Patrik Zapata
Biographic Data
| ID | 2102572 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Patrik Zapata |
| GIVEN NAMES | Patrik |
| FAMILY NAME | Zapata |
| SIGNATURE | ZAPATA P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Gothenburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7029-1195 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 103 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Mobilizing policy capacity amid rapid green industrialization: Peripheral local government in the Northvolt boom-and-bust
This article explores how local governments mobilize to address labor market challenges during green industrialization, focusing on Skellefteå in Northern Sweden. Following the Northvolt battery plant, Skellefteå faced intense pressure to rapidly grow its population, services, and infrastructure amid significant uncertainty. Drawing on the policy capacity framework and qualitative fieldwork, we analyze local efforts aimed at converting industrial…
Circular economy and gendered antagonism in the Global South: The Kambuta fish market in Kisumu, Kenya
Alternate infrastructures of care: Restoring people's abilities to care in a city of thresholds
Pathways from research to sustainable development: Insights from ten research projects in sustainability and resilience
Drawing on collective experience from ten collaborative research projects focused on the Global South, we identify three major challenges that impede the translation of research on sustainability and resilience into better-informed choices by individuals and policy-makers that in turn can support transformation to a sustainable future. The three challenges comprise: (i) converting knowledge produced during research projects into successful knowle…
Organising grassroots infrastructure: The (in)visible work of organisational (in)completeness
In this article we build on the concept of incompleteness, as recently developed in both organisational and urban studies, to improve our understanding of the collective actions of grassroots organisations in creating and governing critical infrastructures in the changing and resource-scarce contexts of urban informal settlements. Empirically, the article is informed by the case of resident associations providing critical services and infrastruct…
Activation of unemployed through social procurement: From Policy to Practice
In this paper, we trace how 'social procurement' (SP) translates from policy to practice. Launched as a driver of social innovation and sustainability, SP offers a novel way of strengthening the implementation of active labor market policies locally. Policy tools are not neutral instruments, however; they shape the substance of policy in decisive ways. That is, how tools are used determines what the policy 'becomes'. Building on a qualitative cas…
Grassroots innovations in ‘extreme’ urban environments. The inclusive recycling movement
Waste pickers all over the world work innovatively to reduce the environmental footprint of cities as they struggle to meet their critical livelihood obligations. Informed by the case of waste picker organizations (WPOs) this article examines how grassroots initiatives and extreme-niche innovations are created and sustained by mobilizing resources, rationales and relations. The study is informed by a cross-national survey and in-depth interviews …
(Re)gaining the urban commons: Everyday, collective, and identity resistance
This paper examines the everyday, collective, and identity resistance mobilized by the urban poor to (re)gain their right to the commons and contest urban exclusion. Informed by the community of waste pickers at La Chureca, the city dump of Managua, Nicaragua, the paper, builds on theories of discard studies, urban commons, and Bayat’s everyday resistance. It shows, first, how deprived communities can create their own commons through quietly encr…
Residents' collective strategies of resistance in Global South cities' informal settlements: Space, scale and knowledge
This paper examines the strategies of resistance articulated by residents of informal settlements response to urban exclusion. Building upon resistance and urban social movements literature the paper is informed by the case of the Villa Rodrigo Bueno in Buenos Aires, a self-constructed villa miseria, and its residents' stories of resistance to attempts of evictions and upgrading programs. In the paper we show how resistance is mobilized, first th…
Waste Pickers and Their Practices of Insurgency and Environmental Stewardship
Informed by different grassroots learning and educational practices engaged in waste management, and drawing from the concepts of insurgent citizenship and environmental stewardship, we examine the role of waste picker organizations and movements in creating new pathways towards more sustainable environmental waste governance. Two case studies (Argentina and Brazil) demonstrate how waste pickers inform and educate the general public and raise the…
Urban qualities and residents’ strategies in compact global south cities: The case of Havana
Research and policy argue for more compact cities to respond to sustainable development challenges. However, what actually needs to be made more compact and how, is under examined, particularly in global South cities where north notions of urban qualities are adopted without being questioned. Informed by a qualitative study in informal and compact neighborhoods in Havana, this paper explores which qualities are important to deliver more just citi…
Inclusive recycling movements: A green deep democracy from below
This paper examines the multiple strategies articulated by grassroots recycler networks to bring about socioenvironmental change. The paper shows how these networks are an emblematic case of grassroots governmentality, whereby urban poor communities contribute to building more inclusive environmental regimes by developing technologies of power more typical of the powerful. These technologies include enumeration, with its resulting self-knowledge;…
Urban commoning practices in the repair movement: Frontstaging the backstage
Citizen-led repair initiatives that collectively create urban commons, questioning the configuration of production, consumption, and discarding within neoliberal capitalism, have emerged in recent years. This paper builds on recent discussions of the openness of the commons by examining the role of repair in commoning. It is informed by the case of the Bike Kitchen in Göteborg, using in-depth interviews as well as ethnographic and visual observat…
Cities, institutional entrepreneurship and the emergence of new environmental policies: The organizing of waste prevention in the City of Gothenburg, Sweden
Informed by institutional entrepreneurship theory and based on the case of waste prevention projects in the City of Göteborg, this paper examines the role of cities in shaping new environmental policies. Structured by the research question, ‘How do cities shape novel environmental policies and practices?’, the paper illustrates how cities become agents of environmental change and institutional entrepreneurship through mobilizing and recombining r…
Infiltrating citizen-driven initiatives for sustainability
To examine how citizen-driven initiatives for sustainability strive to bring about change and spread their practices, efforts to link social movement, grassroots innovation and green-consumption movements theory are built upon. Göteborg’s citizen-driven waste-prevention initiatives, such as food waste recovery, creating common reuse spaces in housing blocks, exchanging used toys and repairing abandoned bicycles, are considered with data from obse…
Socio-environmental entrepreneurship and the provision of critical services in informal settlements
This paper contributes to the understanding of processes by which small-scale entrepreneurs who provide household waste collection in informal settlements succeed in formalized co-production of such services. The paper draws on the social and solidarity economy and social and environmental entrepreneurship theoretical frameworks, which offer complementary understandings of diverse strategies to tackle everyday challenges. Two questions are addres…
Stop the evictions! The diffusion of networked social movements and the emergence of a hybrid space: The case of the Spanish Mortgage Victims Group
Unexpected translations in urban policy mobility. The case of the Acahualinca development programme in Managua, Nicaragua
The travel of global ideas of waste management. The case of Managua and its informal settlements
Switching Managua on! Connecting informal settlements to the formal city through household waste collection
This paper explores the organizing of household solid waste management collection and disposal practices in informal settlements. It is based on a case study of an NGO project that supports Manos Unidas (Joined Hands), an informal waste picker cooperative in Managua, Nicaragua. Using horse carts, these waste pickers collect household solid waste from informal settlements where there was no previous regular, official waste collection. Unlike many …
Urban commoning practices in the repair movement: Frontstaging the backstage
Citizen-led repair initiatives that collectively create urban commons, questioning the configuration of production, consumption, and discarding within neoliberal capitalism, have emerged in recent years. This paper builds on recent discussions of the openness of the commons by examining the role of repair in commoning. It is informed by the case of the Bike Kitchen in Göteborg, using in-depth interviews as well as ethnographic and visual observat…
Stop the evictions! The diffusion of networked social movements and the emergence of a hybrid space: The case of the Spanish Mortgage Victims Group
Switching Managua on! Connecting informal settlements to the formal city through household waste collection
This paper explores the organizing of household solid waste management collection and disposal practices in informal settlements. It is based on a case study of an NGO project that supports Manos Unidas (Joined Hands), an informal waste picker cooperative in Managua, Nicaragua. Using horse carts, these waste pickers collect household solid waste from informal settlements where there was no previous regular, official waste collection. Unlike many …
Infiltrating citizen-driven initiatives for sustainability
To examine how citizen-driven initiatives for sustainability strive to bring about change and spread their practices, efforts to link social movement, grassroots innovation and green-consumption movements theory are built upon. Göteborg’s citizen-driven waste-prevention initiatives, such as food waste recovery, creating common reuse spaces in housing blocks, exchanging used toys and repairing abandoned bicycles, are considered with data from obse…
Inclusive recycling movements: A green deep democracy from below
This paper examines the multiple strategies articulated by grassroots recycler networks to bring about socioenvironmental change. The paper shows how these networks are an emblematic case of grassroots governmentality, whereby urban poor communities contribute to building more inclusive environmental regimes by developing technologies of power more typical of the powerful. These technologies include enumeration, with its resulting self-knowledge;…
Residents' collective strategies of resistance in Global South cities' informal settlements: Space, scale and knowledge
This paper examines the strategies of resistance articulated by residents of informal settlements response to urban exclusion. Building upon resistance and urban social movements literature the paper is informed by the case of the Villa Rodrigo Bueno in Buenos Aires, a self-constructed villa miseria, and its residents' stories of resistance to attempts of evictions and upgrading programs. In the paper we show how resistance is mobilized, first th…
Socio-environmental entrepreneurship and the provision of critical services in informal settlements
This paper contributes to the understanding of processes by which small-scale entrepreneurs who provide household waste collection in informal settlements succeed in formalized co-production of such services. The paper draws on the social and solidarity economy and social and environmental entrepreneurship theoretical frameworks, which offer complementary understandings of diverse strategies to tackle everyday challenges. Two questions are addres…
(Re)gaining the urban commons: Everyday, collective, and identity resistance
This paper examines the everyday, collective, and identity resistance mobilized by the urban poor to (re)gain their right to the commons and contest urban exclusion. Informed by the community of waste pickers at La Chureca, the city dump of Managua, Nicaragua, the paper, builds on theories of discard studies, urban commons, and Bayat’s everyday resistance. It shows, first, how deprived communities can create their own commons through quietly encr…
Unexpected translations in urban policy mobility. The case of the Acahualinca development programme in Managua, Nicaragua
Organising grassroots infrastructure: The (in)visible work of organisational (in)completeness
In this article we build on the concept of incompleteness, as recently developed in both organisational and urban studies, to improve our understanding of the collective actions of grassroots organisations in creating and governing critical infrastructures in the changing and resource-scarce contexts of urban informal settlements. Empirically, the article is informed by the case of resident associations providing critical services and infrastruct…
The travel of global ideas of waste management. The case of Managua and its informal settlements
Grassroots innovations in ‘extreme’ urban environments. The inclusive recycling movement
Waste pickers all over the world work innovatively to reduce the environmental footprint of cities as they struggle to meet their critical livelihood obligations. Informed by the case of waste picker organizations (WPOs) this article examines how grassroots initiatives and extreme-niche innovations are created and sustained by mobilizing resources, rationales and relations. The study is informed by a cross-national survey and in-depth interviews …
Cities, institutional entrepreneurship and the emergence of new environmental policies: The organizing of waste prevention in the City of Gothenburg, Sweden
Informed by institutional entrepreneurship theory and based on the case of waste prevention projects in the City of Göteborg, this paper examines the role of cities in shaping new environmental policies. Structured by the research question, ‘How do cities shape novel environmental policies and practices?’, the paper illustrates how cities become agents of environmental change and institutional entrepreneurship through mobilizing and recombining r…
Pathways from research to sustainable development: Insights from ten research projects in sustainability and resilience
Drawing on collective experience from ten collaborative research projects focused on the Global South, we identify three major challenges that impede the translation of research on sustainability and resilience into better-informed choices by individuals and policy-makers that in turn can support transformation to a sustainable future. The three challenges comprise: (i) converting knowledge produced during research projects into successful knowle…
Activation of unemployed through social procurement: From Policy to Practice
In this paper, we trace how 'social procurement' (SP) translates from policy to practice. Launched as a driver of social innovation and sustainability, SP offers a novel way of strengthening the implementation of active labor market policies locally. Policy tools are not neutral instruments, however; they shape the substance of policy in decisive ways. That is, how tools are used determines what the policy 'becomes'. Building on a qualitative cas…
Urban qualities and residents’ strategies in compact global south cities: The case of Havana
Research and policy argue for more compact cities to respond to sustainable development challenges. However, what actually needs to be made more compact and how, is under examined, particularly in global South cities where north notions of urban qualities are adopted without being questioned. Informed by a qualitative study in informal and compact neighborhoods in Havana, this paper explores which qualities are important to deliver more just citi…
Switching Managua on! Connecting informal settlements to the formal city through household waste collection
This paper explores the organizing of household solid waste management collection and disposal practices in informal settlements. It is based on a case study of an NGO project that supports Manos Unidas (Joined Hands), an informal waste picker cooperative in Managua, Nicaragua. Using horse carts, these waste pickers collect household solid waste from informal settlements where there was no previous regular, official waste collection. Unlike many …
The travel of global ideas of waste management. The case of Managua and its informal settlements
Stop the evictions! The diffusion of networked social movements and the emergence of a hybrid space: The case of the Spanish Mortgage Victims Group
Unexpected translations in urban policy mobility. The case of the Acahualinca development programme in Managua, Nicaragua
Socio-environmental entrepreneurship and the provision of critical services in informal settlements
This paper contributes to the understanding of processes by which small-scale entrepreneurs who provide household waste collection in informal settlements succeed in formalized co-production of such services. The paper draws on the social and solidarity economy and social and environmental entrepreneurship theoretical frameworks, which offer complementary understandings of diverse strategies to tackle everyday challenges. Two questions are addres…
Infiltrating citizen-driven initiatives for sustainability
To examine how citizen-driven initiatives for sustainability strive to bring about change and spread their practices, efforts to link social movement, grassroots innovation and green-consumption movements theory are built upon. Göteborg’s citizen-driven waste-prevention initiatives, such as food waste recovery, creating common reuse spaces in housing blocks, exchanging used toys and repairing abandoned bicycles, are considered with data from obse…
Cities, institutional entrepreneurship and the emergence of new environmental policies: The organizing of waste prevention in the City of Gothenburg, Sweden
Informed by institutional entrepreneurship theory and based on the case of waste prevention projects in the City of Göteborg, this paper examines the role of cities in shaping new environmental policies. Structured by the research question, ‘How do cities shape novel environmental policies and practices?’, the paper illustrates how cities become agents of environmental change and institutional entrepreneurship through mobilizing and recombining r…
Inclusive recycling movements: A green deep democracy from below
This paper examines the multiple strategies articulated by grassroots recycler networks to bring about socioenvironmental change. The paper shows how these networks are an emblematic case of grassroots governmentality, whereby urban poor communities contribute to building more inclusive environmental regimes by developing technologies of power more typical of the powerful. These technologies include enumeration, with its resulting self-knowledge;…
Urban commoning practices in the repair movement: Frontstaging the backstage
Citizen-led repair initiatives that collectively create urban commons, questioning the configuration of production, consumption, and discarding within neoliberal capitalism, have emerged in recent years. This paper builds on recent discussions of the openness of the commons by examining the role of repair in commoning. It is informed by the case of the Bike Kitchen in Göteborg, using in-depth interviews as well as ethnographic and visual observat…
Waste Pickers and Their Practices of Insurgency and Environmental Stewardship
Informed by different grassroots learning and educational practices engaged in waste management, and drawing from the concepts of insurgent citizenship and environmental stewardship, we examine the role of waste picker organizations and movements in creating new pathways towards more sustainable environmental waste governance. Two case studies (Argentina and Brazil) demonstrate how waste pickers inform and educate the general public and raise the…
Urban qualities and residents’ strategies in compact global south cities: The case of Havana
Research and policy argue for more compact cities to respond to sustainable development challenges. However, what actually needs to be made more compact and how, is under examined, particularly in global South cities where north notions of urban qualities are adopted without being questioned. Informed by a qualitative study in informal and compact neighborhoods in Havana, this paper explores which qualities are important to deliver more just citi…
Grassroots innovations in ‘extreme’ urban environments. The inclusive recycling movement
Waste pickers all over the world work innovatively to reduce the environmental footprint of cities as they struggle to meet their critical livelihood obligations. Informed by the case of waste picker organizations (WPOs) this article examines how grassroots initiatives and extreme-niche innovations are created and sustained by mobilizing resources, rationales and relations. The study is informed by a cross-national survey and in-depth interviews …
(Re)gaining the urban commons: Everyday, collective, and identity resistance
This paper examines the everyday, collective, and identity resistance mobilized by the urban poor to (re)gain their right to the commons and contest urban exclusion. Informed by the community of waste pickers at La Chureca, the city dump of Managua, Nicaragua, the paper, builds on theories of discard studies, urban commons, and Bayat’s everyday resistance. It shows, first, how deprived communities can create their own commons through quietly encr…
Residents' collective strategies of resistance in Global South cities' informal settlements: Space, scale and knowledge
This paper examines the strategies of resistance articulated by residents of informal settlements response to urban exclusion. Building upon resistance and urban social movements literature the paper is informed by the case of the Villa Rodrigo Bueno in Buenos Aires, a self-constructed villa miseria, and its residents' stories of resistance to attempts of evictions and upgrading programs. In the paper we show how resistance is mobilized, first th…
Organising grassroots infrastructure: The (in)visible work of organisational (in)completeness
In this article we build on the concept of incompleteness, as recently developed in both organisational and urban studies, to improve our understanding of the collective actions of grassroots organisations in creating and governing critical infrastructures in the changing and resource-scarce contexts of urban informal settlements. Empirically, the article is informed by the case of resident associations providing critical services and infrastruct…
Activation of unemployed through social procurement: From Policy to Practice
In this paper, we trace how 'social procurement' (SP) translates from policy to practice. Launched as a driver of social innovation and sustainability, SP offers a novel way of strengthening the implementation of active labor market policies locally. Policy tools are not neutral instruments, however; they shape the substance of policy in decisive ways. That is, how tools are used determines what the policy 'becomes'. Building on a qualitative cas…
Pathways from research to sustainable development: Insights from ten research projects in sustainability and resilience
Drawing on collective experience from ten collaborative research projects focused on the Global South, we identify three major challenges that impede the translation of research on sustainability and resilience into better-informed choices by individuals and policy-makers that in turn can support transformation to a sustainable future. The three challenges comprise: (i) converting knowledge produced during research projects into successful knowle…
Alternate infrastructures of care: Restoring people's abilities to care in a city of thresholds
Mobilizing policy capacity amid rapid green industrialization: Peripheral local government in the Northvolt boom-and-bust
This article explores how local governments mobilize to address labor market challenges during green industrialization, focusing on Skellefteå in Northern Sweden. Following the Northvolt battery plant, Skellefteå faced intense pressure to rapidly grow its population, services, and infrastructure amid significant uncertainty. Drawing on the policy capacity framework and qualitative fieldwork, we analyze local efforts aimed at converting industrial…
Circular economy and gendered antagonism in the Global South: The Kambuta fish market in Kisumu, Kenya
Political science (15 works) · Business (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Economics (11 works) · Geography (11 works) · Economic growth (8 works) · Environmental planning (8 works) · Public relations (8 works) · Urban Planning and Governance (7 works) · Engineering (5 works)