Welcome to the Homepage of Idalina Baptista

Research Fellow

idalina.baptista[at]insis.ox.ac.uk

My current research interests focus on the theoretical and practical challenges of contemporary urban governance, with a wide geographical focus. My work operates at the intersection of urban theory and governance theory, investigating the geographical sites of theory production, what it means to govern the city, how certain forms of governing become possible and the patterns of urbanization, citizens, and livelihoods they engender. I’m currently researching notions of urban flexibility in governing cities facing situations of crisis in Africa and the Caribbean. For my PhD dissertation, I examined the use of regimes of exception as alternative forms of governance to deliver large-scale urban rehabilitation projects in Portugal (Polis Program). I’m also working on publishing my dissertation by discussing how practices of exception became widespread instruments in urban governance and its implications to contemporary ideologies of urbanism, state, and citizenship.

Research

Understanding the Dynamics of Urban Flexibility and Reconstruction

This 1-year exploratory project investigates notions of 'urban flexibility' in cities facing situations of crisis. The project looks at the intersection of urban planning, governance and urban development in the context of hurricane management in Cancún, Mexico and malaria control in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I'm working on developing comparative insights from the two cases, while contributing to a cross-fertilization on South-South urban theory. Learn more >>

The 'unplanned' country -- narratives of 'disorderly' urban development

In this line of research, I seek to understand the intellectual origins and scholarly construction of a narrative that arguably defines Portuguese urban development as unplanned, disorderly and chaotic. See a recent article on IJURR here.

Regimes of Exception in Urban Planning and Governance: The Case of the Polis Program, Portugal

For my doctoral dissertation, I studied the use of regimes of exception to govern urban rehabilitation projects in Portugal. The dissertation focused on an in-depth study of the Polis Program (Programa Polis), between 2000 and 2006. I studied in detail the program's implementation in two cities where it faced considerable conflict (Costa da Caparica and Viana do Castelo). My study focused on understanding how policymakers came to justify the use of a regime of exception and urban partnerships as the solutions to address the 'urban chaos' in Portuguese cities. I concluded that policymakers framed the regime of exception to favor the efficiency of timely project delivery as a way to harness the uncertainty and complexities of planning and rehabilitation processes. The dissertation discusses how such regimes of exception are however unable to eliminate conflict from urban governance.