Dr Matthew A. Richmond is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at LACC. He previously completed Postdoctoral Fellowships at the Centro de Estudos da Metrópole and the Universidade Estadual Paulista, both in São Paulo, Brazil. He has a PhD in Human Geography from King’s College London, an MPhil in Social Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a BA in History from LSE.

Matthew’s research looks at urban development, governance and subjectivity formation in Latin America, particularly in marginalised and peripheral urban spaces in Brazil. He has conducted ethnographic research in favelas and peripheries in the country’s two largest metropolises, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and on socio-spatial fragmentation and public space in several medium-sized Brazilian cities.

His work draws on diverse influences, including critical urban, postcolonial and assemblage theory, and Brazilian urban sociology and geography. His research has been published in several journals including the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Environment and Planning D, Geoforum, Antipode and in a forthcoming co-edited book: ‘Espaços Periféricos: Política, Violência e Território na Bordas da Cidade’ (São Carlos: EdUfscar).

Matthew’s current project ‘Distributed Governance: The Management of Unruly Spaces in São Paulo’ examines how different urban spaces, people, and activities are managed in São Paulo. The project develops the concept of ‘distributed governance’ to refer to complex and continually renegotiated arrangements between diverse actors from the state, private sector, civil society and organised crime. Such dynamics have been documented across numerous Latin American cities, yet remain poorly understood.

Through qualitative research in case sites in the centre and periphery of São Paulo, the project is exploring the conditions that give rise to distributed governance, the relationships that sustain it, and its consequences for everyday life and citizenship in the contemporary Latin American metropolis.