Gala Nettelbladt

Gala Nettelbladt is a Professor of Urban and Regional Sociology at HafenCity University Hamburg. With a dual background in social sciences and urban planning, her work intersects political sociology, planning theory, and urban political ecology. She investigates local negotiations of social conflicts, marginalization processes, and the interplay between the state, civil society, and planning.

• Education: Doctorate in Sociology (summa cum laude) from Humboldt University Berlin, Master's in Interdisciplinary Urban Design from The Bartlett School of Planning (UCL), and Bachelor's in European Studies from King’s College London and Sciences Po Paris.

Her research focuses on socio-ecological transformation (infrastructure, water scarcity, coal phase-out) and right-wing extremism in local governance. Funded by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and DAAD, she co-edits the journal sub\urban and contributes to critical urban discourse through podcasts like Urban Political Podcast. She has received the AESOP Young Academics Best Paper Award for her work on far-right normalization in participatory processes.