For the next five years, he will coordinate a project involving twelve universities to analyse housing as a financial asset, understand the inequalities it generates and develop policies to reduce them

The Universitat Rovira i Virgili has recruited the geographer Agustín Cocola-Gant through the Serra Húnter Senior programme, a highly competitive call organised by the Catalan Government and aimed at hiring established international academic and research staff from outside Spain. The contracts last for five years and, upon completion, mean that the researcher can become eligible for a full university professorship within the Catalan university system. This Monday, the Catalan Minister for Research and Universities, Núria Montserrat, welcomed Cocola-Gant and the four other researchers who have also joined Catalan universities this year on one of these distinguished professorship contracts.

Having completed a doctorate in Human Geography at Cardiff University and another one in Art History at the University of Barcelona, Cocola-Gant has spent fifteen years conducting research abroad—in London and Lisbon—and is an international authority in his field, which is the study of the Airbnb phenomenon and its social and urban consequences.

His work combines quantitative and qualitative analysis with a social justice perspective in order to give a voice to communities affected by residential displacement. “Research must be useful to society,” he emphasises. He has studied the cases of Lisbon and Barcelona in depth, and has assessed the effectiveness of policies such as limiting tourist flat licences in the Catalan capital. Now, he warns that cities like Tarragona are beginning to show symptoms of the same process, with a growing number of Airbnb listings and effects on the rental market. “In Tarragona, there are more and more tourist apartment licences. The Old Town is beginning to show signs of saturation. We can learn from the lessons of other places that have already been through this process, and we have time to correct it, but the City Council must limit the licences now,” he states.

Cocola-Gant joins the URV’s Department of Geography as coordinator of the project “The housing-wealth nexus”, which involves twelve international universities and research centres and has received 1.8 million euros in funding from the Horizon Europe programme. The aim is to analyse housing as a financial asset, understand the inequalities it generates and develop policies to reduce them by working in partnership with housing collectives and organisations.

Argentinian by birth, with Andalusian roots and a long international career, Cocola-Gant sees his arrival at URV as a natural return. “I already knew the URV. After so many years abroad, for me it’s like coming home. I’m happy,” he explains. He had already collaborated with researchers from the URV’s Research Group on Territorial Analysis and Tourism Studies (GRATET) and was familiar with the University’s ability to integrate into global networks. With his appointment, the URV bolsters its commitment to attracting established talent and to research that has a direct social impact on contemporary urban issues.