BEng + MEng, PhD
Dr Stefania Fiorentino's research focuses on the intersection of urban planning and local economic development to identify more inclusive and innovative regeneration strategies. Stefania’s research is highly impact-driven and directly engages with policymakers.
She looks at urban and regional transformations and the way economic shifts produce changes in the demand, supply, and experience of spaces. Recent research projects include the business and governance of densification strategies, the evolution of working spaces, industrial clusters and the geography of innovation, the regeneration of coastal towns and planning for regional inequalities.
Before coming to Cambridge in 2020, she extensively lectured and led research on different topics cutting across the fields of urban planning, economic geography, and urban regeneration between the Bartlett (UCL) and London South Bank University (LSBU). She holds a PhD in Planning Studies from the Bartlett School of Planning (UCL), where she also is an honorary lecturer.
Her work has been published in several leading international journals and featured on media outlets. She serves on several editorial boards, including the Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society. She is an active member of several learned societies, and she currently sits on the board of the Regional Studies Association (RSA).
Given the international and comparative nature of her research, she is regularly invited to deliver guest lectures, keynotes, and research visits (e.g., University of Toronto, Politecnico di Milano, Chinese University of Hong Kong, etc.).
Before becoming an academic, Dr Stefania Fiorentino trained as a chartered engineer and she has worked in international consultancies across Italy, France and the UK with leading expertise in the fields of real estate, urban planning and economic development. As an academic she keeps contributing to consultancy, thought leadership, and influencing policymaking, acting as an external expert for bodies like the EU Commission or the House of Lords.
Fiorentino, S. (2023) Public-led shared workspaces and the intangible factors of urban regeneration in UK coastal towns, Urban, Planning and Transport Research, 11:1, DOI: 10.1080/21650020.2023.2260853
Fiorentino, S. (2022) New investment models for urban innovation ecosystems, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2022, ISBN 978-92-76-57694-5, doi:10.2760/49669, JRC131007. https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC131007
Fiorentino et al. (2022) The future of the corporate office? Emerging trends in the post-Covid city, Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 15(3), 597–614, https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsac027
Fiorentino, S., Bartolucci, S. (2021) Blockchain-based smart contracts as new governance tools for the sharing economy, Cities, 117, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103325
Livingstone, N., Fiorentino, S. and Short, M. (2021) Planning for residential ‘value’? London’s densification policies and impacts. Buildings and Cities, 2(1), pp.203–219. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/bc.88
Fiorentino, S. (2019) Different typologies of co-working spaces and the contemporary dynamics of local economic development in Rome, European Planning Studies, 27 (9), 1768–1790, https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2019.1620697
Fiorentino, S. (2018) Re-making urban economic geography. Start-ups, entrepreneurial support and the Makers Movement. A critical assessment of policy mobility in Rome, Geoforum, 93, 116–119, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.05.016