Estelle

Evrard

I have been a Research Scientist (Maître assistante) in Political Geography since 2020. I hold a Master of European Law from the Free University of Brussels (2006) and a PhD in Geography from the University of Luxembourg (2013). My primary research interest is to understand how (EU)ropean (dis)integration shapes spaces and territories and how communities and local authorities adjust to/against it.

Much of my doctoral and post-doctoral work dealt with analysing European integration at nation states’ borders. I investigated cross-border governance arrangements and spatialities through three axes. I firstly looked into the legal arrangements supporting the institutionalisation of cross-border cooperation (i.e. EGTC), also analysing how the legal norm can adversely affect communities. I secondly studied place-based local development strategies in response to spatial disparities and injustices (H2020 project RELOCAL). I thirdly looked into contemporary planning initiatives aiming at tackling local disparities in the Greater Region SaarLorLux (Luxembourg in Transition, UniGR CBS Spatial planning working group).

My current work analyses unequal geographies in the European context. Working with spatial justice and a Raffestinian relational understanding of territory, my work informs the following research domains:

• Exploring how less well-off localities (i.e. peripheral, post-industrial) seize local autonomy and set-up spatially just development strategies for their territories to thrive.
• Developing action research and participative research/art methods to create interventions with and for local communities in the public space (member of Common Wealth collective, Principal Investigator of REMIX PLACE). This work provides evidence on whether place attachment and belonging trigger greater participation in the public sphere. 
• Informing the theoretical reflections on the changing nature of territoriality in the context of EUropean (dis)integration.

I have been a member of the editorial board of the Justice Spatiale/Spatial Justice Journal since 2019 and have been teaching the Geographies of European integration at the University of Luxembourg since 2015. From October 2022 to October 2023, I am on secondment as Honorary Associate Professor at Bartlett School of Planning (UCL).