- Gran Sasso Science Institute
Giorgos Koukoufikis stayed at CRIT in 2017 as a PhD Candidate at the Urban Studies unit of the Gran Sasso Science Institute in L’Aquila, Italy and a visiting doctorate researcher at the Planning and Development research unit of KU Leuven in Belgium. His Ph.D. research project considers the environmental and socio-economic limitations of perpetual economic growth and investigates the role of cities in the scientific debate of the post-growth society, as well as the possibility of them acting as facilitators or preventers of a broader socio-economic systemic transformation. During his research stay in Barcelona at the spring quarter of 2017, he investigates the responses of micro-agents, in particular micro-businesses, during the post-2008 era. By conceptualising the crisis as a potential path-breaking event he examines the micro-businesses’ (conscious or not) reaction to an insecure, constantly changing environment in order to test if they can fit with expectations arising from the theoretical investigations of the post-growth scholars.