The research project Communication for the Commons: A Comparative Study on Socio-Economic Innovation in Portugal and Catalonia (provisional title) is being developed in the scope of the Doctoral Programme on Information and Knowledge Society at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute of the Open University of Catalonia (IN3/UOC). It is hosted by Dimmons at IN3/UOC – an action-research group “fostering socioeconomic innovation through research, methodological experimentation and action for a commons oriented society” – and by the Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto (ISUP), with the kind support of the Portuguese funding institution FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under grant agreement SFRH/BD/136809/2018.
Sara Moreira is a PhD candidate on Information and Knowledge Society at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute of the Open University of Catalonia (IN3/UOC). Her research focuses on the communicative ecologies of commons-oriented organizations and alternative economies in Portugal and Catalonia. 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 the World Wide Web. She is an active commoner within grassroots initiatives in Porto dedicated to agroecology, collaborative consumption, and community media.
Doctoral Thesis Committee
The research project is supervised by a three-member doctoral thesis committee which combines complementary expertise on the different scientific areas and provides contextual guidance and support in/from the regions where field work is taking place.
- Main supervisor: Mayo Fuster Morell (Spain) – Dimmons director of research on collaborative economy at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute of the Open University of Catalonia.
- Co-supervisor: Cristina Parente (Portugal) – Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto, sociologist and researcher on socio-economic innovation in Portugal, Spain and Brazil.
- External member: Alice Mattoni (Italy) – Assistant Professor at the Istituto di Scienze Umane of the Scuola Normale Superiore, expert on communication, media, and social movements studies in Southern Europe.