Dr Alejandro Ciordia Morandeira (A.)

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Maastricht Sustainability Institute (Maastricht University), working at the intersection of political science and sociology within the ERC-funded project Food Charities.

My work primarily focuses on contentious politics, organized civil society, and the socio-ecological transition. I am particularly interested in how socio-political categories and social interactions shape one another. To examine these dynamics in a variety of sociopolitical domains, I mainly rely on relational theories and mixed-methods designs, with social network analysis playing a prominent role. My research has been published in international social science journals such as as American Behavioral Scientist, Politics & Governance, Mobilization, VOLUNTAS, or Sociological Methodology, among others.

I received my PhD in Sociology and Social Research from the University of Trento in 2020, with a dissertation on inter-organizational collaboration in the Basque environmental field in the aftermath of violent conflict. Before joining Maastricht, I held postdoctoral positions at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2021–2024) and the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence (2024–2025). At all these universities, I have taught courses and seminars on social science research design and methods at undergraduate and graduate levels.