ORCiD: 0000-0003-2663-2586

My work contributes to the understanding and measurement of urban sustainability at the local or community level. Theoretically, my research adds the political dimension to the traditional three-pillar (economic, social, environmental) understanding of sustainability. Empirically, my research examines sustainable urban transformations at the local level by integrating social, political and physical aspects of the built environment. My core research contributions are summarised below under three inter-related themes.

1. The role of politics in shaping urban sustainability. My work employs institutional lens to examine local sustainability processes in cities. It looks at formal institutions and governance frameworks that shape these processes, as well as informal institutions such as social responsibility and institutional trust.  

2. The social context of urban sustainability. My research contributes to an agency and intersectional understanding of sustainability which is bottom-up and place-based. The social production and re-production of sustainability knowledge at the local level is a recurring sub-theme here and has been extensively developed in relation to sustainability indicators.

3. Narratives of sustainable cities. In this body of work I look at how sustainable cities imaginaries (such as low-carbon, healthy, circular city) are applied in spatial planning and the built environment at the local level and/or in relation to Sustainable Development Goal 11 ('Sustainable Cities and Communities').

Current research projects:

• FULL (Food for Urban Lives and Locality)
• DenseHOUSE (Housing densification, social sustainability and placemaking)
• CUSSH (Complex Urban Systems for Sustainability and Health)