Claire Simonneau

Bio

Claire Simonneau is a lecturer and researcher at Gustave Eiffel University and a researcher at LATTS.

Her research focuses on the development and management of cities in the Global South, examined through the lens of land appropriation practices and the mechanisms governing them. It draws on empirical studies in West Africa and international comparative research programmes. 

Her current work examines, on the one hand, land transformations in the urban fringes of major agglomerations in the Global South, particularly in the West African urban corridor in Benin and in the Dakar region.  On the other hand, it focuses on analysing social movements for the right to housing and the international circulation of urban (counter-)models, notably housing cooperatives and Community Land Trusts.

Before joining LATTS, his research focused on socio-technical systems, with a PhD thesis (University of Montreal, 2015) examining the land dynamics of urbanisation in Benin and their regulation through a computerised municipal land registry supported by development aid, the Urban Land Registry.

Her research interests subsequently broadened to include the effects of globalisation on urban spaces and the challenges they face, notably through postdoctoral work on land commons for housing (Catholic University of Louvain, UMR Géographie-cités, 2016–2021). This research enabled an examination of alternative modes of housing production for vulnerable populations, based on the principle of non-speculative land use and centred on the needs and uses of residents.