ABOUT US

Recartografías: noun, fem. From: Re- (again)  and Cartografías  (Spanish: Cartography, mapping). 

Many places and names are disappearing from maps: old forests, hamlets, abandoned mines, fields etc. Many names of places refer to an old and pre-capitalist vision and construction of space leaded by local and indigenous communities around the world. Many of them disappeared due to rural exodus, colonialism, natural resources marketization and overexploitation.

With the study of these communities, especially in rural Spain, we reclaim the importance of commoning to keep our environment and to promote a degrowth and equal society. We want to put again many names of communities in the maps.This is why our name is Recartografías.

The Recartografías team undertakes research in a variety of areas. These can be summarized as follows:

 

> Research on urban, locational and environmental conflicts and anti-capitalist social movements. (Luis del Romero, Antonio Valera)

 

> General research on the commons and land stewardship: definitions, strategies and experiences) (Luis del Romero, Antonio Valera)

 

> Rural decline and urban shrinkage (Luis del Romero) 

 

> Research on alternative environmental management tools (Laura Lara, Neus La Roca)

 

> Sustainable agriculture, gardening and architecture in Mediterranean mountain areas (Neus La Roca, Antonio Valera)

Luis del Romero Renau (Ph.D in Geography) Coordinator

 

Luis del Romero is geographer, scientist and activist. He has a PhD in Geography at the Autonomous University of Barcelona with a thesis about urban and rural planning in the context of Spain's economic boom (1996-2007). He was post-doc researcher at the Univeristy of Laval and Quebec University in Montreal (Canada), as well as visiting professor in the Freiburg University (Germany).

He was one of the founders of Recartografias. He combines his job as professor and researcher at the University of Valencia with the Mas Blanco project.

Research interests: 

- Environmental, urban and social conflicts in cities and rural areas

- Rural crisis and depopulation

- Degrowth studies

- Land stewardship and communitarian management

  Selected publications:

Del Romero, L. (Ed.), 2016, Conflicts in the city. Reflections on urban unrest. New York: Nova Publishers 

Othengrafen, F., Del Romero, L. and Kokkali, I., 2016, A new landscape of urban social movements: refections on urban unrest in Southern European cities. In: Knieling and Othengrafen (Ed.). Cities in Crisis. Routledge. 

Del Romero, L. and Valera, A., 2015, Teruel, territorio en decrecimiento. Dinámicas y oportunidades. Ager, pp.3-32 DOI: 10.4422/ager.2015.09

Del Romero, L. and Valera, A., 2015, From NIMBYsm to the 15M: A Decade of Urban Conflicts in Barcelona and Valencia. Territory, Politics and Governance.

Mössner, S. and Del Romero, L., 2014, What Makes a Protest (Not) Happen? The Fragmented Landscape of Post-Political Conflict Culture. In book: Planning and Conflict: Critical Perspectives on Contentious Urban Developments, Chapter: What Makes a Protest (Not) Happen? The Fragmented Landscape of Post-Political Conflict Culture, Publisher: Routledge, Editors: Enrico Gualini, pp.63-78

Del Romero, L. ,2012, Cohesión y exclusión social en la ciudad . In Sorribes, J. (Ed.): La ciudad. Economía, espacio, sociedad y medio ambiente . Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch.

Del Romero, L. ,2012, Ciudadanía, malestar urbano y derecho a la ciudad. In Sorribes, J. (Ed.): La ciudad. Economía, espacio, sociedad y medio ambiente . Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch.

Del Romero, L. ,2012, Ecología urbana. In Sorribes, J. (Ed.): La ciudad. Economía, espacio, sociedad y medio ambiente . Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch.

Del Romero, L. and Trudelle, C., 2012, Le Conte de deux cités : Analyse comparative des conflits urbains de Montréal et Valence, 1995–2010. Canadian Geographer-Geographe Canadien. Vol 56, pp.58-79 

Del Romero, L. and Trudelle, C., 2011,Mega -Events and urban conflicts in Valencia, Spain: Contesting the new urban modernity. Urban Studies Review, Vol 1, 2011.
GOOGLE SCHOLAR

Antonio Valera Lozano (Ph.D in Geography) 

Instituto Interuniversitario de Desarrollo Local.

University of Valencia

Research fellow from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Master's degree in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry in 2005. Ph.D. degree from the University of Valencia in 2011. Antonio has 10 years of experience in GIS analysis in the Land Planning Department of the Desertification Research Center – CIDE (CSIC-UV-GV). Relevant experience in: detection and analysis of land use-cover changes, soil sampling and mapping, design and application of environmental indicators, identification and location of urban conflicts. He worked two years for the National Tourism Institute in sustainable tourism in Nicaragua.  He is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Valencia

Research interests:

- Urban and rural conflicts

- Land use/cover changes

- Natural hazards and land degradation linked to climate change

- Environmental planning

- Environmental and urban GIS.

 

Last publications:

Del Romero, L. and Valera, A., 2015, Teruel, territorio en decrecimiento. Dinámicas y oportunidades. Ager, pp.3-32 DOI: 10.4422/ager.2015.09

Del Romero, L. and Valera, A., 2015, From NIMBYsm to the 15M: A Decade of Urban Conflicts in Barcelona and Valencia. Territory, Politics and Governance.

Del Romero, L. & Valera, A. (2012). Unmapped spaces: the challenges of spatial planning in abandoned spaces in Teruel province, Spain. CEDDAR. Book in press.

Valera, A., Añó & Sánchez, J. (2012). Half a century (1956-2005) of urban growth and soil loss in the Spanish Mediterranean coastal area: the metropolitan area of Alacant-Elx. Documents d’Anàlisi Geografica, article in press.

Valera, A. (2011): Land use-cover dynamics and environmental sustainability in the metropolitan areas of the Comunitat Valenciana (Spain). Ph D. Thesis. Faculty of Biologics, University of València.

Valera, A.; Añó, C. & Sánchez, J. (2011). Urban growth (1956-2006) and soil degradation by soil sealing in the municipality of Valencia. Anales de Geografía de la Universidad Complutense. 31 (2): 177-191.

Laura Lara Martín (Master's degree in environmental sciences)

Founder of Recartografias, Laura studied environmental sciences at the University of Valencia. She is completing a master's degree on sustainable waste management at the Miguel Hernandez University. She has also worked on the topic of environmental and urban conflicts, more especifically on issues around gentrification, as well as on rural and urban shrinkage.

Research interests.

- Waste management sustainable technologies in rural areas

- Environmental conflicts

- Recycling technologies

- Gentrification and urban conflicts

 

Selected publications:

Del Romero, L. and Lara, L., 2015,The dark side of a trendy suburb. Gentrification and dispossession in Russafa, Valencia In Gualini, E. (Ed.) Conflict in the City. Berlin: Jovis

Del Romero, L, Lara, L. and Valera, A. Territorios abandonados. Pueblos y paisajes olvidados de Teruel. Exhbition on rural shrinkage organized by San Jorge foundation, Calamocha (Spain).

Neus La Roca Cervigón (PhD in Geography)

Neus is biogeographer. Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Valencia. Doctor in Geomorphology (University of Valencia), national degree award, she studied a postgraduate course at the University of Mainz and a post doc stage at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. 

Devoted since the the middle 80s to research on geomorphical processes and natural hazards and on quaternary and holocene landscape evolution, she has participated as research partner in 5 National and 1 USA funded projects. Besides 30 years of teaching experience on more than 15 different subjects of the Physical Geography she is responsible for a Jean Monnet module on Landscapes and Environmental Policies in the EU (since 2006).She has also taught Physical Geography of Spain at the Universität Trier, Germany. She is (co)author of more than 40 scientific publications. She is especialised in biogeography of the Mediterranean mountains and the historical interactions between the human being and forests througout history. Using archeology and dendrochronology methodologies she studies how natural landscape in Mediterranean regions has been shaped, normally with sustainable interactions and limited exploitation of natural resources.

Selected publications:

La Roca, N. and Hurtado, A. , 2011,  Estructura del alcornocal de Mosquera tras un aprovechamiento secular (Serra d'Espadà, Castellón, España) Cuadernos de geografía, ISSN 0210-086X, Nº 90, 2011, págs. 169-186

La Roca, N. et al., 2003, Palinología del Cuaternario reciente en la Laguna de Villena (Alicante, España). Anales de Biología, nº 25.

La Roca et al, 1999, Paisatges d'interior La Universitat de València i els seus entorns: L'Horta de València, el Massís del Caroig, el Carrascal de la Font Roja i la Serra de Mariola, 2014, ISBN 9788437094267, págs. 284-287

Other Recartografías members:

- Teresa Díaz Guzmán Journalist, web and graphic designer, she is responsible of the Recartografias blog

 

- David Galindo, Marta Oliver and Manel Alemany,Sofía Portolés, Rocío Higueras, David Salesa, Sara Miravet, Pepi Martín and Josep Ferrandis are students and young professionals in the fields of environmental sciences, geography and history.