Rita Calvário is a PhD candidate of the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and a Predoctoral Marie Curie fellow of the European Network for Political Ecology (ENTITLE). She holds a BA in Agronomic Engineering, with specialization in Agrarian Economics and Rural Sociology (2003), an MA in Environmental and Territorial Planning (2010) and a Mphil in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies (2012).
Her PhD project examines the neo-rural movement and the "new peasants" in Portugal, Spain and Greece in a comparative study. This research will perform an analysis that will include both a bio-physical/metabolic assessment of their mode of living and production and a sociological analysis on questions related with why did they choose to become farmers again, how do they relate with social movements and political demands, how do they self-organize and collective manage affairs.
