Geographer specialising in urban studies and regional planning. Educated at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (PhD in Geography) and at Johns Hopkins University (Master’s Degree in International Affairs), he was the director of the Barcelona Institute of Metropolitan Studies (1988-1999), a Member of the Catalan Parliament (1999-2003) and government Secretary for Regional Planning (2003-2011). The dynamics and processes of regional metropolitanisation public policy on regional planning and management, urban renovation and landscape are his research areas.

He is currently a full member of the Institute of Catalan Studies and a lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where he heads the Research Group on Energy, Territory and Society (GURB), and chairs the Barcelona Neighbourhood Plan Advisory Board. His most recent books include La ciudad en movimiento: Crisis social y respuesta ciutadana (2015), Cities in the 21st Century (2016), La luz de la ciudad: El proceso de urbanización en España a partir de las imágenes nocturnas de la Tierra (2016), Barrios y crisis: Crisis económica, segregación urbana e innovación social en Cataluña (2018) and La città di Pasqual Maragall (2019).