PROFILE
Laura Bullón-Cassis is a Research Fellow at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy. Working at the intersection of political sociology and media studies, she examines how media and technological infrastructures shape the distribution of visibility, knowledge and authority in climate politics. Her ethnographic research moves across scales, from activist movements contesting concentrated media power to UN negotiations and the private companies increasingly shaping how the planet is observed and understood. From 2027, she will lead The New Stewards, an SNSF Ambizione project examining how the growing role of private companies in Earth observation is transforming the production of environmental knowledge and reconfiguring public authority over the planet.
Her first book, The Time for Talk Is Over: Youth, Climate, and the Attention Economy of Global Politics (in preparation), examines how young people became the communicative face of UN climate diplomacy, and what happens when visibility stands in for political influence. Her research has appeared in Media, Culture & Society, the Journal of Youth Studies, Societies and Global Perspectives. She also co-leads the DECODE project on disinformation and AI literacy and is an Associate Researcher at Sciences Po’s médialab.
Her research draws on more than a decade of experience inside multilateral negotiations, including as lead author of UNEP’s Frascati Principles on environmental data systems and as a team leader and senior writer for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin of the International Institute for Sustainable Development. She holds a PhD in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University, an MSc in Global Politics and a BSc in Sociology from the London School of Economics. She has held visiting fellowships at the University of Cambridge, George Washington University, the EHESS and Sciences Po.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND OUTPUTS
Books
Bullón-Cassis, L. The Time for Talk Is Over: Youth, Climate, and the Attention Economy of Global Politics. In preparation.
Bullón-Cassis, L., Lutringer, C., Mexi, M., & Welp, Y. (Eds.). Young People Reshaping Climate Politics: Protest and Participation Across Contexts. Routledge, forthcoming.
Duberry, J., & Bullón-Cassis, L. (Eds.). Artificial Intelligence and the University: Transforming the Core Missions of Higher Education. Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Bullón-Cassis, L. (2026). Contesting infrastructures of attention: Climate activism and asymmetric visibility in France. Media, Culture & Society. Forthcoming.
Bullón-Cassis, L. (2025). Who gets to shape climate futures? Voice, representation, and urban experimentation at the Paris Climate Academy. Global Perspectives, 6(1), 143126.
Bullón-Cassis, L., Lutringer, C., Mexi, M., & Welp, Y. (2025). Do mini-publics answer environmental demands by youth? Promises and perceptions of ‘voice’ in four European cities. Societies, 15(7), 176.
Bullón-Cassis, L., & Tchermalykh, N. (2025). Dialogues subversifs : Redéfinir le musée occidental par des interventions performatives. Marges, 40, 23–38.
Bullón-Cassis, L. (2024). A game show at the end of the world: The currency of youth in UN climate summitry. Journal of Youth Studies, 27(1), 1–18.
Hubacher, M., Bullón-Cassis, L., Duberry, J., & Lutringer, C. (2024). Stories of the Future: Mit Geschichten mögliche Zukünfte erforschen – ein Praxisbericht. POLIS, (14), 27–30.
Bullón-Cassis, L. (2021). Beware of generationalism: The structural (in)visibility of BIPOC youths in global climate summits. NEOS, 13(1).
Bullón-Cassis, L. (2011). Towards ‘post-globalization’? G20 communications during the global financial crisis. UNU-CRIS.
Television, Podcasts, and Op-Eds
Pourquoi Jeff Bezos veut être le maître des infrastructures ? Invited guest expert on Le Point J (RTS). 13 October 2026
The New Oligarchs. Invited guest expert on Géopolitis (RTS and TV5Monde). International broadcast on technology elites and global governance, 18 May 2025.
Bullón-Cassis, L. (2024). 2024: A year of reflection, unrest, and lessons for democracy. Global Challenges and Globe, Geneva Graduate Institute.
Co-host, Who is Voting in 2024? podcast. Sample episode: “France: How is civil society fighting the rise of the extreme right online?” with Sarah Durieux.
Bullón-Cassis, L. (2024). Can young people still sway UN climate COPs? The Conversation (French and English).
Duberry, J., Lutringer, C., Bullón-Cassis, L., & Hubacher, M. (2024, May 27). Une gouvernance mondiale de l’IA est-elle possible et si oui, peut-on y intégrer la jeunesse ? The Conversation.
Podcast episode with Jennifer Telesca (2024). Navigating environmental governance through ethnographic ways of knowing. Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy.
Bullón-Cassis, L. (2022). Youth at climate COPs: An exercise in (suboptimal) planetary care? Weather Matters, Fall Series.
Bullón-Cassis, L. (2020). Why is youth embracing ‘alter-democracy’? An interview with Fridays for Future activist Marie-Claire Graf. Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy.
Bullón-Cassis, L. (2020). Democratic disenchantments: COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, and Fridays for Future. Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy.
Bullón-Cassis, L. (2015). The UN is imperfect, but we need it more than ever. OpenDemocracy, 10 December.
Bullón-Cassis, L. (2012). When anti-globalizers are pro-globalizers. The Global Journal, March.
Selected Policy Publications
Bullón-Cassis, L., & Gutierrez, M. (2025). The Frascati Principles: Towards trusted, coherent, and inclusive environmental data systems. UNEP High-Level Expert Group on Environmental Data.
Bullón-Cassis, L., Davenport, D., & Mwangi, W. (2024). Summary and analysis of the Summit of the Future. Earth Negotiations Bulletin, 3(22).
Bullón-Cassis, L., Lutringer, C., & Bellenot, H. (2024). Understanding the links between multilateralism and democracy: Issue brief on democracy and climate. Kofi Annan Foundation.
Bullón-Cassis, L., Sharma, A., Jones, J., Leone, F., & Verkuijl, C. (2019). Summary and analysis of the UN General Assembly Summits. Earth Negotiations Bulletin, 33(57).