I am a Professor of Urban Planning and Governance at the University of Amsterdam. My research focuses on the regulation of urban development and change from different angles, on themes of urban governance, property-led urban development dynamics, and spatial organisation through social relations. I am specifically interested in the involvement of diverse actors and regulation of their interests in specific projects, processes, and developments in cities.
Currently, I am the scientific coordinator of a research project, funded by the Open Research Area for the Social Sciences (ORA), called WHIG (What is Governed in Cities: Residential Investment Landscapes and the Governance and Regulations of Housing Production) The project focuses on residential investment markets in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, Greater London and Grand Paris. As part of the project, I work closely with stakeholders from the Municipality of Amsterdam, as well as from the private sector.
Furthermore, within the framework of my Chair of Urban Governance and Planning at UvA, I initiated UGoveRN, the Urban Governance Research Network. UGoveRN is an academic platform to build, share and communicate research activities in the field of urban governance and planning. The researchers explore the dynamic landscapes of urban governance in an increasingly property-led planning environment and discuss new ways of policy making, planning and urban development from a critical perspective. The main aim of the UGoveRN is to connect academics, practitioners and communities who work in the field of urban governance to create an interactive platform to discuss and collaborate research.
In the past, I have initiated, coordinated, and implemented several internationally and locally funded research projects and have attracted significant research funding including a prestigious multi-million EU grant FP7 project DIVERCITIES (Governing Urban Diversity: Creating Social Cohesion, Social Mobility and Economic Performance in Today's Hyper-diversified Cities), for which I was one of the scientific co-coordinators. I was also the scientific co-coordinator for the NWO-ESRC-FAPESP-funded research project PARCOUR (Public Accountability to Residents in Contractual Urban Redevelopment).