Dissertation

Tracing Social-Ecological Knowledge in Urbanisms of Resistance: Expanded Conceptions of Collective Action in Brazil and Puerto Rico

This doctoral project investigates human-nature relations in socio-environmentally segregated urban areas in Latin America and the Caribbean. The study examines the intersection of knowledge systems and material agency in co-producing knowledge and space. The aim is to add to the growing body of knowledge that acknowledges the local histories, struggles, and urban conditions that prompt collective learning and action among marginalised groups. Additionally, it strives to contribute to scholarship that redefines the concept of collectivity to encompass both human and non-human actors. Drawing on insights from urban political ecology, relational and more-than-human approaches, critical urban theory, and feminist epistemologies, the research explores spatial and knowledge co-production processes in two case studies. The first case study focuses on a self-managed housing project in Duque de Caxias, Brazil, led by a social movement that collaborates closely with local and international universities and research groups. The second case focuses on a community-university partnership that manages a community garden in San Juan de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico. The research uses a combination of methods including participatory workshops, participant observation, informal unstructured interviews, mapping, and storytelling to approach the situated realities of diverse knowledge-producing actors and non-humans as co-producers of urban space.

• Publications and Conference communications
• Exhibitions, workshops, and other activities cur

Quintero González, N & Hagemann, A. (2024). Follow the food… and the spaces it shapes. In K. Bohn & M. Tomkins (Hrsg.) Urban Food Mapping. Making Visible the Edible City (S. 108–119). Routledge.

Rivera Crespo, O., Crespo Claudio, Y. M., Quintero González, N., & Santiago Rodríguez, I. (2023). Cocreación para una ecología de saberes en el Caribe: huerto de Capetillo. Revista De Arquitectura, 28(44), 56–75. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-5427.2023.69974

Wieck, K., Quintero González, N., Canedo, J., Petrus, F., & Karge, T. (2022). Common grounds across Brazil and Germany. ’Scape Magazine, 19, 124–129. https://www.scapemagazine.com/bookshop/scape19/

Bereskin, E., & Quintero González, N. (2022). Going to Places and Staying at Home: Reflections on Critical Cartography and Desktop Documentation in Online Education. In Understanding Site in Design Pedagogy (S. 29–50). Routledge.

Hagemann, A., & Quintero González, N. (Hrsg.). (2021).  Feeding the city: Lebensmittelkreisläufe und die Produktion städtischer Räume. BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg. https://doi.org/10.26127/BTUOPEN-5505

Quintero González, N. (2020). Collaborative Knowledge Production for Planning under Uncertainty. In C. Kollert & S. Weidner (Hrsg.), Städte erforschen und Räume gestalten – Forschung am Institut für Stadtplanung der BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg (S. 204–213). BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-btu/frontdoor/index/index/docId/5235

Quintero González, N., & Hagemann, A. (2021, September 23). Mapping Food Supply Chains. Approaching translocality through spatial analysis and visualization. SMUS CONFERENCE Botswana, Botswana (online). https://gcsmus.org/conferences/botswana/sessions/27-methods-in-food-studies-research/

Quintero, N. & Wieck, K. (2019) Developing ‘common ground’ through collaborative knowledge production [unveröffentlichtes Manuskript]. Trialog Annual Conference 2019, Stuttgart.

Wieck, K., & Quintero, N. (2018). Interactive Knowledge Production in Self-Organized Areas. In S. Delarue & R. Dufour (Hrsg.), Landscapes of conflict ECLAS Conference 2018, Ghent, Belgium, 9. - 12. 9. 2018: Book of proceedings (S. 244–253). University College Ghent - School of Arts - Landscape & Garden Architecture and Landscape Development. http://conference.eclas.org/downloads-book-of-abstract-book-of-proceedings/

Khalil, A., Quintero, N., et al. (2016) Improving Living Conditions in Informal Settlements. The case of El-Arab. Improving Sustainability Concept in Developing Countries. Procedia Environmental Sciences, 34, 13 – 24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proenv.2016.04.002

Guest Lectures and Conference communications

2023

“Systemic scenarios and materialisation of co-produced knowledge”. Keynote Vortrag für den Alumni-Workshop COLLOC23. Rio de Janeiro, Brasilien. September 7.

“Relationality in participatory planning and design practices.La relacionalidad como principio en prácticas participativas de planificación y diseño”. Keynote Vortrag für die DAAD Sommerschule Practicing Interdisciplinarity in planning and design in secondary cities. Arequipa, Peru. September 7.

“Feeding the city: Pedagogies and methods to approach urban food systems”. Gastvortrag. Lecture Series: Interdisciplinary theory and practice SoSe 2023, Prof. i.V. Kathrin Wieck (ILAUP) und Prof. Dr.-Ing. Angela Million (ISR). Mai 22.

“Participation and hybridity in practices of co-production, translocal collaboration and community development”. Gastvortrag. SPRING Master Program at TU Dortmund. International Planning Studies (IPS). Februar 3.

2022

“Hybrid Pedagogies for Knowledge Co-Production, Translocal Solidarity and Community Development”. Konferenzbeitrag. Panel "Decolonising urban knowledge(s): an ordinary imperative in extraordinary times”. RC21 Conference: Ordinary Cities in Exceptional Times. Athens, Greece. August 24 – 27

“Relational thinking in participatory planning and design”. Keynote Lecture für die DAAD Sommerschule COLLABORATIVE DESIGN METHODS. Habitat Unit, TU Berlin, Berlin. August 21.

“Co-creation of Knowledge: transformation in informal settlements”. Gastvortrag. Lecture Series Interdisciplinary Theory and Practice. SoSe 2022, Prof. Undine Giseke (ILAUP) und Prof. Dr.-Ing. Angela Million (ISR). Juli 4. Vorgetragen mit Dr. Kathrin Wieck

“Thinking food relationally: Exploring methodological frameworks towards metabolic readings of urban food systems”. Konferenzbeitrag. Scientific Research Symposium “Metabolism Studies: Materiality and Relationality in the Anthropocene, Lyon, Frankreich. Juni 28 – 30.

“Thinking food relationally: Reflections on systemic and relational perspectives for mapping socio-material interactions, translocal networks and complex relationships within food systems and food supply chains”. Online Konferenzbeitrag. Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, New York. Februar 25 – März 1.

2021

“Going to Places and Staying at Home: Critical Reflections on Thematic Cartography and Desktop Documentation in Online Education”. Online Konferenzbeitrag. Online Education: Responding to a Crisis, and more Konferenz. Architecture Media Politics and Society, Routledge, Ball State University, the University of Kassel, the University of Pretoria, and Beaconhouse University. April 21-23 (mit Dr. Emily Bereskin). 

“Mapping Food Supply Chains. Approaching translocality through spatial analysis and visualization”. Konferenzbeitrag. SMUS CONFERENCE Botswana, Botswana. September 23-25. Vorgetragen mit Dr. Anke Hagemann.

“El Cuarto de la muchacha que limpia: A closer look into domestic servant’s spaces and the narratives they embody”. Gastvortrag für Masterseminar “Architectures of Care” SoSe 2021, led by Prof. Dr. Elke Beyer and Dr. Christian Haid. Session 05, The Global Household: Domestic Layouts and Care Chains. Mai 18.

2020

“The Extitutional Role of Scholarship in Knowledge Production Networks”. Online Konferenzbeitrag. “Decolonizing Planning in Latin America” Konferenz. Organisiert von Dr. Clara Irazábal-Zurita (University of Missouri), Dr. Jessica Pineda-Zumarán (Saint Augustine National University) und Dr. Lara Furtado (University of Fortaleza). Juli 3.

2019

“Developing Common Ground through Collaborative Knowledge Production”. Vortrag. Trialog Konferenz “Whose Knowledge Counts”. Stuttgart, Deutschland.

“The Ecology of the Kinetic City: Systemic Approaches for Landscape Integration”. Keynote Vortrag im Rahmen des COLLOC2019 Workshop in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilien

2018

“Interactive Knowledge Production and its Potentials for Designing Spaces of Hope in Self-Organised Environments”.  Konferenz Vortrag AESOP Annual Congress “Making Space for Hope”. Gotheburg, Schweden. July 12.

2017

“Informal Ecologies: an emergent approach towards landscape integration in Caracas, Venezuela“ .Vortrag auf dem 7. ArchCairo internationalen Konferenz „Building Innovatively Interactive Cities“. Giza, Kairo

2015

“Drawing the city”. Vortrag für das Graduiertenseminar Urban Economics - Department of Urban Development, TU Berlin El-Gouna

2023 Co-coordination and implementation of the hybrid alumni workshop "COLLOC2022" in Berlin and Rio de Janeiro. In collaboration with TUB and UFRJ. Sponsored by DAAD and BMZ. September 22 - October 1.

2023 Lecturer at the DAAD-sponsored summer school "Practicing Interdisciplinarity in Planning and Design in Secondary Cities" in Arequipa, Peru. In collaboration with USMP. September 3-10.

2022 Co-coordination and implementation of the hybrid alumni workshop "COLLOC2022" in Berlin and Rio de Janeiro. In collaboration with TUB and UFRJ. Sponsored by DAAD and BMZ. November 11-21.

2022 Project coordinator and organizer of the summer school "Play, Placemaking and Participation in Puerto Rico." Winner of the DesignBuild PROJECT competition by the Sto Foundation. In collaboration with UPR-RP and Taller Creando sin Encargos. July 31 - August 8.

2021 Co-coordination and implementation of the hybrid alumni workshop "COLLOC2021" in Berlin and Rio de Janeiro. In collaboration with TU Berlin and UFRJ. Sponsored by DAAD and BMZ. November 26 - December 5.

2020 Project coordinator of the approved DAAD summer school in Puerto Rico: "Play, Placemaking, and Participation" (canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

2019 Co-coordination and implementation of the alumni workshop "COLLOC2019" in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In collaboration with TU Berlin and UFRJ. Sponsored by DAAD and BMZ.

2018 Co-coordination and implementation of the summer school "Interactive Knowledge Production" in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Together with TUB and UFRJ. Sponsored by DAAD and BMBF.

2018 City tour in Berlin "Berlin Urban Parks" as part of an international excursion, Architecture program, Umea University. Berlin.

2015 MEMOREP2015: Creating spaces from collective memories [Workshop Leadership] Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Central University of Venezuela, Caracas.