Born in 1970 in Sardinia (Italy). Graduated in Architecture, and PhD in Urban, Regional & Environmental Planning (2000, Univ. of Florence, IT), since 2006 is a Principal Investigator at the Centre for Social Studies of Coimbra University (Portugal). Co-coordinator - since 2007 – of the PhD course in Political Science “Democracy in the XXI Century” at the School of Economics of Coimbra, is a member of the teaching staff of the Master in “Human Rights, Development and Interculturality” (UPO, Seville, SP) and the PhD “Human Rights in Contemporary Societies” (Coimbra Univ., PT). He is also part of the Scientific Board of the PhD course “Architecture, cities and design” and of the Master “PROPART” in participatory processes at the IUAV University of Venice (IT), where he was research fellow in 2003-2004. With a qualification as Associate Professor (2014), he has been visiting scholar at the School of Architecture & Planning of Witwatersrand University (Johannesburg, South Africa) and at King Saud University (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia). He studied in Denmark and Japan, with scholarships of the ministries of foreign affairs, and in Brazil, as part of the Managing Committee of the Institute for Democracy and Democratization of Communication (UFMG, Brazil). At present, in relation to the post-emergency scenario opened by COVID-19 pandemic, its interests are mainly addressing 3 fields: 1) the transformations in housing policies in Portugal and the enforcement of the Right to Adequate Housing and the Right to the City (on which he coordinated a mini-dossier on “Urbanistica Informazioni”, participating to the special issue of “CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios” 38/2019, and to a Report organized by the Global Platform for the Right to the city – GPR2C); 2) the contributions of citizens’ participation to fight populisms (topic on which he contributed in a book & the magazine “Il Ponte”, and through the new “PRODEMO” project); 3) the reinvention/reshaping of institutionalised participatory processes after the emergency period, in order to rebalance the use of multichannel hybrid processes (online/offline), and rethinking the topics so that they can face more long-term and structural issues (as reconstruction of main services of welfare states; the struggle to increased social inequalities and the harmony with natural environment). On participation he has several publications and projects as PI (EMPATIA, OPTAR), scientific coordinator (PARTICIPANDO, PARLOCAL, INCLUIR) or chief researcher of the Portuguese Unit (INOVA JUNTOS, PLUS, PARTICIPEDIA, DUPLA PAZ, FOINCIDE). Consultant, trainer & evaluator of participatory processes in 54 countries (for the World Bank, EC, UN-Habitat, the Council of Europe & some national cooperation agencies), has been in the research team of projects related to migration and public spaces/arenas (as “Research on migration and the biographical approach”; “Formal access to local political spaces in the local context: Immigrant Voters and Elected in Portuguese Municipalities and Parishes” and "Firenze Insurgent City - Nuove rappresentazioni identitarie e scenari strategici di sviluppo locale"), or related to commons and sustainability ("Comunix. Active Youth Participation in Governance in Community Areas", “URBiNAT - Healthy corridors as drivers of social housing neighbourhoods”, “Portugal Participa”). Expert in cities-networking for democratic innovation, he took part in several publications/events on the topic, especially in relation with the Think Tank CIDOB (is in the Scientific Board of its “Global Cities Programme”) & CISDP Commission of United Cities and Local Governments. A founder of "Democracine" FilmFest in Brazil, for the mandate 2014-2019 he was appointed by Parliament as Co-Chair of the Independent Authority for the Promotion of Participation of Tuscany Region (IT). He is member of the Standing Group on "Democratic Innovations" of ECPR and of COST ACTION CA17135-Constitution-making & deliberative democracy.