Role
Full Professor of Economic and Political Geography at the Polytechnic University of Turin
Bio
Francesca Governa, a graduate in Architecture and a PhD in Regional Planning, is a full professor of Economic and Political Geography at the Interuniversity Department of Territorial Sciences, Planning and Policies (DIST) of the Polytechnic and University of Turin. Throughout her academic career, she was a researcher and associate professor at the University of Turin before joining the Polytechnic. Since 2023, she has directed the China Room, an interdisciplinary research center at the Polytechnic of Turin focused on urban transformations in urban China .
His research focuses on geography and urban studies, with a particular focus on critical urban theory and the analysis of global urbanization processes . He has studied the dynamics of global infrastructure initiatives, particularly the Belt and Road Initiative, urbanization processes in China, the characteristics of exclusion and socio-spatial marginalization in Southern European cities, and local development processes and policies, basing his work on comparative approaches and qualitative methodologies.
Author of over 240 publications in leading international books and journals and coordinator of numerous research projects, she actively contributes to the scientific debate on urban theories and contemporary geopolitical and urban changes.