By Els Keunen
In a second guest lecture organised for students of the University of Stuttgart, which took place on 27 November, Sónia Alves explored how theoretical perspectives can help make sense of urban change and housing system transformations. The lecture is part of the design studios ‘Common Ground’, organised in partnership with DASH partners Domus Social (Porto) and Gaiurb (Vila Nova de Gaia), in which students will develop proposals for strategies and/or designs for area-based interventions in specific sites in Porto and Gaia.
In the lecture, which focused on Porto as a case study, Sónia traced 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 concluded by inviting students to reflect on anti-segregation and anti-gentrification measures through an international comparative lens.e increasingly seeking scientific input to strengthen policy design and implementation.
