Miss Elena Besussi

Teaching Fellow

The Bartlett School of Planning

Faculty of the Built Environment

Joined UCL: 25th Sep 2006

Research summary

Research areas

Power, politics and planning

community-led planning
the politics of knowledge and evidence in planning
the politics of urban regeneration

Land

land as financial asset; land in capital accumulation
public land management and disposal; public land privatisation
the regulation of land and property rights
land value capture

Capitalist city

economic restructuring and economic diversity
political economy of housing; housing privatisation;
wealth creation and redistribution
service privatisation and urban austerity

Current projects

Micropolitics of community-led planning

This research investigates through qualitative and quantitative analysis, practices of community activism and community-led planning with the aim to discuss its implications for the distribution of power in urban development decision making. Contexts for this research include: - the interaction between community activism and neighbourhood planning established in England by the Localism Act in 2011; - quantitative analysis of the social, ethnic and economic make-up of neighbourhood forums and neighbourhood planning areas in London - institutionalisation of community organising and community engagement in neighbourhood planning.

Teaching summary

I teach at both Undergraduate and Postgraduate level at the Bartlett School of Planning. For the past three years I have been mainstreaming a teaching format based on community embedded learning with the purpose of developing the role and impact of the university and its researchers in supporting community organisation through technical expertise. Community-based and collaborative learning allows students to engage with the actual protagonists and their experience of planning and urban development. This format is developed jointly with Just Space (https://justspace.org.uk)

As module coordinator

BENVGPLD - From Strategic Vision to Spatial Plan

BENVGPD3 - Collaborative City Planning Strategies

As module contributor

BENVGEPA - Planning Practices in Europe

ENVS2010 - Planning Project: Plan Making

Education

Universita Iuav di Venezia: LAU, Planning (Urban, Rural and Regional) | 1998

Biography

I am a Teaching Fellow in Plan Making and a PhD candidate in Planning Studies at the Bartlett School of Planning.

I have 10 years experience in academic research, teaching and professional consultancy in the UK. Between 2002 and 2005 I have been a research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at UCL and since 2006 I have been been a planning advisor supporting local residents' participation in spatial planning and urban regeneration, at Willowbrook Centre in Southwark (until 2007) and now independently. I have produced academic and professional research for national organisations (BURA, RICS) and international institutions (EU Commission).

Publications

Contact

Tel: 020 3108 9529 (Ex: 59529)
Email: e.besussi@ucl.ac.uk
Web: http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk
Address: 527
Central House
14 Upper Woburn Place
London
WC1H 0NN