Marcelo Lopes de Souza is a professor at the Department of Geography of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Rio de Janeiro. He founded and coordinates a research group whose main focus is the relationships between social relations and space and particularly the spatiality of social change called The Center of Research on Socio-Spatial Development (Núcleo de Pesquisas sobre Desenvolvimento Sócio-Espacial/NuPeD).