Thaisa Comelli’s research while affiliated with University College London and other places

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Publications (12)


Fig. 1 | Multiple approaches to generating climate information. a, Different
approaches to generating information on future climate and climate-related
developments. Numerical climate models generate global or regional climate
projections; physical climate storylines are a qualitative description of climate
projections, which explore how a physical event might unfold in a given
location; SSP-RCPs encompass plausible trajectories of future socioeconomic development; and plural climate storylines generate climate storylines
with a wider array of actors, including marginalized residents, civil society
organizations and social scientists. b, A comparison of these approaches
focusing on their methodological components. Full dots indicate dimensions
that are core to a given approach and patterned dots indicate dimensions that
might be considered but are not core to a given approach.
Fig. 2 | Current and future heat and water stress in urban centers. a, Urban
centers (dots) that show statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05) increasing trends in
human exposure to heat stress from 1983 to 2016, with dot colors denoting the
primary driving factor for this trend. These heat exposure records have been
adapted from the Global High Resolution Daily Extreme Urban Heat Exposure
(UHE-Daily) database23. The background hues represent the projected medium
term (2041–2060) annual change in the number of days surpassing 35 °C
maximum temperature, relative to the 1995–2014 period, sourced from the
Coupled Model Intercomparison Project dataset under a SSP3-7.0 scenario84,85.
b, Urban centers (dots) located in regions facing water scarcity, with dot colors
indicating its temporal character, adapted from ref. 86, CC-BY 4.0. River basin
colors depict the projected magnitude of water stress in 2040 compared with
2016, under the SSP2-8.5 scenario, sourced from the Aqueduct Water Stress
Projections87. Dot sizes in both panels correspond to urban population figures
in 2016, and the figure only depicts urban centers with a minimum of 1 million
inhabitants. Basemap from Natural Earth (https://www.naturalearthdata.com/).
Plural climate storylines to foster just urban futures
  • Article

October 2024

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278 Reads

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1 Citation

Nature Cities

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Gabriele Messori

Managing climate change-related risks requires robust and actionable insights into future climates. Here we develop the plural climate storylines framework to complement existing physical climate storylines, which have strengthened the usability of climate projections yet struggled to generate action for just climate futures. By taking urban adaptation as a case in point, we illustrate the plural climate storylines framework through four complementary methodological schools that bring together multiple knowledges on complex social and climatic processes: power-sensitive storylines, decolonizing storylines, co-producing storylines and aspirational storylines. Our framework generates storylines with the potential to advance transformative policies and new pathways towards climate-just futures. Read-only open access link: rdcu.be/dWEXZ



Figure 2: The Tomorrow's Cities NFV approach.
Figure 5: Collective storyline of youth group in Dar es Salaam.
Figures 3 and 4: Individual life story and wheel of assets, Nairobi. Source: Tomorrow's Cities archive.
Figures 6 and 7: Examples of sketched land use plans in Istanbul (left) and Nablus (right).
Examples of empirical indicators for an evaluation of NFV based on critical (urban) pedagogies
Normative future visioning: a critical pedagogy for transformative adaptation
  • Article
  • Full-text available

March 2024

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130 Reads

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3 Citations

Buildings and Cities

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Vidas que importam: Por uma agenda de cidadania e de não violência nas favelas cariocas

December 2023

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3 Reads

Revista Thésis

Nos últimos anos, o Brasil e o Rio de Janeiro parecem haver entrado em uma espiral de caos: as crises política e econômica ajudam a alimentar os retrocessos sociais e, principalmente, as diversas formas de violência contra os cidadãos mais estigmatizados e marginalizados do país. As favelas que haviam experimentado um tênue processo de inclusão social, econômica e espacial por conta dos programas de inclusão socio-espacial voltaram a sofrer com as violações de direitos, comprometendo a promessa de construção do direito à cidade formulada nas últimas décadas. Contudo, apesar dos retrocessos e do sentimento de desesperança, acreditamos ser possível refletir sobre as conquistas e retrocessos recentes e pensar nos possíveis caminhos de inclusão e de cidadania. Este trabalho visa, portanto, contribuir para o debate sobre uma agenda urbana baseada na não violência e na consolidação da cidadania, com reflexões sobre a ampliação de poderes gerada por novas formas (possíveis) de democracia e, não obstante, novas alternativas para a (re)construção do direito à cidade no Brasil. Argumentamos aqui que, as favelas se apresentam como locais de resistência, ativismo e transformação, nos quais os moradores clamam por direitos e visibilidade. Nossa reflexão apoia-se nas teorias de democracia radical e nas teorias radicais de planejamento, buscando analisar os novos rumos da cidadania e do direito à cidade em meio a esta transição política e paradigmática contemporânea.





Hybrid insurgent citizenship: intertwined pathways to urban equality in Rio de Janeiro

October 2022

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9 Reads

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2 Citations

Environment and Urbanization

This paper contributes to critical and Southern urban studies by discussing how the notion of hybridity is useful to understand contemporary modes of politics rooted in equality pursuits and crafted by peripheral subjects. It analyses the birth, discourses and tactics of three grassroots groups in Rocinha, an immense peripheral settlement in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to show how modern insurgent claims – based on material urban rights – are intertwined with other grammars of justice, such as the politics of intersectional difference, critical pedagogies, solidarity and care. These cases suggest that contemporary insurgency builds on rights-based citizenship claims to create unique pathways that somehow articulate the universality and relationality of justice. I suggest that hybrid insurgent citizenship operates like a braid in which different strategies are uniquely and interdependently linked over time. Whilst in Rocinha the central thread is insurgency, the same logics could apply to other context-situated political traditions.


Lutando por novas narrativas em favelas e periferias: cidadanias complexas em meio a ativismos materiais e culturais

August 2021

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24 Reads

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4 Citations

Cadernos Metrópole

Resumo O presente artigo tem como objetivo debater e explorar os novos ativismos em favelas, cujo foco se posiciona na história, na cultura e na identidade desses territórios. Argumentamos aqui que, diferentemente do tradicional ativismo urbano comumente abordado na literatura (focado em demandas de natureza material), os novos ativismos buscam adicionar, a essas lutas, uma disputa pela narrativa sobre o território. Exploramos essas manifestações à luz de debates sobre a transição conceitual da cidadania e sobre identidades interseccionais. Especialmente, questionamos a existência de uma suposta identidade de favelado na qual os discursos e narrativas hegemônicas sobre a cidade, ora podem ser reproduzidos, ora podem ser subvertidos e utilizados na construção de lutas e ativismos urbanos insurgentes.


Struggling for new narratives in slums and peripheries: complex citizenships amid material and cultural activisms

August 2021

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17 Reads

Cadernos Metrópole

Resumo O presente artigo tem como objetivo debater e explorar os novos ativismos em favelas, cujo foco se posiciona na história, na cultura e na identidade desses territórios. Argumentamos aqui que, diferentemente do tradicional ativismo urbano comumente abordado na literatura (focado em demandas de natureza material), os novos ativismos buscam adicionar, a essas lutas, uma disputa pela narrativa sobre o território. Exploramos essas manifestações à luz de debates sobre a transição conceitual da cidadania e sobre identidades interseccionais. Especialmente, questionamos a existência de uma suposta identidade de favelado na qual os discursos e narrativas hegemônicas sobre a cidade, ora podem ser reproduzidos, ora podem ser subvertidos e utilizados na construção de lutas e ativismos urbanos insurgentes.


Citations (6)


... As an illustration, evidence from climate science research has informed many mitigation strategies across the globe [20]. However, to be dependent on scientific knowledge alone to tackle a complex issue such as sustainability or climate change can lead to technocratic solutions that may not be relatable, as these could overlook local or traditional contextshence the need for a plural approach [21]. ...

Reference:

Impactful Methodological Considerations for Knowledge Co-Creation in Sustainable Development Research
Plural climate storylines to foster just urban futures
  • Citing Article
  • October 2024

Nature Cities

... For instance, normative future visioning aims to create pedagogical spaces where a range of social actors, including municipal government, organized civil society and private sector, are engaged in articulating desired and feasible urban adaptation pathways. Datasets generated by climate and social scientists and urban planners, and a set of questions on everyday life experiences and aspirations enable participants to craft their own ideas-plans and policies, with clarity on urban assets to change, preserve and protect-on desirable future cities 21,82 . This can help to set concrete priorities and measures for risk reduction and climate action, which could be implemented once options are tempered with considerations of probable and plausible futures. ...

Normative future visioning: a critical pedagogy for transformative adaptation

Buildings and Cities

... However, there has been little empirical use of the concept of climate imaginaries applied to urban NbS in attempting to challenge dominant framings of (urban) adaptation , with recent research suggesting instead that adaptation planning has become increasingly homogenised (and globalised) over time (Westman and Castán Broto 2022;Westman et al. 2023). Analysing local urban climate imaginaries is therefore critical and timely (Nalau and Cobb 2022;Castán Broto et al. 2024;Pelling et al. 2024). Urban NbS make a particularly interesting application of the concept of urban imaginaries because of the unique entry point of urban NbS to adaptation that centres the importance of highly contextdependent human-nature relationships that contradict technocratic narratives on adaptation (Dorst et al. 2019;Pörtner et al. 2023;Rochell et al. 2024). 1 To fill this gap, and thus, understand how imaginaries, goals, and their evaluation connect with framing urban NbS to climate adaptation, we ask two interconnected research questions: (1) What does adaptation success mean in the context of urban NbS according to local NbS practitioners, and (2) whose and what types of knowledge are important for developing their definitions and assessing progress towards adaptation goals? ...

Normative future visioning for city resilience and development
  • Citing Article
  • June 2023

Climate and Development

... Recent accounts include, for instance, the work of Allen et al. (2022), which explored the strategies of social and housing movements in the global south, and identified different practices that were geared towards transformation: weaving (connecting different knowledges, and past with future), sentipensar (connecting rationality and emotions in an non-hierarchical way), emancipating (intertwined with action -thinking/crafting new pathways into the future), mobilising (connecting intersectional and intergenerational struggles through action) and reverberating (amplifying discourses to reach new audiences and increase impact). Meanwhile, Comelli (2022) and Ortiz and Millan (2022) have also emphasised the role of critical urban pedagogies for the building of local solidarity practices and urban citizenship performances in peripheral urban areas, all oriented towards action and change and all led by emancipated (critical, reflexive) marginalised urban actors. ...

Hybrid insurgent citizenship: intertwined pathways to urban equality in Rio de Janeiro
  • Citing Article
  • October 2022

Environment and Urbanization

... In recent proposals, movements from peripheral areas of Brazilian major cities are interpreted as part of a process criticizing reductionist and derogatory views of these territories. As proposed by Comelli (2021), the categories "peripheral/slum-dweller" are mobilized for various purposes: ...

Lutando por novas narrativas em favelas e periferias: cidadanias complexas em meio a ativismos materiais e culturais

Cadernos Metrópole

... En ellas, la histórica estigmatización de las favelas ha servido para justificar el despliegue de políticas de pacificación con el objetivo de mercantilizar los territorios en que se asientan. Al respecto, es interesante observar cómo las lógicas de desposesión del espacio urbano transforman los paisajes humanos, simbólicos y materiales en concordancia con los imperativos de ciudad globalizada y cosmopolita (Broudehoux & Carvalhaes, 2017;Comelli et al., 2018;Germany & Richmond, 2020;Labbé et al., 2016). El enfoque innovador radica en que la gentrificación no solo es observada como proceso económico-político. ...

Socio-spatial legibility, discipline, and gentrification through favela upgrading in Rio de Janeiro
  • Citing Article
  • November 2018

City