Staff profile

Academic Profile

• 2010 - 2013: PhD Geography, Durham University.
• 2003 - 2004: MSc City Design and Social Science, London School of Economics. 
• 2001 - 2003: Masters in Environmental Management, Yale University.
• 1994 - 1999: Political Scientist (5 year degree), Universidad de los Andes, Colombia.
• 1993 - 1998: Anthropologist (5 year degree), Universidad de los Andes, Colombia.

Andrés is an urban geographer and infrastructures scholar, critically examining how city–nature relationships are conceptualised and reimagined in the urban Anthropocene, particularly by looking at the ways in which contemporary cities engage with climate and ecological emergencies. His most recent co-authored book, Urban Nature: New Directions for City Futures (Cambridge University Press, 2024), examines the use of nature-based solutions for urban problems and provides governance and community engagement guidelines for their application.

His research agenda over the past 10 years has centred on two debates at the crossroads of urban and environmental governance scholarship. First, an analysis of how cities and municipalities respond to the challenges of climate change. This is captured in his co-edited book Rethinking Urban Transitions: Politics in the Low Carbon City (Routledge, 2018). Second, an investigation into the social and political dimensions of urban infrastructures, particularly through a reading of infrastructures as the socio-technical means by which modes of urban governance are implemented. This has been captured in his co-authored edited collections Energy, Power and Protest on the Urban Grid: Geographies of the Electric City (Routledge, 2016) and Smart and Sustainable Cities? Pipedreams, Practicalities and Possibilities (Routledge, 2020). 

In addition, drawing on Science and Technology Studies, his work has pushed for a critical engagement with smart and digital cities—recognising the extent to which emerging urban technologies advance specific political and governance forms. Andres' work on smart/digital cities can be read in his co-authored book Urban Operating Systems: Producing the Computational City (MIT University Press, 2020) and his co-edited collection Smart Urbanism: Utopian Vision of False Dawn? (Routledge, 2016).

Andrés’ research cuts across global North and global South, with recent in-depth engagements with academic partners and community organizations in Latin America (particularly Brazil and Mexico), via projects funded by UKRI and the British Academy, amongst others. Prior to joining academia, he was employed in professional practice for over 12 years, most of it working alongside architects and engineers in sustainable masterplanning. His professional experience includes working as an urban designer and sustainability planner for the London-based engineering firms Ove Arup & Partners and Alan Baxter and Associates, integrating and coordinating the work of architects and engineers designing and masterplanning eco-cities and other sustainable settlements in China, the UK and Latin America. Whist working at Arup, he was instrumental in developing the specific conceptualization of urban resilience used by the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities programme. Previously he worked with indigenous groups, government agencies and NGOs in the development of community based conservation areas in the Amazon.

Research Projects

• Smart Urban Resilience: Enabling Citizen Action in Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Response (Principal Investigator; ESRC/CONACYT Mexico, 2019-2021).
• INCLUsive Decarbonisation and Energy Transition (Co-Investigator, Research Council of Norway, 2020-ongoing).
• Naturvation: Nature Based Urban Innovation (Work Package Leader, EU Horizon 2020, 2016-2021).
• Public Understanding of Energy and Climate Change (Co-Applicant, FAPESP, Brazil, 2018).
• Hacking the Urban Environment: Smart Cities and the Role of Civic Hackers in Remaking the City (Co-Principal Investigator, British Academy, 2018-2020).
• Augmented Urbanity: How Smart are Our Cities Becoming? (Principal Investigator, RCUK-CONFAP Brazil, 2015-2016).

Teaching and Tutoring

• Teaching (sample of modules)
  • Social Dimensions of Risk and Resilience (Risk Masters)
  • Understanding Risk (Risk Masters)
  • Cities and the Governance of Climate Change
  • Urban Geography
  • Environmental Processes and Governance / Contested Environments
  • Introduction to Geographical Research
  • Theory and Concepts in Human Geography
  • Philosophy and Theory in Human Geography

Authored book

• Luque-Ayala, A., & Marvin, S. (2020). Urban operating systems: producing the computational city. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/10869.001.0001

Book review

• Luque-Ayala, A. (2019). Rethinking the material politics of the city through ‘Interoperable streams of data’. Dialogues in Human Geography, 9(1), 117-120. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820618808665
• Luque, A. (2011). The governance of climate change: science, economics, politics and ethics (D. Held and A. Fane-Hervey eds.). Environment and planning. C, Government and policy, 29, 943-949

Chapter in book

• Luque-Ayala, A. Solar hot water and housing systems in São Paulo, Brazil. In H. Bulkeley, V. Castan Broto, & G. Edwards (Eds.), An Urban Politics of Climate Change: Experimentation and the Governing of Socio-Technical Transitions (157-176). Routledge
• Luque-Ayala, A. Chapter 3: Urban. In J. Ash, R. Kitchin, & A. Leszczynski (Eds.), Digital Geographies. SAGE Publications
• Luque-Ayala, A. Post-development carbon. In A. Luque-Ayala, S. Marvin, & H. Bulkeley (Eds.), Rethinking Urban Transitions: Politics in the Low Carbon City (224-241). Routledge
• Luque-Ayala, A., & Marvin, S. (2019). Chapter 14: Developing a critical understanding of smart urbanism. In T. Schwanen (Ed.), Handbook of Urban Geography. Edward Elgar Publishing
• Luque-Ayala, A., Bulkeley, H., & Marvin, S. (2018). Rethinking urban transitions: an analytical framework. In A. Luque-Ayala, S. Marvin, & H. Bulkeley (Eds.), Rethinking Urban Transitions: Politics in the Low Carbon City (13-36). Routledge
• Luque-Ayala, A., Marvin, S., & Bulkeley, H. (2018). Introduction. In A. Luque-Ayala, S. Marvin, & H. Bulkeley (Eds.), Rethinking Urban Transitions: Politics in the Low Carbon City (1-12). Routledge
• Luque-Ayala, A. (2016). Oxford Bibliographies in Geography [online]. In B. Warf (Ed.), Oxford Bibliographies in Geography [online]. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199874002-0132
• Griffith, C., Matkins, M., Aylett, A., Joeman, B., Lefevre, B., Luque-Ayala, A., Rahman, A., Roberts, D., & Ward, S. (2016). Climate change mitigation in rapidly developing cities. In K. Seto, & W. Solecki (Eds.), Handbook of Urbanization and Global Environmental Change. Routledge
• Luque-Ayala, A. (2016). From consumers to clients: Regularizing electricity networks in São Paulo’s favelas. In M. Hodson, & S. Marvin (Eds.), Retrofitting Cities. Routledge
• Luque, A., McFarlane, C., & Marvin, S. (2014). Smart urbanism: cities, grids and alternatives?. In M. Hodson, & S. Marvin (Eds.), After Sustainable Cities? (74-90). Routeldge
• Luque, A. (2014). The smart grid and the interface between energy, ICT and the city. In T. Dixon, M. Eames, M. Hunt, & S. Lannon (Eds.), Urban retrofitting for sustainability: mapping the transition to 2050. Routledge

Conference Paper

• da Silva, J., Kernaghan, S., Luque, A., Cook, S., Crawley, C., & Singleton, D. (2010, August). Cities and Climate Change Adaptation: the Role of Rapid Resilience. Presented at 5th Civil Engineering Conference in the Asian Region and Australasian Structural Engineering Conference, Sydney, Australia

Edited book

• Lobo-Guerrero, M., Luque-Ayala, A., Herrera, X., & de Greiff, J. (Eds.). Matavén Selva Corazon de la Salud. Fundación Etnollano / Prorama COAMA / Union Europea
• Luque-Ayala, A., Marvin, S., & Bulkeley, H. (Eds.). (2018). Rethinking Urban Transitions: Politics in the Low Carbon City. Routledge
• Luque-Ayala, A., & Silver, J. (Eds.). (2016). Energy, Power and Protest on the Urban Grid - Geographies of the Electric City. Routledge
• Marvin, S., Luque-Ayala, A., & McFarlane, C. (Eds.). (2016). Smart Urbanism: Utopian Vision or False Dawn?. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315730554

Journal Article

• Luque-Ayala, A., Machen, R., & Nost, E. (2024). Digital natures: New ontologies, new politics?. Digital Geography and Society, 6, 100081. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diggeo.2024.100081
• Tozer, L., Bulkeley, H., Kiss, B., Luque-Ayala, A., Voytenko Palgan, Y., McCormick, K., & Wamsler, C. (2023). Nature for Resilience? The Politics of Governing Urban Nature. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 1113(3), 599-615. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2022.2130867
• Solecki, W., Zimmerman, R., Bruns, A., Lobo, J., Boone, C., Marcotulio, P., Grimm, N., Young, A., Griffith, C., Breitzer, R., Romero-Lankao, P., & Luque-Ayala, A. (2019). Extreme Events and Climate Adaptation-Mitigation Linkages: Understanding Low-Carbon Transitions in the Era of Global Urbanization. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 10(6), Article e616. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.616
• Luque-Ayala, A., & Neves Maia, F. (2019). Digital Territories: Google Maps as a Political Technique in the Re-making of Urban Informality. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 37(3), 449-467. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775818766069
• Kumar, A., Ferdous, R., Luque-Ayala, A., McEwan, C., Power, M., Turner, B., & Bulkeley, H. (2019). Solar energy for all? Understanding the successes and shortfalls through a critical comparative assessment of Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Mozambique, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Energy Research and Social Science, 48, 166-176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.10.005
• Evans, J., Karvonen, A., Luque-Ayala, A., Martin, C., McCormick, K., Raven, R., & Voytenko Palgan, Y. (2019). Special Issue Introduction: Smart and Sustainable Cities? Pipedreams, Practicalities and Possibilities. Local Environment, 24, 557-564. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2019.1624701
• Bulkeley, H., Luque-Ayala, A., McFarlane, C., & MacLeod, G. (2018). Enhancing urban autonomy: towards a new political project for cities. Urban Studies, 55(4), 702-719. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098016663836
• Marvin, S., & Luque-Ayala, A. (2017). Urban Operating Systems: Diagramming the City. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 41(1), 84-103. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12479
• Luque-Ayala, A., & Marvin, S. (2016). The maintenance of urban circulation: An operational logic of infrastructural control. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 34(2), 191-208. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775815611422
• Luque-Ayala, A., & Marvin, S. (2015). Developing a Critical Understanding of Smart Urbanism?. Urban Studies, 52(12), 2105-2116. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098015577319
• Bulkeley, H., Luque-Ayala, A., & Silver, J. (2014). Housing and the (re)configuration of energy provision in Cape Town and São Paulo: Making space for a progressive urban climate politics?. Political Geography, 40, 25-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2014.02.003
• Luquea, A., Edwards, G., & Lalande, C. (2013). The local governance of climate change: new tools to respond to old limitations in Esmeraldas, Ecuador. Local Environment, 18(6), 738-751. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2012.716414
• Da Silva, J., Kernaghan, S., & Luque, A. (2012). A systems approach to meeting the challenges of urban climate change. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 4(2), 125-145. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2012.718279
• Luque, A. (2003). The People of the Mataven Forest and the National Park System: Allies in the creation of a Community Conserved Area in Colombia

Other (Print)

• Luque, A. (2011). India pioneers use of solar power in city of Thane