My work and contribution sit within the interface of planning, urban studies and geography. My research focuses on the temporary and more permanent transformations faced by cities, people and places, in both developed (Europe, USA, Hong Kong) and developing contexts (South and East Africa, India, Brazil, Lebanon). I have an extensive track record in securing UKRI funding and leading interdisciplinary and comparative research. I am currently leading the ESRC/TAP PANEX – YOUTH project ‘Adaptations of young people in monetary-poor households for surviving and recovering from COVID-19 and associated lockdowns’ (2022-2024). See: https://panexyouth.com/ 

My core and primary interest in unwrapping urban transformations and its impact for urban and international planning has evolved and expanded conceptually, theoretically and geographically along the years. From a focus on urban regeneration, brownfield development and sustainable planning, it then included everyday, temporary and longer-term socio-economic and spatial adaptations, power mechanisms and their impact for urban and community resilience and planning; in the past five years, I have interrogated the implication of urban transformations for planning education and practice, for ‘temporary urbanism’ _ concept that I have developed and theorised _ and lately for the post-pandemic city.

I have published over 80 research outputs and this includes 4 books/edited books with two others under contract along with numerous papers in leading international journals (Urban Studies, Planning Theory, Progress in Human Geography, International Journal for Urban and Regional Research, Regional Studies, Environment and Planning A, etc.).