José Manuel Mendes is Full Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. He is coordinator of the Risk Observatory at the Centre for Social Studies and Editor-in-Chief of Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais. He graduated in sociology at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities of the NOVA University of Lisbon and obtained his PhD in sociology from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra. He coordinates the PhD Programme Territory, Risk and Public Policies at the University of Coimbra, a joint programme with the Universities of Lisbon and Aveiro. He is also co-coordinator of the PhD Programme in Sociology, University of Coimbra, and of the Master Programme in Social Dynamics, Natural and Technological Risks, a joint programme of the Faculties of Economics, Humanities and Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra. He is Professor in the PhD Programmes in ¿Sociology¿, "Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship" and "Governance, Knowledge and Innovation", University of Coimbra. He is also a Specialist member of the Working Group Research, Monitoring and Early Warning on Tsunamis (GT-IMAT), created by the International Oceanographic Commission (IOC), Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of The Portuguese Economic and Food Safety Authority (ASAE). He is the Portuguese representative in the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA). In 2011, he won the journal Análise Social best article published in 2010. The coordination of the Risk Observatory has allowed for a consistent work in building a research team around the issues of social vulnerability, risk, emergency planning and citizenship, articulating applied research in local municipalities in Portugal and Brazil with academic work in the PhD Territory, Risk and Public Policies, contributing to early stage development of young researchers¿ careers. Also, it has allowed him to work with affected communities in a logic of strong participatory science. In the academic field there has been a consistent collaboration with the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London, with the Annual Joint Initiative since 2017 in the Centre for Social Studies, Coimbra. He has been co-editor of special issues in the following journals: International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Natural Hazards and International Journal of Disaster Risk Science. His most recent books are (2021) Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk. Amsterdam: Elsevier, edited with G. Kalonji, R. Jigyasu and A. Chang-Richards, and (2021). Demodiversity: Toward post-abyssal democracies. New York: Routledge, edited with Boaventura de Sousa Santos. At present he is supervising 2 post-doctoral students, 28 PhD dissertations (the majority with Portuguese or Brazilian Scholarships) and 3 M.A. theses, at Faculty of Economics or Faculty of Sciences and Technology or Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Coimbra. From 2000 to the present he has successfully supervised 21 PhD theses, 12 post-doctoral students and 31 M.A. theses.