Position:
Professor of Urban Planning & International Development
School:
Planning and Geography
Email:
Telephone:
+44 (0)29 208 76519
Fax:
+44 (0)29 208 74845
Location:
Room 2.70, Glamorgan Building
Professor Alison Brown
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 citydebates 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.
Inclusive Growth: Improving Microfinance Regulation to Support Growth and Innovation in Micro-enterprise, ESRC/DFID Award ES/J009369/1 ESRC.
Making Space for the Poor: Law, Rights and Regulation for Street Traders in the 21st Century, ESRC/DFID Award RES-167-25-0591.
rscw4africa - Wales for Africa Initiative: Strategy and Action Plan (Regeneration Skills Collective, Wales).
Making a Living in the Street: Public Space as an Asset for Sustainable Livelihoods, DFID, Committee for Social Science Research responsive research project. Principal Investigator case studies: Nepal, Ghana, Lesotho, and Tanzania.
Scoping Study for the UK-China Sustainable Development Dialogue (DFID, Defra, DCLG and WSP International).
Completion Notices (S94 of Town & County Planning Act, 1991) (Department of the Environment, Transport & the Regions).
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.
Career Profile
Overseas Links
Planning Advisor, Technology, Infrastructure and Urban Planning Resource Centre (TI-UP),Department for International Development. (2006-date)
UK-China Sustainable Development Dialogue, Scoping Study, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Sustainable communities. Department for International Development. Coodinator of DFID-funded Higher Education link, Universidad del Biobio, Concepciòn, and Municipalidad de Concepciòn, Chile, and Cardiff University, (2002 - date).
Diploma in "Habitation & Development" Universidad del Biobio. Lectures on sustainable development, (2001).
Responsive Urban Design, Department for International Development. Professional practice workshop in Harare. Establishing national CPD programme, (1999).
Urban Design in the African City. Department for International Development. Coodinator of DFID-funded Higher Education link, Department of Rural & Urban Planning, University of Zimbabwe, and Cardiff University, (1997 - 2001).
Planning advice, Ordnance Survey International. Advice on DFID-funded consultancy in Lesotho, (1997 - 1998).
Practical Planning Skills, Overseas Development Administration. Running training course for all professional planners in the Federal Department of Physical Planning, Ministry of Interior in Maseru, Lesotho, (1996).
Recent Professional Experience
Principal - Buchanan Partnership (1990-2010)
Work has included:
Environmental appraisal: strategic environmental appraisal of development plans, sustainability appraisal of development plans and major projects.
Commercial projects: including marinas, retail impact analyses for superstores, waste depots, bus depots.
Housing projects: promotion large housing sites, housing needs study, co-housing studies, mixed use areas and high density urban housing.
Conservation & Heritage: Grades I and II listed buildings, stone building, cob buildings.
Regeneration: regeneration proposals for redundant industrial sites, market-town regeneration.
Education projects: master planning for setting up a new HE college, planning applications and access arrangements, grant applications.
Community planning: participative approaches to planning, capacity building work with local town and parish councils, running public consultation programmes.
Feasibility studies: feasibility study for re-use of redundant hospital sites, mill buildings and other heritage sites.
Transport proposals: motorway service areas, and traffic impact assessment.
Development planning: extensive experience as expert witness at development plan inquiries.
Applications & Appeals: preparation of planning applications, appeal statements, instructing counsel.
Previous Employment
Planner, Local Plan Group, London Borough of Newham, UK, (1975 - 77).
Senior Planner, City Plan Group, City of Westminster, UK, (1977).
Planning Aid Officer, Town & Country Planning Association, UK, (1978 - 80).
Consultant Town Planner, UK (1984). Senior Planner, Llewelyn-Davies Weeks, Sultanate of Oman, (1980 - 83).
Senior Town Planner, Dar Al Handasah Consultants, UK and Overseas, (1985 - 87).
Head of Planning Policy Section, Development Council, Oman, (1987 - 89).
Memberships / External Activities
Visiting Professor, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale e Architettura,
Università delgi Studi di Cagliari, Keynote speech INPUT 2012 Conference,
Trustee, Homeless International
Visiting Professor: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale e Architettura, Università degli studi di Cagliari, funded by the Regional Government of Sardinia.(2010)
Steering Group Member: UN-HABITAT’s World Urban Campaign.
Expert: UNESCO project on Social and Spatial Inclusion of Migrants in the City.
Consultant: UN-HABITAT/UNESCO project on Urban Policies and the Right to the City : Rights, responsibilities and citizenship.
Planning Advisor Inclusive Cities Project, (WIEGO) Women in Informal Employment.
Planning Advisor, Technology, Infrastructure and Urban Planning Resource Centre (TI-UP),Department for International Development with WSP International.
Sustainable communities. Department for International Development. Coodinator of DFID-funded Higher Education link, Universidad del Biobio, Concepciòn, and Municipalidad de Concepciòn, Chile, and Cardiff University, (2002 - 2007).
Diploma in "Habitation & Development" Universidad del Biobio. Lectures on sustainable development, (2001).
Responsive Urban Design, Department for International Development. Professional practice workshop in Harare. Establishing national CPD programme, (1999).
Urban Design in the African City. Department for International Development. Coodinator of DFID-funded Higher Education link, Department of Rural & Urban Planning, University of Zimbabwe, and Cardiff University, (1997 - 2001).
Planning advice, Ordnance Survey International. Advice on DFID-funded consultancy in Lesotho, (1997 - 1998).
Practical Planning Skills, Overseas Development Administration. Running training course for all professional planners in the Federal Department of Physical Planning, Ministry of Interior in Maseru, Lesotho, (1996).
Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute's Development Planning Advisory Panel (1998 - 2004).
Trustee: Ruskin Mill Further Education Trust, Special Needs Educational Charity with over 100 employees (2003 - date).
Teaching Profile
MSc Core Courses:
Planning City Futures (module leader, core MScIPD), including project work on Penang/Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and housing for the urban poor.
Space and Place: International Planning Practice (module leader, core MscIPD, option other MScs), including field study visit.
Site Planning, Design & Development (module leader, core MScPPR, option other MScs).