platform economy. A framework of analysis,” funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. In the framework of the Barcelona UOC Chair in Digital Economy, she has participated in projects of knowledge transfer with the City Council of Barcelona and has organized the VIII Congress of Feminist Economy (Barcelona, March 16-18, 2023).

She has a PhD in Women’s and Gender Studies from Rutgers University. Her research adopts an intersectional, interdisciplinary, transnational and social justice approach that draws upon feminist and queer theory, feminist media studies and feminist geography.

Her work has been published in Signs: Journal of Women in Gender and Society, Gender, Place & Culture, Journal of International Women’s Studies, the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, Kohl: A Journal for Body and Gender Research, the Observatori del Conflicte Social and the books Young People Shaping Democratic Politics (Palgrave), Freedom Without Permission: Bodies and Space in the Arab Revolutions (Duke University Press) and Beyond the Square: Urbanism and the Arab Uprisings (Terreform).

She has served as co-editor for “Third Space” at the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies and has co-edited special issues for Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and Al-Raida. 

She has a Master in European Studies from the Europa-Universität Viadrina and a BA in Journalism from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

sgalanj [at] uoc.edu // Publications


PreDoc in Catedra Oberta

Foto NV Team

Nuria Vega PhD candidate in Gender Studies, Digitalization, and Social Economy at the Open University of Catalonia.

She holds degrees in Journalism from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and in Sociology from the University of Barcelona (UB). Additionally, she brings valuable experience in innovation consulting and digital communication. Since 2017, she has actively contributed to various projects within the realm of social economy, collaborating with cooperatives such as Quèviure, FoodCoop BCN, Femprocomuns, or the Platoniq Foundation (Goteo).

Her academic contributions to date include the publication of three articles in esteemed scholarly journals, stemming from her role as a research assistant in Ricard Espelt’s doctoral thesis at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). Furthermore, she co-edited the book “Cooperativisme i agroecologia a Barcelona. 25 anys: 1993-2018,” an essay published by Comanegra that offers a comprehensive analysis of the cooperative agroecology movement’s evolution in the city. Nuria is also a co-founder of “(des)vestint aliments,” an artistic and educational project centered on redefining our relationship with food. 

Since 2020, she has been a member of the Dimmons research group, actively contributing to the Barcelona UOC Chair in Digital Economy (MatchImpulsa project). Her engagement in this research-action initiative has played a crucial role in driving forward the progress of her doctoral thesis. 

@nuriavega // website // LinkedIn //  nvegaro [at] uoc.edu


Doctoral Research

cigarini Team

Anna Cigarini is PhD candidate on citizen science and public policy. My research focuses on citizen sensing and digital technologies, and the role they play in configuring scientific practices and policy making  in population health science. She is also a member of OpenSystems, of Universitat de Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems, and of Complexity Lab Barcelona. She is currently part of the European Horizon2020 project “CoAct, Codesigning Citizen Social Science for Collective Action”. She holds a master’s degree in Sociology and Demography at University Pompeu Fabra, a master’s degree in Population Studies at University of Groningen and a bachelor’s degree in Statistics at University Milano-Bicocca.

@anna_cigarini // annacigarini@uoc.edu


@adriagm preview Team

Adrià Garcia i Mateu  PhD candidate on design for policy making. Founding member of Holon & focused on transition design & housing cooperatives.

He is a founding member of Holon, a design collective working to mainstream organisations leading the transition towards a planetary society. He’s currently also teaching transition design at several design schools, and facilitating a local network of social impact design schools too. Finally he is part of la borda de Can Batlló, Barcelona, one of the few local urban housing cooperative of shared ownership. He holds a MSc in Leadership towards Sustainability from Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, and a degree in Design, specialising in service system design for sustainability by Eina School of Design and Art of Barcelona, Catalonia.

@adriagm // agarciamateu [at] uoc.edu


sara uncommons square Team

Sara Moreira  PhD candidate on communication strategies and tools for the commons in Portugal & Catalonia.

Her research focuses on the communicative ecologies of commons-oriented organizations and alternative economies in Portugal and Catalonia, and is hosted by the Dimmons research group and the Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto, and funded by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT). She holds a Master of Science in Computing and Informatics Engineering from the University of Porto and has previously worked as an editor, data-journalist, projects manager, webdeveloper – among other training and consultancy roles in Portugal, East Timor, Mozambique, and globally. She is an active commoner within grassroots initiatives in Porto dedicated to agroecology, collaborative consumption, and community media.

@saritamoreira // comcom.saritamoreira.com // saritamoreira [at] uoc.edu


Melissa Renau Team

Melissa Renau  PhD candidate studying how social and technological innovation can contribute to lessen socioeconomic inequalities.

She is currently developing her PhD thesis in Dimmons as part of the European project “Platform Labour in Urban Spaces”.  Her main research interest is to study the platforms socio-technical systems in order to understand how both workplace flexibility and better working conditions for platform workers can be enhanced. She holds a master’s degree on Sociology at the University of Barcelona and bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Her final degree thesis “Social Blockchain Revolution” was awarded the first position in Aracoop 2017 prizes. She truly believes that social science research can have social impact on society and wants to contribute to this end.

@melissa_renau //  Linkedin //  melissareca95 [at] gmail.com 


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Marc Rocas Royo is currently Associate Professor in Strategic Management at University of Barcelona, and Study Abroad Program’s Professor at Fundació Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. His current research interests are the Sharing Economy, the Blockchain, and their related systems of governance. He has previously researched about Cultural Intelligence and Cross-Cultural Management, fields in which he has recently published a book chapter about Cultural Intelligence and Creativity. He also works as freelance management consultant specialized in Diversity Management. He previously worked as Country Manager for a Swedish startup. He holds a Master’s Degree in the Information and Knowledge Society and a Telecommunications Engineer’s Degree, among others. He always tries to combine the technical, social and business perspectives for approaching his fields of research from enriched points of view.

@marcrocas // Personal website // mrocas [at] uoc.edu


Vera Vidal Beneyto Team

Vera Vidal  PhD candidate on sharing cities & Barcelona. Collaborator in projects as OuiShare Paris. Her research is funded by AGAUR, through the European Social Fund.

Vera Vidal studies the field of sharing cities, focusing on Barcelona. Previously, she worked for OuiShare Paris on the Sharitories study, on sharing practices in mid-sized cities across Europe, and was the scientific coordinator of the Global Cities chair, directed by Saskia Sassen and Richard Sennett, at FMSH. She holds a Masters in Management from Audencia School of Management, and a Masters in Social Sciences from EHESS.

@vvidalbeneyto // veravidal [at] uoc.edu


Action Production

julia macarulla Team

Júlia Macarulla Mackay: Logistics, and Production support.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management (ADE) and is currently advancing her expertise in the field of psychology. With a solid background in project management and coordination, she excels at conducting comprehensive financial analyses on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. Her skills encompass planning, developing, and implementing commercial strategies that significantly improve business outcomes. She is also adept at identifying and measuring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), ensuring the optimisation of both project development and profitability.

jumacmac [at] uoc.edu


carlos guadian 263x254 1 Team

Carlos Guadián Orta: Communication, Analysis & Technic support

With a degree in Political Science and Administration, he has worked in several companies dedicated to public sector consulting and data analysis.

He has been part of various initiatives related to open data and the improvement of the public sector. He has published for 20 years at K-Government and is most recently the editor of the CluPad newsletter where he regularly covers topics related to social change, digital rights, politics, and technology.

 @carlosguadian // cguadian [at] uoc.edu // Publications // website


Collaborators

Enric Senabre

Enric Senabre Hidalgo

Ramón y Cajal researcher at Universitat de Barcelona‘s Faculty of Information & Audiovisual Media (FIMA). Previously postdoctoral research fellow at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and at U1284 INSERM Université Paris Cité.

Co-founder of the open source Goteo.org platform for civic crowdfunding. PhD in Sociology on the Information and Knowledge Society at UOC’s Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3).

Personal website // esenabre [at] uoc.edu


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Mara Balestrini is a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher and a technology strategist. She is lead digital specialist at IDB Lab. She is the CEO of Ideas for Change, a think tank advising cities, businesses and institutions on impact innovation. Mara’s work sits at the intersection of civic technology, data, co-creation and Action Research. She has authored over 20 publications on these subjects and coordinated projects such as Making Sense EU, Bristol Approach and #DataFutures. Mara is also a co-founder of SalusCoop, the first Spanish cooperative for citizens’ health data. Mara earned a PhD in Computer Science from the Intel Collaborative Research Institute on Sustainable Connected Cities (ICRI-Cities) at University College London (UCL). She also holds a BA in Audiovisual Communications and a MSc in Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media. She is Senior Faculty at the IAAC and a visiting lecturer at the the Royal College of Art (RCA). Her work has been awarded at ACM CHI, ACM CSCW, Ars Electronica, among others, and featured in international media such as the BBC, The Guardian, The Financial Times and El País.

@marabales // marabalestrini [at] ideasforchange.com


pic Monica Team

Monica Bernardi is an urban sociologist, Ph.D. in Information Society. She is a Research Fellow at the University of Milano-Bicocca, within the Department of Sociology and Social Research. Additionally, she collaboratesw with Dimmons on projects for Sharing Cities Action. Her main research focus are smart city, sharing city, social innovation, sharing economy and the governance models that favor the creation of a sharing ecosystem in the urban tissue, with a special focus on the role of the public administration. During the Ph.D. she deepened the topic of the sharing economy investigating its evolution and features, and she studied the governance model implemented in the creation of a sharing city, analyzing the case of Milan and Seoul. Freelancer editor for LabGov/Urban Media Lab on the topic of the sharing economy; member of the “Register of Experts and Operators of the Sharing Economy in Milan”, Municipality of Milan, Milan Sharing City Project; member of the association “MilanoIN. Innovare X Includere”, laboratory of public policies.

@MonyBernardi


perfil mig CO Team

Sergi Frías Hernández is the director of Coboi lab, a public social innovation laboratory at Sant Boi de Llobregat. He is a PhD candidate at Dimmons, researching which ecosystemic conditions are necessary and / or favorable for a local public social innovation lab to develop its activity and be sustainable over time. He is the director of Coboi Lab, a public social innovation laboratory in Sant Boi de Llobregat. He has participated in various group projects, and Coboi serves as a reference point for Dimmons. Previously, he has worked as a consultant and researcher at different public and private organizations as: Generalitat of Catalonia – Cultural Dept. Office, Catalan Institute of Cultural Industries (ICIC; today called ICEC), D’Apeph or McKinsey. Also, he has been involved in artistic collectives as Parashuts Studio or Thinkbiosis specialized in media projects as a film director in different multidisciplinar artistic projects. Nowadays, he is lecturing Tools for Cultural Change at Istituto Europeo di Design- IED for Visual Communication Degree students and he is opening new academic collaborations with ELISAVA- Barcelona School of Design and Engineering (Design for City Making project – DxCM, lead by Ezio Manzini), Tecnocampus- UPF Foundation, Open University of Catalonia- UOC and European School for Social Innovation- ESSI. Sergi Frías is a Political Scientist (UPF); postgraduate in International Economy Relationships (UB), Filmmaking (URLL) and Contents Creation for New Audiovisual Media (UOC) and specialized in Social Entrepreneurship by Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and Social Innovation Ecosystems.

@s_frias // LinkedIn // sfrias [at] santboi.cat


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Monica Grau  PhD. Focus on feminist economy. Studying the interplay of feminist economics with the digital economy. She is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at CARE Netherlands. She participated in the development of a group equality plan and other projects from a gender perspective.

She has international experience in the fields of gender equality, women’s economic empowerment and sustainable development. She also has expertise in research disciplines: social psychology, management & entrepreneurship, feminist theory, and feminist economy. Monica Grau holds a PhD. in Philosophy (University of Barcelona), a M.Sc. in Human Resource Development (IDPM, UK) and a Degree in Psychology (Valencia University, Spain, and Montpellier University, France).

Previously she has worked as the coordinator of Women Innovators for Social Business in Europe Project (WISE), for which she was accountable for developing capacity building on women’s social entrepreneurship in Southern of Europe (Spain, Greece and Croatia). She has also been advisory group member for WeStart Project. Mapping Women Social Entrepreneurship in Europe.

@monicagrau // mgrausar@uoc.edu


susana martin Team

Susana Martín Belmonte is an independent economist focused on the democratic and environmental aspects of the monetary and financial system, and on the potential of the digitalisation of money for the transition to a fair and low-carbon economy. She is an economist, researcher, and monetary innovator in the field of social currency, leading REC citizen currency. She has participated in several activities linked to Dimmons. She has led several monetary and social innovation projects including the REC citizen currency in partnership with the Barcelona City Council in the framework of the EU B-MINCOME project (2016-2019) and also co-founded the GmeRiTs consortium, which won the €1 million “2020 Blockchain for social good” prize on financial inclusion from the European Commission. Susana is the author of several publications including books, reports, and scientific articles and has a background in international trade, online business and a master’s degree in Economic Theory from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.


foto nur Team

Núria Reguero Jiménez is a journalist and Dimmons researcher specialized in culture/communication policies, commons and social movements. In her PhD (2017) she analyzed community media’s governance and collective action (it was supervised by Mayo Fuster and Joan Subirats). She’s currently working at Escola de l’IGOP and is member of the Xarxa d’Economia Solidària. She was board member of the Community Media Forum Europe (2008-2011) and coordinator of the Unesco Chair in Communication InCom-UAB (2006-2014). She is also involved in grassroots initiatives on agroecology, collaborative consumption, and coops. She is a researcher at the Institute of Communication (InCom-UAB) and has participated in Dimmons activities.

Academia // @__serendipia__


thais Team

Thais Ruiz de Alda is a seasoned technologist with over 20 years of experience, currently serving as the Executive Director of DigitalFems. She’s a dedicated advocate for gender equality in tech, coordinating the gender-focused data lab, GenderDataLab.org. She was involved in the design and preparation of the first-year projects for Sharing Cities and MatchImpulsa.

Ruiz de Alda also mentors digital innovation projects and collaborates with the Open University of Catalonia. She has founded organizations focused on digital privacy and security, and has co-organized significant digital economy events. Her work intersects technology, politics, and gender, making her a key figure in the digital sector.

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Guido Smorto is Full Professor of Law at University of Palermo (Italy) and Faculty affiliate at Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) – Open University of Catalonia, where he works as Member of Dimmons (Digital Commons) providing his expertise on the regulation of sharing economy. As International Visiting Professor he taught several times in U.S.A. (Fordham School of Law) and Japan (Nagoya University) and was “Professore Visitante” in Brazil (Università Oeste de Santa Catarina). His latest articles focus on the regulation of the platform economy, with a special focus on EU law and on its impact on cities. On these topics, beside scholarly works and non academic articles, he published a Report on behalf of EU Commission, a Research paper for the EU Parliament, and contributed as an expert to the 2017 European Parliament Resolution on the collaborative economy. He has been involved in the DECODE project as a visiting researcher and is the leader of Working Group 4 the COST Action P-WILL.

Academia // gsmorto [at] uoc.edu


Foto bio Elsa Soro Team

Elsa Soro: Sharing Cities Task Force coordinator  – Barcelona UOC Chair in Digital Economy.

She has  a post-doc researcher at the University of Turin where she also lectures on the Semiotics of Tourism. She is a lecturer and academic coordinator at CETT (UB), with expertise in Short-Term Rentals and the platform economy, and was involved in the Sharing Cities project.

She has lead the MA Event Tourism program at Ostelea Tourism Management School, in Barcelona. Previously she had developed and led courses at both the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the IED European Design School.

After obtaining her Ph.D in Science of Language and Communication from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, in international co-tutorship with the University of Turin, she worked as strategic advisor at European Capital of Culture Program (European Union) in Italy and Romania and I have since collaborated with Barcelona City Council and was involved in the development of Barcelona Tourism Strategic Plan 2020.


  • Sasha Costanza-Chock: They are associate professor at Northeastern University and a faculty affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. They are a researcher and designer who works to support community-led processes that build shared power, dismantle the matrix of domination, and advance ecological survival. She has been involved in several Dimmons activities.
  • Natalia Garrido: She is a postdoctoral Researcher at ESADE Business School. She has been involved in gender group areas.
  • Rafael Grohmann: He is a labour and tech researcher, as well as a media and communication professor. She has been involved in the ‘Platform Labour in Urban Spaces’ project and is part of the P-WILL project. 
  • Samer Hassan: He is a computer scientist, social scientist, activist, and researcher, focused on the use of decentralized technologies to support commons-based collaboration at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid. He has been involved in several projects at Dimmons. 
  • Claudia Malpica Lander: She is an expert in statistics and a knowledge transfer technician. She has participated in the DECODE and PLUS projects and is part of the Digital Gender Spanish Government project team.
  • Alice Mattoni: She is an Associate Professor at Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, and she is PI ERC funded project BIT-ACT (2019-2024. She was involved in the preparation of several Dimmons projects.
  • Silvia Semenzin: She is a postdoctoral researcher in Digital Sociology and has been involved in the VIII Feminist Economy Congress.
  • Sébastien Shulz: He is a postdoctoral researcher at the Technological University of Compiègne. He was Dimmons’ visiting.
  • Özge Subasi: She is the director of Futurewell at the Co-Creation and Wellbeing Group, and a faculty member at Koç University. She has visited Dimmons in connection with the COST Action, in which she also acts as ITC Grants Manager.

PHD HOLDERS

Mentors 

Prof. Yochai Benkler, a commons-based peer production expert, and co-director of Berkman Klein Center, Harvard University, USA.   

Prof. D. della Porta, an authority on social movements and Dean of the Social and Political Science Department, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy.

Prof. J. Subirats, Public Policies expert, founding director of IGOP-UAB, Spain and currently Minister of Universities, Spanish Government. 

PhD CANDIDATES

  • Fátima Solera (ext): She is a researcher on free culture and new models of economic sustainability, as well as a cultural manager. She conducted a visiting research stint at Dimmons.
  • Elisabet Vivies (ext): She is Project Manager and Researcher at LSE Consulting.
  • Laura Eccher (ext): Laura Eccher is a PhD candidate in Regional Science and Economic Geography at the University of Bologne. She participated in the VIII Feminist Economy Congress and will conduct visiting research at Dimmons next year.
  • Roel Roscam Abbing (ext): Pre-doctoral visiting researcher in Interaction Design from Malmö University.
  • Mariona A. Ciller (ext): Founder and director of STEAMConf Barcelona, president of the Science in Society Foundation.
  • Alicia Trepat (ext): She is a designer and facilitator of distributed leadership and ecosystem building. In addition to practising these principles in her own communities, she has co-authored research on these topics and is currently pursuing a PhD at Tallinn University of Technology. She has been involved in various Dimmons projects.

OTHERS

  • Bart Grugeon: He is a journalist and documentary filmmaker who was involved in the Sharing Cities project.
  • Olympia Arango: She is a master’s student interested in behavioral economics. She completed her practices at Dimmons and was involved in the VIII Feminist Economy Congress.
  • Laia Orozco: he is a freelancer specializing in social innovation, gender, and European projects. She participated in managing the preparation of the P-WILL COST Action project.
  • Catalina Guerrero: She is a sociologist. As part of her Master’s practices at Dimmons, she was involved in organizing the VIII Feminist Economy Congress.
  • Mireia Manjon: She is an expert in communication and social media and was involved in the preparation of the Sharing Cities project. Currently, she is a member of the Colectic cooperative, which manages the Canòdrom space where Dimmons has a workspace.
  • Javier Toret: He is an independent researcher with interests spanning psychology, philosophy, politics, and technology. He has collaborated with Dimmons on the Sharing Cities project, and he is set to undertake a visiting research role associated with P-WILL.
  • Patricia Lujan, Co-Founder of “Con Perspectiva de Género” since May 2023, is a distinguished consultant in gender perspective, communication, and branding. She is also a dedicated educator at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona since 2019, teaching in the fields of strategic planning, interactive communication, and advertising. Founder of “School of Feminism” and board member of “1010 Ways To Buy Without Money,” Patricia champions innovative approaches to social change and inclusive marketing.

Friend and former members

Manel Rebordosa, Natàlia Rodríguez, Paola Imperatore, Nuria Valero, Núria Ferran-Ferrer, Maura Lerga, Elisabeth Roselló, Eva Estevan, Griselda Casadellà, Jessica Agnel, Laura Bonet Gorchs, Sara Ramis Mackay & Ricard Espelt.

Dimmons is a research group part of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) recognized by the Catalan Generalitat Goverment (2017 SGR 1590) (2021 SGR 01383)