Urban Space, Politics, and Social Justice

In my urban research I investigate the impact of rapid capital flows on social and political institutions and on struggles over changes to the landscape and built environment. I am interested in how racial formations intersect with economic processes in different milieus. My first book, Crossing the Neoliberal Line: Pacific Rim Migration and the Metropolis, examined struggles over the so-called ‘monster houses’ in Vancouver, BC in the context of rapid capital flows and the immigration of a wealthy Chinese elite from Hong Kong. I have also looked at conflicts over urban change in Marseille and Paris, and in work with Key MacFarlane on the contemporary ‘logistical’ city. Much of my recent work explores the concept of risk and its relationship to ideas of criminality and race under neoliberalism.