Dr Catalina Pollak

Catalina's research advances a critical understanding of the relationship between play, participation, and urban democracy through design-led methodologies grounded in collective experimentation and socio-spatial justice. Rather than treating participation as a procedural instrument, she interrogates its political ontology, framing it as a civic pedagogy through which situated knowledge, political subjectivities, and urban imaginaries are co-produced and (per)formed. Within this framework, she develops Radical Play as a conceptual and methodological approach in which play becomes politically and pedagogically operative: by suspending the norms that structure everyday life, it opens space to collectively explore new forms of socio-spatial (re)production.

Her current research extends this work into socio-ecological urban practice and community-led development, ranging from grassroots interventions to civic tech platforms designed to reposition communities as active agents in shaping urban environments. In doing so, she continues to explore how creative and performative methods support civic learning and democratic experimentation, enabling more just, ethical and resilient urban futures.

Visit her website: Public Interventions