About
[ENG] [PT-BR]
MAPPING TERRITORIAL POTENTIALS AND CHALLENGES. CO-DEVELOPING ACTION PLANS. COLLECTIVE MOBILIZATION. IMPACT ANALYSIS AND PROCESS SYSTEMATIZATION. DEVELOPING SHARED MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES AND TOOLS. COOPERATIVE PROJECTS. INTERACTIVE PROCESSES. LECTURES, TALKS
AND CONSULTING.
WORKSHOPS AND COURSES.
THE CITY BY ITS PEOPLE.
Laura Sobral is an urban researcher and practitioner working at the intersection of participatory governance, spatial justice, and translocal cooperation. With over 15 years of experience across Latin America and Europe, she specialises in co-produced urban policies and collaborative public infrastructure—bridging community practice and institutional frameworks to foster more just and democratic cities.
She holds a BA and MSc from the University of São Paulo and is completing a binational PhD in Urban Studies at ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon and TU Wien. Her research explores how urban policies travel and adapt across territories, with a focus on intermediaries, affective governance, and the embedded politics of public space.
Laura is co-founder of The City Needs You Institute (Brazil) and A GRUPA (Portugal). She is also the author of Doing it Together – Cooperation Tools for City Co-Governance (ZKU Press, 2019), developed during her German Chancellor Fellowship with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and later published in Portuguese and Spanish (2021). Her work has been widely referenced in urban planning and participatory governance contexts, and featured in EU-funded programmes including URBiNAT, SEALabHaus, NBRACER, and URBACT’s Com.Unity.Lab Transfer Network.
Laura is currently EU-based, open to new opportunities that combine research, project design, and civic practice—particularly within cooperation programmes, intercities networks, or international institutions working toward cooperative urbanism. She is especially motivated by hybrid roles that balance flexibility and stability, theory and practice, and contribute to building fairer, more grounded urban futures.
Laura Sobral é urbanista e atua na intersecção entre gestão compartilhada, justiça espacial e cooperação entre cidades. Com mais de 15 anos de experiência na América Latina e na Europa, ela se especializou em políticas urbanas de co-produção e co-governança — conectando práticas comunitárias e estruturas institucionais para promover cidades mais justas e democráticas.
Ela possui bacharelado e mestrado pela Universidade de São Paulo e está concluindo um doutorado binacional em Estudos Urbanos no ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa e na Universidade Técnica de Viena. Sua pesquisa explora como as políticas urbanas transitam e se adaptam entre territórios, com foco em agentes intermediários, distribuição de poder e cuidado nas políticas incorporadas ao espaço público.
Laura é cofundadora do A Cidade Precisa de Você (Brasil) e da GRUPA (Portugal). Ela também é autora do livro Fazer Juntos – instrumentos de cooperação para cidades cocriadas (ZKU Press, 2019), desenvolvido durante sua Bolsa de Estudos da Chancelaria Alemã com a Fundação Alexander von Humboldt e posteriormente publicado em português e espanhol (A Cidade Press, 2021). Seu trabalho tem sido amplamente referenciado em contextos de planejamento urbano e governança participativa, e destacado em programas e projetos financiados pela Uniãoi Européia, incluindo URBiNAT, SEALabHaus, NBRACER e a Rede de Transferência Com.Unity.Lab do URBACT.
Laura está atualmente baseada na Europa, aberta a novas oportunidades que combinem pesquisa, concepção de projetos e prática colaborativa junto à sociedade civil — particularmente em programas de cooperação, redes intermunicipais ou instituições internacionais no âmbito do urbanismo cooperativo. Sua motivação está especialmente em funções híbridas que conectam teoria e prática, que contribuam para futuros urbanos mais justos e possíveis.
In action
[ 2021 – Current ] Selected Teaching Activities – Higher Education
Various Institutions (Remote / Global)
- External Expert and contributor to Research Saturdays in the Master Performing Public Space, Fontys University of Applied Sciences (Tilburg, Netherlands); also served as external assessor for final student evaluations
- Lecturer in the Postgraduate Programme in Sustainable Architecture at Escola Superior Artística do Porto (Portugal), delivering an annual online course titled Insurgent Urbanism: From Activism to Public Policies, focused on participatory governance and civic practices
A GRUPA
Portugal
[ 2020 – Current ] Co-founder and Core Member
- Coordinated participatory and co-governance components in EU projects such as URBiNAT and NBRACER (Porto)
- Designed and facilitated stakeholder engagement in nature-based and inclusive urban interventions
- Developed civic engagement tools and workshops with municipal teams and local communities
[ 2019 – Current ] Urban Innovation and Governance Advisor | Consultant
Consultant and Tech Assessor – Envisioning Cities (2022)
- Advised the Urban Transformation Capacities project within the Envisioning Sustainable Cities research cluster
- Featured as an expert contributor in the Future Cities webcast series (interview-based episode)
Urban Governance Advisor – URBACT Com.Unity.Lab Transfer Network (2020-2021)
Lisbon, Portugal
- Participated in ULG; contributed to evaluation and self-assessment methodology
- Collaborated with Lead Expert and municipal team for peer learning events and final festival outputs
- Developed critical analysis for the PhD (main case study)
Urban Innovation Consultant – MDI / KLASH Challenge “Our Joensuu” (2019)
Helsinki, Finland
- Co-designed finalist proposal in international co-creation challenge
Selected workshops and public talks for civil servants and civic actors on co-governance, placemaking, participatory design
- invited by the Goethe-Institut, project Cities Ahead, Logroño, Spain (2023)
- invited by Sciences Po and in partnership with CITTA | Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal (2023)
- invited by FADU, Montevideo, Uruguay (2022)
- invited by Actors of Urban Change | MitOst, Berlin, Germany (2021)
- invited by WeMakeThe.City to The Just City Index Workshop, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2020)
- invited by the City of Nuremberg | Department of Cultural Affairs (N2025), Nuremberg, Germany, (2019)
- invited by Aveiro University to a PDM Ações Experimentais Session, Maia, Portugal (2019)
- invited by Bernard van Leer to the CGLU Congress, Bogotá, Colombia (2016)
- invited by Instituto Clima e Sociedade (iCS) to the Habitat III Conference, Quito, Equador;
- guest speaker in Habitat III preparatory events, Stockholm, Recife, São Paulo (2016)
A Cidade Precisa de Você [The City Needs You]
São Paulo, Brazil
[ 2016 – Current ] Co-founder and Strategic Director
- Led award-winning initiatives on co-governance, circular food systems, urban commons and collaborative public space design, such as the ECOCIDADE project (São Paulo)
- Delivered workshops, consultancies and research in collaboration with city governments, cultural institutions and international networks, such as O Futuro da Minha Cidade, among others
- Author of Fazer Juntos book (2022), distributed across Brazil and Latin America + the game-version
[ 2016 – 2024 ] Mentor / Facilitator / Team member
Local Democracy Labs
Mentored municipal teams in the Local Democracy Labs as an expert researcher on community trust. Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy (2021)
The Food Circles Hack
Mentored teams from Egypt, Tunisia, Spain, and Portugal in developing innovative and participatory solutions to challenges in the food chain (2021).
Citizen Innovation Labs
Mentored, supported and evaluated civic projects in Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Colombia (2016-2024)
Publications
Authors: Sobral, L., Milić, P., & Ateş, B. Journal Name: Urban Planning Journal
Name: The Past, The Present, and The Future of Urban Change Publisher: ACT Magazine
Publisher: A Cidade Press
+ A cidade de amanhã [Vitruvius]; Processo e Imaginário [Monolito SESC]; Jardins e jardineiros [O Estado de S.Paulo, Caderno Aliás]; São Paulo pelas pessoas [Revista Época]; e Primavera paulistana [O Estado de S.Paulo, Caderno Aliás].
