Astrid Safina

Astrid Safina, urban geographer, PhD Urban and Regional Development from Politecnico di Torino and Università di Torino, Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST). Currently, she is a post-doctoral researcher at Sapienza University of Rome, and a member of the China Room at Politecnico di Torino. In the past, she has been post-doctoral researcher at the Politecnico di Torino (2020-2023), visiting scholar at the South China University of Technology (2017-2018), and junior research assistant at the Department of Urban Studies at the Faculty of Architecture of Universidad Central de Venezuela (2012). She has conducted fieldwork in Venezuela, Italy, China, and Greece within multidisciplinary research groups. Her research collocates at the intersection of Chinese urbanization processes, infrastructural studies, global urbanism, and the spatial effects global processes have on the ground. Her most recent work includes on the one side the Rescaling of the Belt and Road Initiative, specifically looking at the complexities of infrastructural and logistical spaces in Europe. On the other side, she is currently working on the Horizon project Reframing Non-Metropolitan Left Behind Places Through Mobility and Alternative Development (RE-PLACE). Methodologically, she has a long-standing interest in visual, cartographic, and ethnographic practices as part of knowledge production from everyday life.