Federico Demaria

I am a Serra Hunter Associate Professor in Ecological Economics and Political Ecology at the University of Barcelona (UB). My main research interest is to understand the interactions between society, environment, and economy. In particular, my research aims to inform theory on how these interactions are shaped, politicized, and contested. I have been a senior researcher at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, a prestigious interdisciplinary centre of environmental research (ranked 8th in environmental studies by the Center for World University Rankings and awarded as a unit of research excellence by the Spanish Ministry of Science). I also have been a visiting scholar at research centers in India, China, USA, UK, Netherlands, Croatia, Germany, Italy and Argentina. I have a consolidated experience in international and national competitive research projects. For instance, I have been the deputy coordinator of the ERC project EnvJustice (led by Prof. Joan Martinez-Alier) which mapped and analysed the social conflicts between the environment and the economy (2016-2021; 2 million €). Currently, I am the Principal Investigator at UB of the project 'Towards a sustainable wellbeing economy: integrated policies and transformative indicators' (ToBe) funded by Horizon Europe (2023-2026; 3 Million € in total, 536.000 € for UB). I am also PI of the project 'WASTECARE' funded by the Municipality of Barcelona (2022-2024; 60.000 €), and two Caixa Inphinit Fellowships (120.000 € each; 2019-2023 & 2020-2024). Last, I am the Co-PI with Dan O’Neill of the project, coordinated by UB, ‘Models, Assessment, and Policies for Sustainability’ (MAPS) funded by Horizon Europe (2024-2028; €5M).
Overall, I have published more than 25 articles in highly ranked journals in socio-environmental sciences like Ecological Economics, Global Environmental Change, and World Development, 40 book chapters, as well as edited 7 special issues, and 3 successful books: Degrowth (Routledge, 2014), Pluriverse (2019), and Contested Waste (2025). Moreover, I am co-author of the book “The case for degrowth” (Polity Press, 2020), and author of “The political ecology of informal waste recyclers in India” (Oxford University Press, 2023). My publications regularly get translated into other languages, most notably Degrowth (2014) into more than 10.
I am an editor for the journal of Sustainability Science (Impact factor 2021: 7.196; Q1 in 7 disciplines) that offers insights into interactions within and between nature and the rest of human society, and the complex mechanisms that sustain both. I am a member the Editorial Board of Ecological Economics (Impact factor 2022: 6.78; Q1 in Economics and Econometrics, as well as in Environmental Science), a journal concerned with extending and integrating the understanding of the interfaces and interplay between "nature's household" (ecosystems) and "humanity's household" (the economy). I am also an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC; Working Group III: Mitigation of Climate Change). I have proven experience in teaching and mentoring, that I consider an essential part of my professional and intellectual activity.
I have given over 200 talks and presentations in more than 30 countries mainly at scientific conferences, but also for the general public and policy makers, including at the House of Commons, Oxford University, and the European Commission. I am also active on academic social networks with personal profiles at Academia.edu and ResearchGate (with more than 150.000 views in each). Lastly, aiming to ensure a wide outreach of my research, I regularly publish press articles in English, Spanish, French and Italian, in newspapers like The Guardian, The Ecologist, The Conversation, Open Democracy, eldiario.es (Spain) and Mediapart (France).
In 2023 the International Society for Ecological Economics awarded me the Bina Agarwal Prize for Young Scholars in Ecological Economics in recognition of the substantial and original contributions I have made in mapping environmental justice and conflicts; studying the ecological economics of waste management in the Global South; engaging with post-development that implies both an ecological and cultural critique of development; and building an ecological macroeconomics for degrowth.