Michael C. Mammo

Thesis: Planning, Power Relations, and Displacement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A Critical Analysis of Discourse and Practice
Key Topics:  Critical Urban Theory, Spatial Justice, Power Relations, Identity, Hegemony, Displacement  

Profile

Michael is an urban researcher and consultant with over a decade of experience cutting across management consulting, business and political journalism, rights advocacy, policy analysis and academic research. He started his professional career as a researcher and editor in his hometown of Addis Ababa before moving to Denmark for a postgraduate study at the University of Copenhagen, after he was awarded a full MSc scholarship.

Upon completion, Michael was offered a role as a consultant at a Danish consulting firm, COWI, where he worked on a broad range of urban projects and gained essential consulting and research experience in the Nordic city of Copenhagen. Over the course of the next seven years, Michael worked in the private sector, academia and advocacy in Denmark and the UK with research interests in the area of sustainable urban planning, displacement, social justice, power relations and public policy.

Michael, a recipient of a UCL Doctoral scholarship at the DPU, is currently reading towards a PhD in development planning. His research explores the dynamic interaction between structural logics of state, society and market in planning discourse and practice in the context of a global south metropolis. He approaches the topic with the city of Addis Ababa as the centre of his research enquiry, while drawing on the framework of critical urban theory to interrogate hegemonic structures leaving particular groups in positions of disadvantage.   

Twitter Handle: @McMammo
Facebook: @McMammo

Languages: Afaan Oromo, Amharic, English, Danish (basic)

Education

BA, Economics - Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

MSc, International & Development Economics - University of Copenhagen, Denmark