The research team has extensive experience and internationally acknowledged published work on residential segregation, gentrification, housing and on the social geography of Athens. The research team comprises 13 researchers. Apart from the PI it includes 3 Faculty member(s) /Researcher(s) (inc. Emeritus) and 6 Post-doctoral researchers, 1 postgraduate and 2 phd students.
The team includes a rich network of specialized, non-remunerated, colleagues working on similar issues in comparable cities coming from different scientific institutions such as the University of Lisbon, the University of Zurich, the University of Naples, the University of Venice, the University of Belgrade, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the University College London or the University of York.
Research team
Principal Investigator
Stavros Nikoforos Spyrellis
Researcher at the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE) and associate at the Géographie-cités laboratory (CNRS). He has worked as assistant, teaching and researching, in French and Greek Universities. Graduate of the Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, with postgraduate studies at the Université Paris I. His doctoral thesis, entitled Social Division of the Athenian Metropolitan Area, Economic Factors and Educational Issues, was defended in November 2013 (Université Paris VII). His research focuses on the spatial analysis and the mapping of social, economic and educational segregation, particularly in the metropolitan area of Athens.
Researchers
Thomas Maloutas
Emeritus Professor at the Department of Geography, Harokopio University. Former Director of the Institute of Urban and Rural Sociology of the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE) (2001-2012), Professor at the Department of Planning, University of Thessaly (1991-2009) and General Secretary for Research & Technology (2015-2016). His work is related to the changing social structures in metropolitan areas in the era of capitalist globalisation with a focus on issues of segregation and gentrification related to housing and broader welfare regimes. His research and published work refer mainly to the South European urban context and especially to Athens.
Dimitris Balampanidis
He received his PhD in Urban Social Geography from Harokopio University of Athens, holds an MSc in Urban and Regional Planning from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and a Diploma in Architecture from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). His research work, teaching experience and scientific publications mainly focus on housing issues (access to housing and residential segregation, touristification, gentrification etc.), on migration (migrants’ integration and intercultural coexistence), as well as on spatial planning and design (urban and regional planning and design, formulation of public policies on housing, migration, social and territorial cohesion etc.). He has conducted several research projects at the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE), the Urban Environment Laboratory (National Technical University of Athens), the research department UMR Géographies-Cités (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, CNRS), the École Française d’Athènes (EfA), the Research Centre for the Humanities (KEAE), the “Eteron” Research Institute and the Regional Development Institute (Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences).
Nikolina Myofa
Postdoctoral researcher, affiliated at National Center for Social Research (EKKE) and Harokopio University. She holds a PhD in Social Urban Geography from Harokopio University. Her research thesis concerns the socio-spatial development of two Athenian neighborhoods with social housing estates, Dourgouti and Tavros. She has published papers in international scientific journals, conference proceedings and scientific web pages. Her research focuses on issues of housing, housing inequalities, segregation, housing policies, and the study of socio-spatial developments in urban space.
Iris Polyzou
Iris Polyzou studied social geography at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris) and obtained her Phd in joint-supervision from the National Technical University at Athens and the University of Poitiers, studying the spatial and social settlement of migrants in Athens. She is a post-doctoral researcher in programs funded by H2020 and the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (ELIDEK) focusing on the migration phenomenon, urban space and socio spatial segregation in Athens and its neighborhoods. Moreover, having graduated from the National School of Public Administration and Local Government (ESDDA), she is working in the public administration. She is a research associate of the French School at Athens (EFA) and member of the editorial board of Athens Social Atlas.
Dimitra Siatitsa
Postdoctoral researcher working on urban and housing studies, currently affiliated at NTUA and EKKE. Holds a PhD from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning (NTUA), a master’s degree on Architecture and Urban Culture (FPC/UPC) and a diploma on Architecture (NTUA). Her work focuses on housing, socio-spatial inequalities, public policies, alternative initiatives and social movements, with a focus on Southern Europe. She has collaborated in European and greek research programmes and has professional experience in policy-making on social welfare and housing at central and local government level. She is a member of research networks and groups.
Nikolas Klironomos
Graduate of the Department of Political Science and History of Panteion University at undergraduate and postgraduate level. He also studied at the Department of Informatics of the Athens University of Economics and Business. Collaborator of the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE) and the Panteion University in various research projects and data manager in the SoDaNet RI. His research interests include the fields of Political and Electoral Sociology, Political Elites and Political Communication on issues mainly related to the study of Social Media, while he emphasizes on the field of Research Methodology, Social Data Science and especially on the modern methods of Big Data Analysis.
Konstantinos Papagiannopoulos
Konstantinos Papagiannopoulos is a PhD candidate at the Democritus University of Thrace and the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE). He graduated from the Department of Computer Engineering of the Technical University of Peloponnese, and then completed his postgraduate studies at the Department of Computer Science and Telematics, at Harokopio University of Athens. He is the lead developer of SoDaNet web services, in charge of system administration and providing IT assistance to EKKE’s researchers, also a co-lecturer at seminars hosted by the centre. From 2021 to 2023, he collaborated with CESSDA Main Office in development of API services and FAIR assessment of the CESSDA Data Catalogue and since 2024, he also collaborates with the National Centre For Scientific Research “Demokritos” as a Data Manager.
Katerina Vezyrgianni
Social Psychologist in the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE). She is specialized in applied social research methods and her interest focuses on the social and occupational integration of vulnerable social groups. She has been working on issues related to: social integration of refugees through education, training and support of humanitarian personnel, the return migration infrasrtuctures, the rights of people with disability, gender violence issues, building of tolerance against youth’s social polarization, as well as issues related to homelessness and housing exclusion.
Pavlos Baltas
Pavlos Baltas is a researcher at the Greek National Centre for Social Research (EKKE). He holds a PhD in Demography and two postgraduate degrees, an M.Sc. in “Population, Development & Perspectives” and an M.Sc. in “Spatial Planning & Regional Policy”, as well as a Diploma (Eng.) in Spatial Planning, Urban Planning & Regional Development. In the past, he worked as a researcher at the National Institute for Demographic Research (INED) in France and at the University of Thessaly, in particular in the Laboratory of Spatial Analysis, GIS and Thematic Cartography and in the Laboratory of Demography and Social Analysis. His scientific interests lie in the field of demography, in particular spatial demography, and the analysis of social phenomena using non-conventional data sources such as satellite imagery.
Giorgos Kandylis
George Kandylis is a Principal Researcher at the National Centre for Social Research. His studies are in the fields of Political Science and Urban Social Geography and he has worked on research on contemporary migration and its consequences on urbanization processes in Greece. His research interests include issues of social segregation, inequalities, spatial mobility, racism and securitization in Greek urban space.
Non-remunerated members
Nikos Karadimitriou
Associate Professor in Urban Development and Planning at UCL. His research interests include housing and property development in the context of urban regeneration programmes, the relationship between social differentiations and the production of the built environment as well as institutional change in spatial regulation and spatial production systems, in the context of climate change. His research has been funded by JPI Urban Europe and Horizon 2020, among others. He has published and co-authored several peer-reviewed journal papers and books, the most recent of which is Vertical Cities (Edward Elgar, 2022).
Ifigeneia Dimitrakou
Senior Assistant in Social Geography and Urban Studies at the University of Zurich. Ph.D. in Urban Planning Design & Policies (Politecnico di Milano), MSc. in Urbanism (TU Delft), and in Architecture (AUTH). Her doctoral thesis examined the socio-spatial production of housing vacancy in dense neighborhoods of post-crisis Athens, focusing on the policies, practices and experiences. Her research interests concern questions of housing precarity, dispossession and socio-spatial differentiation. She has worked in teaching and researcher at Politecnico di Milano, the ΕPFL, Harokopio University and the National Center for Social Research.
Robert Musil
Robert Musil studied geography and history at the University of Vienna and finished his PhD at the University Innsbruck in 2005. Since 2001, Robert Musil has been a researcher at the Institute for Urban and Regional Research (ISR). He has led the research group „Housing and Urban Economy“ since 2016 and has been acting director of the ISR since 2018. His research interests lie at the juncture of economic and urban geography, with a strong focus on urban housing markets.
Nick Dines
Nicholas Dines is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Milan Bicocca. He has previously held positions at a number of academic institutions in Italy and the UK including University of Venice, European University Institute, Middlesex University and University College London. His research cuts across the fields of urban and migration studies, and most recently has focused on vertical stratification and comparative urbanism in the Mediterranean region. He is the author of the monograph Tuff City: Contested Space and Urban Change in Central Naples.
Christina Mattiucci
Cristina Mattiucci is Associate Professor in Urban and Regional Planning at the Department of Architecture, University of Naples ‘Federico II’. She holds a European PhD (2010) and she is Marie Curie Alumna (Fellow 2011-2014. She is currently conducting interdisciplinary research in the broader field of Urban Studies, at the intersection of Urban Planning and Critical Urban Studies. Her recent research focuses on urban inclusions and exclusions, governance and urban transformation in pluralistic contexts and the housing issue (in Naples).
Simone Tulumello
Simone Tulumello is assistant research professor in human geography at the University of Lisbon, Institute of Social Sciences. His appointments include: Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Memphis; visiting scholar at the Polytechnic of Turin, the University Federico II of Naples and CEUR-Conicet (Buenos Aires); Sub-area Expert for the New European Bauhaus. At the border among human geography, critical urban studies and political economy, Simone’s research focuses on housing policy and politics, urban violence, urban imaginaries, and urbanization in the semi-periphery.
Ivan Ratkaj
Ivan Ratkaj is full professor of human geography at the Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade, Serbia. His research interests include various aspects of urban, social and economic geography, with a particular focus on urban transport, economic restructuring, post-socialist housing dynamics and social justice. He is currently head of the Department of Human Geography at the Faculty of Geography in Belgrade and president of the Serbian Geographical Society.
Aljoša Budović
Aljoša Budović is an assistant professor of Human Geography at the Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade. He was a visiting researcher at the Institute for Urban and Regional Research in Vienna, supported by the OEAW mobility programme JESH, and a recipient of the BAYHOST Mobility Grant at the Institute for Geography, Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg. He is interested in urban and economic geography with a focus on Knowledge-Intensive Business Services, touristification and residential segregation.
Haley McAvay
Haley McAvay is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of York with a PhD in Sociology from Sciences Po Paris. Haley’s research focuses on migration, residential segregation, neighborhood effects, social stratification, race/ethnicity and discrimination. She uses quantitative methods and has a strong interest in longitudinal data analysis. Her work has been published in the American Sociological Review, Journal of Politics, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Social Science Research, and Demography.