dr. MC (Maia) Brons

Maia Brons is a postdoctoral researcher with the Sociology of Development and Change (SDC) Group. She is part of the LODESTAR research project, which investigates early warning systems for communities at-risk of floods and droughts in the Netherlands and India. Within this project, Maia focuses especially on the governance aspects to early warning systems in numerous localities, as well as organising Living Labs to bring communities, municipalities and disaster experts/responders together to create and improve communication mechanisms for environmental risks.

Maia recently obtained her PhD at the University of Brighton (United Kingdom). Her doctoral thesis focused on the dynamic relation between water-related challenges and mundane mobilities within the context of so-called 'urban fringes'. Her research was rooted in a qualitative study of communities in Newham, in East London, where Maia studied how surface water flooding, river contamination and waterfront regeneration influence and intersect with the mobilities of local residents, within the wider context of challenges relating to climate change, urbanisation and gentrification. Her work is mainly situated between the fields of human geography, urban studies and political ecology.