ORCiD: 0000-0003-2663-2586

My work contributes to the understanding and measurement of local sustainability in urban areas. Theoretically, my research adds the institutional 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, institutional and physical aspects of the built environment. My core research contributions are summarised below under three inter-related themes.

1. The role of institutions in shaping local sustainability. My work employs institutional lens to examine local sustainability processes. It examines 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 local 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. Urban narratives of local sustainability. 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 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)