Skip to main content

Jonas Torrens

Jonas Torrens

Dr Jonas Torrens works at Utrecht University as a postdoctoral researcher in the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and as an associate fellow at the Urban Futures Studio. He is also a visiting fellow at the School of Cities at the University of Toronto. Jonas' key interest is in how to enable sustainability transitions and transformations in just and democratic ways. He has focused on two overlapping domains: urban infrastructural change and (transformative) innovation policy.

As part of the 'Transforming infrastructures for sustainable cities' hub, his current research examines the strategies used for 'governing transformations through experimentation', drawing from transdisciplinary cases in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Toronto.

His PhD research (SPRU, 2019) considered how and why particular cities become 'good places' to experiment with sustainability, examining the history of sustainability initiatives in Bristol and Medellín.

Jonas is deeply involved in building collaborative networks to facilitate more engaged transdisciplinary research. He helped co-found the Network for Early Career Researchers in Sustainability Transitions (NEST). As a member of the steering group of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network, he co-founded the thematic group on Urban Transitions and Transformations.

Jonas is a cosmopolitan Brazilian, who developed his love for cities while living and working in Curitiba, Lyon, Paris, Madrid, Nantes, Stockholm, Brighton, and now Utrecht.