Professor Loretta Lees
Professor of Human Geography
Contact
- Telephone: +44 (0)116 252 3842
- Email: loretta.lees@le.ac.uk
- Office: Bennett Building, room F47
Personal details
I joined Geography at Leicester in September 2013, previously I was Chair in Human Geography at King’s College London (where I worked between 1997-2013 and was also Chair of the Cities Group). Before that, I was a Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Canada (1995-1997) and a Visiting Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Waikato, New Zealand (1994-1995). I was awarded a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1995. I am a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS), a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA), and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
I am an urban geographer internationally known for my research on gentrification/urban regeneration, global urbanism, urban policy, urban public space, architecture and urban social theory. I was identified as the 17th most referenced author in urban geography worldwide (Urban Studies, 2017) and the only woman in the top 20. I sit on the ESRC peer review college, I previously served on the ESRC Future Leaders panel, the ESRC postdoctoral award panel, the Research Committee of the RGS-IBG, and was Chair of the RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group. Editorial Boards currently sitting on: Urban Planning (2018-); Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (2017-), Journal of Urban Affairs (2016-), City and Society (Journal of the Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association) (2010-present), Art and the Public Sphere (2010-present), Dialogues in Human Geography (2009-present), Geography Compass – Urban Geography (2006-present). I was an Associate Editor of Geoforum (2015-2016) and have sat on the following other Editorial Boards: Environment and Planning A (2002-2012), The Canadian Geographer (2004-2006), ACME: an international e-journal for critical geographies (2003-2006).
Watch and Listen to Loretta talking about Gentrification
2018 Keynote for Gentrification: measuring, preventing, reverting Conference, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2015 Alexander von Humboldt Lecture on 'Planetary Gentrification'
2014 TEDX Brixton talk on ‘Gentrification and what can be done to stop it’
Websites
Since 2009 I have co-organised The Urban Salon: A London forum for architecture, cities and international urbanism and since 2016 The Leicester Urban Observatory.
Twitter: @LorettaCLees
ORCID ID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5834-8155
Publications
Books

- LEES,L. Slater,T. and Wyly,E. (in prep) Gentrification, Routledge Key Ideas Series, Routledge: New York.
- LEES,L. and Warwick,E. (to be published 2019) Defensible Space: mobilization in British Housing Policy and Practice, RGS-IBG Book Series, Wiley.
- LEES,L. with Phillips, M. (2018) (eds) Handbook of Gentrification Studies, Edward Elgar.
- LEES,L., Shin,H. and Lopez-Morales,E. (2016) Planetary Gentrification Polity Press: Cambridge. (the launch text for their new series ‘Urban Futures’) About to be published in Chinese.
- LEES,L., Shin,H. and Lopez-Morales,E. (eds) (2015) Global Gentrifications: uneven development and displacement, Policy Press: Bristol.
- Imrie,R. and LEES,L. (eds) (2014) (eds) Sustainable London? The future of a global city, Policy Press: Bristol.
- The London Tenants Federation, LEES,L, Just Space and SNAG (2014) Staying Put: An Anti-Gentrification Handbook for Council Estates in London (hardcopy and electronically).
- Bridge,G., Butler,T., and LEES,L. (eds) (2011) Mixed Communities: gentrification by stealth?, Policy Press: Bristol. (Republished 2012 by University of Chicago Press).
- LEES,L., Slater,T. and Wyly,E. (2010) The Gentrification Reader, Routledge: London.
- Imrie,R., LEES,L. and Raco,M. (2009) [editors] Regenerating London: governance, sustainability and community in a global city, Routledge: London.
- Kitchen, R. and Thrift, N. (editors in chief) with Anderson, K., Castree, N., Cloke, P., Crampton, J., Crang, M., Domosh, M., Graham, B., Hadjimichalis, C., Hubbard, P., Kearns, R., Kwan, M-P., LEES, L., McLafferty, S., Paasi, A., Philo, C., Sidaway, J., Willis, K., Yeung, H. (editors) (2009) The International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Elsevier. [Awarded 'CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2010' in the Social and Behavioural Sciences category].
- LEES,L., Slater,T. and Wyly,E. (2008) Gentrification, Routledge: New York. (Republished 2013 by Rotuledge).
- LEES,L. (2004) [editor] The Emancipatory City: paradoxes and possibilities?, Sage: London.
- Hoggart,K., LEES,L , and Davies,A. (2002) Researching Human Geography, Arnold, UK/Oxford University Press, USA. (Republished 2012 by Routledge, and as an e-book).
Guest-edited special issues of journals
- López-Morales,E., Shin, H, and LEES,L. [guest editors] (special issue) (2016) Are Latin American cities being 'gentrified'? Urban Geography, 37(8).
- Shin,H., LEES,L. and López-Morales,E. [guest editors] (special issue) (2016) Locating Gentrification in the Global East, Urban Studies 53(3).
- LEES,L. and Ley,D. (2008) [guest editors] Gentrification and Public Policy, Urban Studies, 45(12).
- Kenny,J. and LEES,L. (2004) [guest editors] Changing Urban Geographies: perspectives on Anglo-American urban research, special issue of Urban Geography, 25(8).
- Slater,T., Curran,W., and LEES,L. (2004) [guest editors] Gentrification Research: new directions and critical scholarship, special issue of Environment and Planning A, 36(7).
- LEES,L. (1998) [guest editor] Vancouver: A Portfolio, special issue of Urban Geography, 19(4).
Journal articles
- Hubbard,P. and LEES,L. (2018) The right to community: legal geographies of resistance on London’s final gentrification frontier, CITY, 22:1, 8-25.
- LEES, L. (2018) Resisting gentrification in (Southern) European cities, per una agenda urbana anti espulsione, Urbanisticatre
- LEES,L., Annunziata, S. and Rivas-Alonso, C. (2018) Resisting Planetary Gentrification: the value of survivability in the fight to stay put, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 108:2:346–355 (selected paper for special issue on Social Justice and the City).
- LEES,L. (2016) Gentrification, Race and Ethnicity: towards a global research agenda, City and Community, 15:3:208-214. DOI:10.1111/cico.12185.
- Annunziata, S and LEES,L.(2016) Resisting 'Austerity Gentrification' and Displacement in Southern Europe., Sociological Research Online.
- López-Morales,E., Shin,H., and LEES,L. (2016) Latin American Gentrifications, Urban Geography, 37:8:1091-1108.
- LEES,L. and Ferreri, M. (2016) Resisting gentrification on its final frontiers: lessons from the Heygate Estate in London (1974-2013), Cities, 57:14-24.
- Shin,H., LEES,L. and López-Morales,E. (2016) Introduction: Locating Gentrification in the Global East, Urban Studies, 53:3:455-470.
- LEES,L. and Melhuish,C. (2015) Arts-led regeneration in the UK: the rhetoric and the evidence on urban social inclusion, European Urban and Regional Studies, 22:3:242-260.
- LEES,L. (2014) Re-encountering Andy Merrifield and his ‘The Politics of Encounter: urban theory and protest under planetary urbanization’, Dialogues in Human Geography, 4:2:233-235.
- LEES,L. and McKiernan,J. (2012 [2014]) Art-led regeneration in Margate: learning from Moonbow Jakes café and Lido Nightclub intervention, Art and the Public Sphere, 2:1-3:17-35
- LEES,L. (2014) The urban injustices of New Labour’s ‘new urban renewal’: the case of the Aylesbury Estate in London, Antipode, 46:4:921-947.
- Jacobs,J. and LEES,L. (2013) Defensible space on the move: revisiting the urban geography of Alice Coleman, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 37:5:1559-1583.
- LEES,L. (2012) The geography of gentrification: thinking through comparative urbanism, Progress in Human Geography, 36:2:155-171.
- LEES,L. and Baxter,R. (2011) A ‘Building Event’ of Fear: thinking through the geography of architecture, Social and Cultural Geography, 12:2:107-122.
- Rerat, P. and LEES,L. (2011) Spatial Capital, Gentrification and Mobility: lessons from Swiss Core Cities, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 36:1:126-142.
- LEES,L. (2010) Planning Urbanity? Environment and Planning A, 42:2302-2308.
- Davidson,M. and LEES,L. (2010) New-Build Gentrification: its histories, trajectories, and critical geographies, Population, Space and Place, 16:395-411.
Book chapters (since 2015)
- Hubbard, P., LEES.L. and Easton,S. (forthcoming) Gentrification, displacement, and council estate renewal in London, in Baeten,G. et al. (eds) Beyond housing displacement: conceptual and methodological issues, Routledge: London.
- Annunziata,S., LEES,L. and Rivas-Alonso,C. (forthcoming) Segregation, Social Mix and Gentrification, in Orum, A. et al (eds) Companion to Urban Regional Studies, Wiley.
- Luger,J. and LEES, L. (forthcoming) Planetary Public Space: Scale, Context, and Politics, in Vikas,M. and Palazzo,D. (eds) Companion on Public Space, Routledge: New York.
- LEES,L., Annunziata, S. and Rivas-Alonso, C. (2019) Resisting Planetary Gentrification: the value of survivability in the fight to stay put, in Social Justice and the City, Routledge: New York.
- LEES, L. (2018) Towards a C21st Global Gentrification Studies, in LEES,L. with Phillips,M. (eds) Handbook of Gentrification Studies, Edward Elgar.
- LEES, L. (2018) Doing comparative urbanism in gentrification studies: fashion or progress?, in LEES,L. with Phillips,M. (eds) Handbook of Gentrification Studies, Edward Elgar.
- LEES,L. (2017) Salford, (re)tracing my roots, and the ‘new’ urban renewal, in Brake,J. and van Aitken, J. (eds) All materials of value, IUD, p.25-29.
- LEES,L. (2016) Gentrification, in Jayne,M. and Ward,K. (eds) Urban Theory: New Critical Perspectives, Routledge: New York, pp.134-145.
- LEES,L., Shin,H. and Lopez-Morales, E. (2015) Introduction: ‘gentrification’ a global urban process? in LEES,L., Shin,H. and Lopez-Morales, E. (Eds) Global Gentrifications: uneven development and displacement, Policy Press: Bristol, pp.1-18.
- LEES,L., Shin,H. and Lopez-Morales, E. (2015) Conclusion: Global gentrifications, in LEES,L., Shin,H. and Lopez-Morales, E. (Eds) Global Gentrifications: uneven development and displacement, Policy Press: Bristol, pp.441-452.
- LEES,L. (2015) Gentrification, in Wright,J. (Editor-in Chief); Wu,F. (section editor), International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences (2nd edition, Vol 10), Elsievier, pp.46-52.
Research
Recent funded research
- Principal Investigator: LEES,L. CoI: Portelli,S. Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions ‘SDD: Spirits of Displacement and Diaspora (€269,857 [£192,755])
- Principal Investigator: LEES,L. CoIs: : Hubbard,P. and Tate,N. ESRC 2017-2020. Gentrification, Displacement, and the Impacts of Council Estate Renewal in C21st London (£615,341; full fec £769,176). [ES/N015053\1]
- Principal Investigator: LEES,L. CoI: Sakizlioglu,B. ,S. Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions 2015-2017 ‘GGG: Gendered Geographies of Gentrification’ (£139,610).
- Principal Investigator: LEES,L. Leicester University Impact Acceleration Fund (£7,000) For work with Cambridge House Law Centre on the dispossession of council tenants in Southwark, London.
- Principal Investigator: LEES,L. CoI: Sakizlioglu,B. Prime Ministry of Turkey General Directorate for Turkish Citizens Living Abroad and Kindred Communities, ‘Ethnic Dynamics and Politics of Gentrification: The Case of Amsterdam’ (Euros 4,000)
- Principal Investigator: LEES,L. CoI: Annunziata,S. FP7-PEOPLE-2013 Marie Curie Action Fellowship 2014-2016 ‘AGAPE: Exploring anti-gentrification practices and policies in Southern European Cities’ (£158,290).
- Principal Investigator: LEES, L., CoIs: London Tenants Federation, Richard Lee/Just Space and Mara Ferrei, Antipode Activist Scholar Award 2012 (£10,000). ‘Challenging ”the New Urban Renewal”: gathering the tools necessary to halt the social cleansing of council estates and developing community-led alternatives for sustaining existing communities’.
- Principal Investigator: LEES, L., CoIs: Shin,H.B. , Lopez-Morlaes,E. and Hertzer, H. (2011-2012) 'Towards an Emerging Geography of Gentrification in the Global South'. Urban Studies Foundation Seminar Series (£19,960).
- Principal Investigator: LEES, L., CoIs: Pratt,A., Miles,M., Jordan, M., and Bachmann, G. (2011). 'The Art of Regeneration'. AHRC Project Development Connected Communities Programme (£11,718).
- Principal Investigator: Butler T., CoIs: LEES, L., Helbrecht, I., and Blokland,T. 'Comparative Urbanism: London and Berlin' DAAD (Euros 10,000).
- Principal Investigator: Butler,T., CoIs: LEES, L., Bridge,G. and Slater,T. (2007-2009) ‘Gentrification and Social Mixing’ (£18,000) ESRC Seminar Programme.
Supervision
I was awarded the 2008 Supervisory Excellence Award at King’s College London for excellence in supervising PhD students.
Current
University of Leicester:
| Name | Thesis Title | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Sharda Rozena | Gentrification and Facadism in Kensington | ESRC Midlands Graduate School DTP Studentship 1+3 |
| Tia Ndu | Regeneration/gentrification and race in Tottenham | ESRC Midlands Graduate School DTP Studentship 1+3 |
| Jess Steele | Self-build as an alternative to Gentrification | funded by College of Science and Engineering CASE studentship, Leicester University |
| Clara Rivas | Resistance to Gentrification in Istanbul | Self-funded |
| Nastassia Barnes | Historic preservation and black gentrification in Florida | Self-funded |
Completed
| Name | Thesis Title | Funding | Year Awarded | Destination |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philipp Katsinas | Thessaloniki: The poster child of austerity urbanism | A.G. Leventis Foundation | 2017 | research fellow LSE |
| Jason Luger | Creative Singapore: a contradiction in terms? | funded by KCL-NUS studentship | 2016 | Assistant Professor in urban studies San Francisco State University |
| Viktoria Vona | Gentrification, art and resistance | funded by 1+3 ESRC studentship | 2016 | |
| Elanor Warwick | How the idea of 'defensible space' has travelled in policy circles | funded by CABE | 2015 | Head of Strategic Research Affinity Sutton |
| Juliet Kahne | Gentrification in the exceptional city: the case of Silverlake in Los Angeles | funded by KCL | 2014 | PPS Place Making, NYC |
| David Craggs | Skyscraper London in a period of boom and bust | funded by SSPP Studentship | 2013 | |
| Eduardo Ascensao | The lived experience of the architecture of shanty town dwellings in Lisbon, Portugal | funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Ministry of Science and Technology) | 2011 | Awarded Bengt Turner Award for paper from his PhD. Research Fellow, University of Lisbon, Portugal |
| Alan Mace | London’s Inter-War Suburbs: Towards a Renaissance | funded by the University of Westminster | 2010 |
Senior Lecturer in Human Geography LSE |
| Richard Baxter | High Rise Living in London: Towards an Urban Renaissance? | funded by ESRC-ODPM studentship | 2008 | Postdoctoral Leverhulme Fellow in Geography, QMU, Lecturer Birkbeck, University of London |
| Nina Brown | Young People, Place and Urban Regeneration: the Case of the King’s Cross Ten Estates, London | funded by ESRC-CASE studentship in collaboration with the Peabody Trust | 2008 | Research Assistant, University of Chicago |
| Jennie Middleton | The ‘Walkable City’: The Dimensions of Walking and Overlapping Walks of Life | funded by ESRC-CASE studentship in collaboration with Arup Transport Planning | 2008 | Senior Research Fellow, Oxford University |
| Scott Rodgers | New Geographies of the Metropolitan Newspaper: Exploring Spaces of Urban Political Journalism at the Toronto Star | funded by ORS, University of London Britt Studentship in the Social Sciences, and SSPP Studentship | 2007 |
Lecturer in Media Studies, Birkbeck University |
| Gavin Brown | The Production of Gay, Post-gay and Queer Space in East London | funded by SSPP Studentship | 2007 | Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, Leicester University |
| Mark Davidson | New-build Gentrification and London’s Riverside Renaissance | funded by SSSPP Studentship | 2006 | Associate Professor of Geography, Clark University, USA |
| Tom Slater | The Geography of the Gentrifying ‘North American’ neighbourhood: A comparison of South Parkdale, Toronto, Canada, and Lower Park Slope, New York City, USA | funded by The Leverhulme Trust | 2003 | Awarded Peter Walling Fellowship UBC during his PhD. Reader in Geography, University of Edinburgh |
Impact, enterprise and outreach
Loretta has worked with council tenants and housing groups in London over the past 5 years to resist the gentrification of council estates and the displacement of low-income groups.
Read her Staying Put: An Anti-Gentrification Handbook for Council Estates in London
She has been an expert witness at two public inquiries into displacement from council estates in London and submitted evidence and reports on related issues:
- White,H. and Lees,L. (2015) Report for Housing Bill, , Why we Can’t Afford to Lose it: local authority housing in London protects the poor from homelessness. Submitted as Evidence
- Lees, L. (2015) Report for Planning Committee, GLA, on estate regeneration. Submitted as Evidence.
- Lees,L. (2015) Evidence to Aylesbury Estate Public Inquiry.
- Lees, L. (2014) Report for Housing Committee, GLA, on the demolition and refurbishment of London’s council estates. Submitted as Evidence.
- Lees,L. (2013) Evidence to the Heygate Estate Public Inquiry.
Plenary, keynote and public lectures
| Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Keynote (by skype) podcast, Planetary Gentrifications: how to address them?, Gentrification: measuring, preventing addressing, conference | University of São Paulo, Brazil | December 2018 |
| Keynote, Planetary Gentrification and Urban (re)development, East meets West – contemporary urban issues re-visited | Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland | October 2018 |
| Keynote, Gentrification and Displacement: a global phenomenon, Un Exode Inevitable? Gentrificacio, pressio turistica I bombella del lloguer, Diputacio de Barcelona View on YouTube | Diputacio de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain | May 2018 |
| Keynote, Planetary Gentrification: institutionalized segregation? | Lisbon, Portugal | May 2018 |
| Public Lecture, New gentrification battlefields: the demolition of council estates in London | Cornell in Rome Program, Rome | April 2018 |
| Public Lecture and Discussion, How to stay put? Housing regeneration and struggles in South London | LSBU Borough Road Gallery, London | November 2017 |
| Keynote, Gentrification in Southwark and what can be done about it | Southwark Tenants AGM, London | November 2017 |
| Keynote, Planetary Gentrification, Housing, Commodification and Alienation | School of Architecture, De Montfort University | November 2017 |
| Public lecture, Planetary Gentrification Listen to lecture | La Monde Diplomatique, London | May 2017 |
| Public lecture, Urban planning and displacement | ICA, London | May 2017 |
| Plenary and roundtable, Architectures of Displacement: Planetary Gentrification - China/Liverpool, LOOK/17 | China Cultural Exchange, Tate Exchange Liverpool | April 2017 |
| Public lecture, From planetary to provincial gentrification: lessons for Leicester, City Series, Leicester Urban Observatory View Poster.pdf | Bishop Street Methodist Church, Leicester | March 2017 |
| Keynote, Gentrification and Displacement Listen to lecture | People’s History Museum, Manchester, organised by Institute of Urban Dreaming | January 2017 |
| Book presentation pro qm bookshop, Berlin and Kosmos workshop Universal gentrification? Conceptual challenges of comparative urbanism. Organised by Andrej Holm, funded by Future Concept resources | Humboldt University Berlin through the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Government and its Federal States | October 2016 |
| Keynote Dialogue, Home in the Housing Crisis | Geffrye Museum, London | April 2016 |
| Public Panel, What I learned from Johnny Bevan | Soho Theatre, London | March 2016 |
| Public Panel, Re: Home | Yard Theatre, London | February 2016 |
| Public Panel, Corbynomics for Everyday Life (Lambeth, Lewisham, and Southwark Momentum Groups in collaboration with Brick Lane Debates, Red Pepper, and Verso Books) | Karibu Education Centre, Brixton | February 2016 |
Related links
Invited blogs
- February 2015 Queen for a Day, 24Housing: the magazine for housing professionals.
- 20th Feb 2015 An urban geographer’s journey through the changing landscape of gentrification, Policy Press, Bristol
- 11th Nov 2013 Notting Hill and its streets of changing fortune, Notting Hill Housing 50th anniversary
Media
Documentaries
- 2018 BBC InsideOut. Zack Adesina
- 2017 A day in the UK, documentary film, ARTE. Caroline Hocquard
- September 2018 BBC London Inside Out half hour documentary. The death of the council home?
- April 2017 Renegade Inc TV Gentrification, half hour show on Russia Today View clip
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September 2018 BBC World Service, interviewed on gentrification re. eviction Chinese shopkeeper in gentrifying London.
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October 2016 BBC Radio 4 Analysis, interviewed in Gentrification: can the process be controlled? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07x2xlj)
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June 2016 BBC Radio 4 You and Yours, interviewed on: What is super-gentrification? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03yjq91)
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July 2018 Interviewed in The Independent, From Bristol to LA: the anti-gentrification posters sweeping through our cities
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March 2018 Interviewed in The Guardian Double trouble how big cities are gentrifying their neighbours
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July 2017 Interviewed in Time Magazine, Causes and effects of the Grenfell Tower inferno, p.12.
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June 2017 Interviewed in The Times, Deregulation and trend for cladding raised risk of fire, p.12.
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June 2017 Interviewed in The Guardian, I grew up in a London council block – it was a wonderful place to call home
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June 2017 Interview in commentary in BMJ, High rise living after Grenfell.
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March 2017 Interviewed in City can learn from errors in regeneration, Leicester Mercury.
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March 2017 Interview in Southwark accused of dirty tactics: London residents prep for final showdown, Arab Times, p.12.
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January 2017 Featured in Pendleton Together Salford gentrification slammed by IUD project The Salford Star
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December 2016 Interviewed in Modernist dream, dystopian nightmare the ups and downs of tower blocks, The Independent
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November 2016 Interviewed in LexisNexis Anti-gentrification law—could it work in the UK?
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September 2016 Interviewed in The Architect’s Journal, Aylesbury Estate CPO Ruling: what went wrong?
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July 2016 Well, who needs council housing anyway; results of project with CH featured in Housing
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June 2016 Interviewed by Kashmira Gander Artisan cafés and luxury flats: How bad can gentrification really be? The Independent
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April 2016 Interview on the role and place of geography in the world today, published in Chinese Social Sciences Today (the academic newspaper of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) in Chinese.
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January 2016 Cameron’s sink estate strategy comes at a cost, The Conversation
Television appearances
Radio appearances
Newspaper and magazine coverage
