Olivia Bina is Senior Researcher (Investigador Principal) at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Portugal), and Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS).
She has a longstanding interest in understanding our changing relationship with nature, and how that relates to the many challenges facing the 21st century, and our cities in particular. She explores the drivers of (un)sustainability of our socio-economic and socio-technical models and their effect on life – human and more-than human, working through the lens of ecological economics, sustainable futures, systems change and transition/transformation theories. Recent projects explore nature-based (urban) transformations, nature-based solutions, re-imagining urban futures and the major challenges that climate’s impacts present to historical and dense areas. She continues her research around the importance of plurality in our ways of knowing and is exploring the potential of other-than-human vegetal perspectives, including through the changing role of botanical gardens as future-shaping sites. She seeks to bring an inter and trans-disciplinary approach to all her work, with full knowledge of the many challenges and obstacles that this entails. Olivia holds a Bachelor in Political Sciences (Università degli Studi di Milano), a Master in Environment and Development and a PhD in Geography (both University of Cambridge), and a Masters in Landscape Architecture (Università di Cagliari).