Funded by the Brazilian government, Dr Firmino's research focuses on territorial implications and manifestations of surveillance and augmenting technologies in contemporary neo-liberal cities. He is also interested in discussing the redefinition of boundaries between private and public spaces by new sociotechnical assemblages supported by a chain of interconnected so-called 'smart technologies'. One of his current projects, funded by the Newton Fund (in a partnership between the ESRC and Brazilian Research Councils), about smart urbanism involves two Brazilian (PUCPR and UFBA) and two British (Durham and Plymouth) universities.
Dr Firmino is an Associate Professor in Urban Management at the Pontifical Catholic University (PUCPR) in Curitiba, Brazil, and a CNPq (Brazil's National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) Research Fellow. Since 2009, he has been chief editor of urbe, a Brazilian urban studies journal that publishes papers in Portuguese, English, Spanish and French. He is also a founding member of the Latin American Network of Surveillance, Technology and Society Studies and has been publishing articles and essays in major journals about surveillance & space, augmented technologies & cities, digital urbanisation, cyberculture, smart urbanism, among other themes.
PhD studentship opportunity: Calculation of the Monetary ESGAP (M-ESGAP) indicator
PhD studentship opportunity available at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, exploring the ‘Calculation of the Monetary ESGAP (M-ESGAP) Indicator’.
15 Apr 2025
New Research Finds ‘Substantial’ Global Disparities in Covid-19 Vaccine Accessibility
The research, published in the British Medical Journal, showed major disparities between access to vaccines across 54 surveyed countries, with vaccine deserts in both high- and low-income regions.
15 Apr 2025
TERRITORIES OF CO-COGNITION Symposium
TERRITORIES OF CO-COGNITION is a half-day symposium curated by Bartlett academics, critically examining the intersections of artificial intelligence, ethics and the built environment.
14 Apr 2025