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Prof Mike Raco
Chair of Urban Governance and Development
The Bartlett School of Planning
Faculty of the Built Environment
- Joined UCL
- 1st Aug 2011
Research summary
My research focuses on the themes of the governance and planning of cities, the politics of urban diversity, and the changing nature of welfare states.
My background is in Planning, Geography, and Urban Studies and I have published widely on the topics of urban governance and regeneration, urban sustainability, social diversity, and the politics of urban and regional economic development. I am currently PI for an ORA-ESRC Project entitled: WHIG - What is Governed What is Governed in Cities: Residential Investment Landscapes and the Governance and Regulation of Housing Production. The research examines the governance and planning of residential housing in London, Amsterdam, and Paris and the role of major investors and developers. I also recently led a team at UCL on an EU-funded project named DIVERCITIES that explored the governance and management of diversity polices in London in comparison with other cities in the EU and in Canada. Recent works include: The Future of Sustainable Cities: Critical Reflections (with John Flint, Policy Press, Bristol); State-led Privatisation and the Demise of the Democratic State: Welfare Reform and Localism in an Era of Regulatory Capitalism (Routledge, London); and Regenerating London: Governance, Sustainability and Community in a Global City (with Rob Imrie and Loretta Lees, Routledge, London). I formerly lectured at King’s College London and the Universities of Reading and Glasgow.
Teaching summary
I currently joint-teach and Co-ordinate 2 courses on the Masters in Urban Regeneration: Urban Problems and Problematics and Case Studies in Implementing Urban Regeneration.
In the form I teach sessions on urban planning and urban change, urban security, property-led development, urban governance, and strategic planning. In the latter my lectures cover the themes of concepts of community and the impacts of urban programmes in cities.
At undergradaute level I joint teach the course Development Projects: Regeneration in London at 3rd year level and give a lecture to 1st years on the Conceptualising Cities course on the theme of the post-political city.
Biography
I graduated from Royal Holloway University of London in 1994 with a B.A. Geography. I then completed a Ph.D. in the same department in 1997 on the topic of 'Business Associations and the Politics of Local Economic Development in the UK' under the supevision of Professor Rob Imrie.
Subsequently I took up lectureships at the Universities of Glasgow (1997-2000), Reading (2000-2005), and King's College London (2005-2011), before taking up my current Chair in the Bartlett School of Planning in August 2011.