My research has also had direct impact on local governance and public policy through my academic leadership of the Seminário Direito à Cidade (Right to the City Seminar) in Pelotas, Brazil (7-9 March 2023) at the Federal University of Pelotas. This seminar brought together municipal authorities, legal scholars, community organisations, quilombola leaders (descendants of Enslaved Afro-Brazilians) and civil society to debate housing as a human right, urban inequality and the need for new legal instruments to address housing precarity. The seminar functioned as a space for knowledge exchange between academia and public power, informing discussions on potential new municipal housing policies and legal frameworks, and demonstrating how research-based evidence can support democratic urban governance.