Luca Bródy
Affiliated researcher
I am an urban sociologist working on social movements and citizen mobilisation, state-civil society relations, urban-rural divides, local development, and food sovereignty.
Social Sciences
I am an urban sociologist and an affiliate research fellow at Södertörn University. I am also a senior research fellow at the ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies in Hungary. I received my first master's degree in sociology and economics from Corvinus University of Budapest in 2010. I then went on to study urban sociology and social policy at the University of Amsterdam and completed my PhD at the Gran Sasso Science Institute in L’Aquila, Italy in 2019.
Since then, I have focused my research on social movements, civic mobilisation and the shifting relationship between the state and civil society, particularly in Hungary and across Central and Eastern Europe. My work investigates how grassroots initiatives engage with local development, the influence of welfare state transformations on civic action, and how urban–rural divides shape opportunities for participation. I am particularly interested in food sovereignty initiatives, community-based food provision, and alternative models of local economic organisation.
Key research interests
- Citizen participation and urban regeneration: the political economy of participation, EU policy frameworks, and post-crisis restructuring
- State–civil society relations and local development: welfare state transformation, marginalisation, and grassroots responses
- Food sovereignty and civic mobilisation: community food networks, urban gardening, and alternative provisioning systems
Ongoing research projects
My current research explores how civil society organisations respond to overlapping economic, social, and ecological crises through innovative and often informal engagement practices. I am a member of the Budapest-based, feminist, food-related activist and research collective HerStory, and a co-investigator in the international research program Sustaining Civil Society in the Context of Multiple Crises, which analyses the resilience and resourcefulness of civil society organisations across Central and Eastern Europe.
Project webpage: SustainAction External link.