Patricia Canto

Researcher

Patricia is a researcher with over thirty years of experience dedicated to competitiveness and sustainable development. Her profile integrates practical experience at various levels of policymaking in Mexico with her academic career.

Her research focuses on the role of universities as strategic agents for territorial competitiveness, promoting transformative methodologies such as action research for territorial development and citizen social science. She has led social economy projects in the Basque Country and collaborative governance projects in Latin America focused on capacity building. In European projects, she has contributed approaches integrating multilevel, inter-, and transdisciplinary communication to enhance the social impact of research.

Her academic output reflects these research lines through publications in high-impact journals and the co-edition of collective works and special issues. She coordinates the "Desarrollo Territorial" book series and serves as an editor for the International Journal of Action Research, actively participating in international knowledge networks.

Career

She holds a BA in International Relations from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), an MA in International Relations from the University of Sussex, and an MPhil in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the same university.
She earned her PhD from the University of Deusto.
She has served as a lecturer at the University of Deusto and the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) in Mexico.