Lecturers & Staff

Keywords: financial geography, urban political economy, economic geography, world/global cities

Research themes:

• Geographies of FinTech and Big Tech
• Geographies of Islamic Finance
• Geographies of the Circular Economy
• Geographies of Foundational Urban Systems
• Geographies of European Financial Integration
• Geographies of World-City Formation

Research Methods: interviews, document analysis, narratives and numbers approaches, social network analysis, follow the money techniques

Urban governance, policies and politics:

• The changing politics of planning and urban development in European cities, with a particular focus on new forms of urban entrepreneurialism, urban marketing and urban governance (UK, France, Germany, Spain)
• The contested politics of urban regeneration in European cities
• The combination of “culturalist” and “materialist” approaches in urban political economy
• European spatial planning and European Union policies with a territorial impact:
• The impact of the EU on spatial planning, regional development and urban policies across Europe
• The European agenda on spatial planning and territorial cohesion
• European cross-border and transnational cooperation networks between cities and regions (e.g. INTERREG programmes), and their impact on policy learning and cognitive Europeanisation

Comparative planning:

• Comparative spatial planning cultures and systems in Europe / the transformation of planning systems and practices
• Devolution, decentralization and spatial planning in “contested” states (UK/Spain/Belgium)

Urban sociology:

• The impact of urban and planning policies on gentrification, segregation, “diversity” and social mix in European cities
• Urban social movements and social mobilizations surrounding planning and urban regeneration issues
• Neighbourhood planning and public participation in planning processes

Tatiana’s current research includes work on spatial dimensions of artistic activities (e.g. artists’ studios and art galleries, arts districts), historical and contemporary urban dynamics (e.g. gentrification processes), narrative cartography (fictional literature as a source for geographers), and historical mapping (geolocation).

Keywords: urban alternatives, critical urban geography, the right to the city, critical transport, fare-free public transport, citizen participation, participatory budgeting

Keywords: Belgium, diversity, enclave urbanism, fear, geographies of education, geographies of encounter, in-depth interviews, privilege, publication strategies, qualitative research, segregation, social mix, solidarity, South Africa, suburbs, urbanity, whiteness Solidarity in superdiverse cities: Drawing on (participatory) observations, interviews and/or focus groups with people who live, work, play or learn together in superdiverse places, you look for innovative forms of solidarity which develop around the shared use of these places. Depending upon your interests, these places could be schools, parks, factories, sports fields or neighborhood centers, office towers, social housing estates, … in several European cities. How can solidarity be nurtured amongst people who do not have anything in common apart from the place that they share? Do innovative forms of solidarity develop around the joint appropriation and the envisaged common future of shared places? Encounters in enclaves: Over the last two decades, the global spread of enclosed, mono-functional areas has inspired scholars in the field of urban studies to proclaim the materialization of a new urban geography characterized by enclavism. This ‘enclave urbanism’ is marked by the hardening of socio-spatial boundaries by means of walls, fences and booms and by the imposition of socio-legal agreements and specific governance regimes within the resulting enclaves. Researchers and policy-makers are worried that enclave urbanism inhibits face-to-face encounters with poverty and diversity. They wonder how empathy for inequality and social problems will be engendered if it is never or rarely experienced. Drawing on in-depth interviews with residents of different European cities, you could answer the following questions: does the adoption of enclave urbanism impede all encounters across lines of class, culture and/or ethnicity, indeed? Or do face-to-face encounters inside and in between enclaves still have the potential to challenge the stereotypes of privileged residents? Diversity in the suburbs: The literature on migration and superdiversity is largely based on case-studies in metropolitan areas. Both in popular discourses and in academic texts, ethnic and cultural diversity is closely related to urbanity. Statistics demonstrate, however, that ethnic minorities are more and more present in suburban areas as well. Drawing on in-depth interviews with suburban residents and/or qualitative analyses of articles in local newspapers, I would like you to investigate how the growing ethnic and cultural diversity in the suburbs is dealt with by different groups of people. Are the newcomers excluded from the social and cultural life in the suburbs? Or does contact among different kinds of people confirm or shatter existing stereotypes?

Keywords: cultural political economy, cultural policy, cultural and creative industries, state theory, experimentation, social innovation, smart cities, urban theory Elite cities: There is a strong tradition in urban studies of focusing on marginalised populations and the various (social, economic, political, cultural) exclusions that shape our cities. Much less is known about the economic elites (upper middle class, the ‘super-rich’) as the prime beneficiaries of contemporary economic globalisation and the ways in which various types of elites structure and transform urban spaces. It would be particularly interesting to see more research on the lifeworlds and lifestyles of elite inhabitants that focuses on: a) urban leisure activities (sports, the arts, consumption); b) housing (private investment and speculation, gated communities, property development and renovation); and c) education (private education, boarding schools, individual tutoring, school and university rankings). Higher education and urban development: Research on higher education and urban development has so far mainly focused on the economic impact of higher education institutes and has only started addressing the wider social relations that link higher education to the city. More research is needed in particular on the following issues: a) in-depth analysis of concrete university-community projects; b) discipline-specific dynamics of research and public engagement; c) the role of higher education institutes in property development and master planning; d) architecture and the built environment of higher education. Cultural and creative industries: The discussion on the role of the cultural and creative industries to urban development has led to many publications that aim to map the location of these industries in order to point to local clusters and to investigate the value chains that are characteristic for different cultural and creative industries sectors. Although important, the following elements are under-researched and deserve more attention: a) the relation between creativity and social innovation; b) cultural and creative industries in peripheral cities and regions; c) the role of micro-firms and independent workers in various cultural and creative sectors; d) the relation between paid, underpaid and unpaid/voluntary labour in shaping urban labour regimes; e) socio-economic diversity and the cultural and creative industries.