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Assistant Researcher

Duncan Crowley

research interests

Ecocities; Community-Led Initiatives; Sustainable and Just Cities; Citizen Participation; Urban Transitions; Communities of Practice; Architecture; Degrowth; Action Research

Short Bio

Duncan is an Irish architect (2005) doing a PhD in “Architecture of Contemporary Metropolitan Territories” in ISCTE and working on Horizon2020 project UrbanA (Urban Arenas for sustainable and just cities) in FCUL. While living in Curitiba, Brazil (2014-18), he attained his masters in Environment and Development (2018). Living in Barcelona (2006-13) he co-founded the local Transition group and gained his Permaculture Design Certificate (2010) at Mas Franch and was active in the Barcelona Indignado square occupation of 2011. He worked with Eco Intelligent Growth (EIG) on LEED and Cradle to Cradle certification, collaborated with William McDonough and developed a White Paper for the Sustainable Urban Development of Barcelona for the Catalan Government. An Ecocity activist since Banja Luka, Bosnia (2003), he set up the Curitiba Ecocity Festival during the 2017 Ecocity World Summit. He represented ECOLISE at COP25 in Madrid 2019 and was part of the Climate Social & Climate Justice Caravan, with indigenous groups, during COP15 in Copenhagen 2009. His work to create community gardens and develop an urban bicycle greenway in Dublin was mentioned at the Venice Art Biennale (2005). He was active in Irish and UK Climate Camps 2007-09. He loves standing in rivers and Asterix books.

research project at dinâmia'cet-Iscte

Duncan's PhD focuses on Greening Cities and Connecting Communities, using action research to bridge activism and academia to examine Community-led responses to Climate Breakdown in Lisbon. His thesis examines what processes, structures or forms can enable the scaling up of the Global Ecovillage Network to transform modern global cities into ecocities, what opportunities exist for such an urban transition in Lisbon, what barriers exist and how might they be overcome? The thesis is developed using a normative approach based upon participatory action research, working with ECOLISE, UrbanA and Community-Led Initiatives (CLIs) in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. The thesis investigates phenomena, facilitates a communication process to explore the theme of sustainable and just cities, participates in depth with a selection of local CLIs and presents all the findings with a series of recommendations for different actors.

Main publications

Crowley D, Marat-Mendes T, Falanga R, Henfrey T, & Penha-Lopes G (2021) Towards a necessary regenerative urban planning. Insights from community-led initiatives for ecocity transformation. CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios, 83-104. DOI:10.15847/CCT.20505

Crowley, D (2021) Transformational Politics. New Networks of Governance. The Transformational Wave: Beyond Covid-19, 149-168. Independently published, Lisbon, Portugal.

Crowley D, Belchior C. (2020) Creating a Sustainable & Just Lisbon. Urban Hub 20 – Accelerating City Change in a VUCA World, 184-192.

Crowley, D & Melo, G. (2017) Fixing the city: Transforming Curitiba into an ecocity through citizen participation. Conference paper from SEPAS: 1° Seminário da Paisagem Urbana e Sustentabilidade, Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG), Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil

Crowley, D. (2010) Greening the City, Connecting Communities, C2C City. In THE SELF-SUFFICIENT CITY: Envisioning the habitat of the future, IAAC (Institute of Advanced Architecture Catalonia)

Main projects

PhD in Architecture of Contemporary Metropolitan Territories (ISCTE, Lisbon, Portugal)

UrbanA - Urban Arenas for sustainable and just cities

ECOLISE - European Network for Community-Led Initiatives on Climate Change and Sustainability

Last update

23 de maio de 2023
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