Research Profile
Prof Alison Brown
Telephone:+44 (0)29 208 76519
Fax:+44 (0)29 208 74845
Address:Room 2.70, Glamorgan Building
Qualifications
Chartered Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (MRTPI).
Master of Civic Design, Liverpool University.
Diploma of Transport Design, Liverpool University.
BSc (Hons) Mathematics, Nottingham University.
Research Interests
Planning practice in emerging cities, spatial planning, the management of informal economies, particularly street and market trade, and the impacts of globalisation on the informal economy. Recent research and academic projects on public space and urban livelihoods, the impact of the China-Africa trade on urban markets, and the right to the city.
Additional Information
Alison Brown is Professor at the School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University. She is Course Director for the MSc in International Planning and Development. She is a chartered town planner with extensive professional experience in the developed and developing world, in both consultancy and academic research. Her areas of research expertise include international planning practice, urban informal economies, social inclusion, China-Africa trade, public space and the right to the city. She has overseas experience in 22 different countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Alison is involved in two major research projects funded by ESRC/DFID, as Principal Investigator for a major multi-country study of law, rights and regulation in the informal economy, and Co-Investigator for comparative research on micro-finance regulation for the informal economy. She is Co-Investigator to smaller research projects on street trade in Latin America and North Africa. She has researched and written extensively on the right to the city debates and their implications for city management.
Alison is a member of the steering committee of UN-HABITAT’s World Urban Campaign. She is the urban planning advisor on DFID's Technology, Infrastructure and Urban Planning Resource Centre, managed by IMC Worldwide Ltd. She was a consultant to the UNESCO/UN-HABITAT project on Urban Policies and the Right to the City, a member of the UNESCO expert team for the project on Migrants in the City, and an expert advisor for the UNESCO project on the Right to the Indian City. She is planning advisor to the influential global policy advocacy group WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment, Globalising and Organising) on their Inclusive Cities Project. She is a board member of Homeless International, the UK charity that supports slum dwellers in finding lasting solutions to urban poverty. She is editor of the Commonwealth eJournal of Local Governance, the peer reviewed journal affiliated to the Commonwealth Local Government Forum.