 Faranak
Miraftab
Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 1995
My research interest concerns social aspects of urban development. In this broad area, I am interested in how low-income groups and women in particular access housing and basic urban services. Key concepts in my research include debates on community-based strategies and mobilizations, non-governmental non-profit organizations and grassroots social movements, participatory planning processes, empowerment, citizenship and development. A native of Iran, I completed my undergraduate education at the College of Fine Arts at the Tehran University. While in political exile in Trondheim, Norway, I graduated with a Masters degree in Architecture at the Norwegian Institute of Technology and then completed my doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Over the years my research and teaching has spanned several countries including Chile, Mexico, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and the United States.
My teaching covers multi-cultural understanding of cities as social processes; community development and the role of grassroots mobilizations; transnational urbanism; migration and development nexus; the reconfigured state-society relations for provision of basic services and housing within the dominant global neoliberal policy framework. I also serve as the coordinator of the Transnational Planning Stream at DURP. Students who are interested to find out more about the Transnational Planning Stream and the International Programs and Activities at DURP should consult the respective websites and feel free to contact me for further information.
Contact Information
Room 218, Temple Buell Hall
611 Taft Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: 217.265.8238
Fax: 217.244.1717
E-mail: faranak@illinois.edu
Current Research Areas
My current research projects include the following:
- Historical examination of the contemporary urban policies in Cape Town, South Africa, uncovering the colonial roots of neoliberal urban governance.
- Ethnographic study of transnational processes of community development, examining the trans-local dynamics of immigration that intimately connects development processes in the rural Midwest of the U.S., with those of the communities in Mexico and West Africa.
Selected Publications
| 2009 |
Forthcoming. Miraftab, F. “Insurgent Planning: Situating Radical Planning in the Global South.” Planning Theory. (Special issue on insurgency and informality. |
| 2008 |
Beard, V, Miraftab, F and C Silver (eds). Planning and Decentralization: Contested Spaces for Public Action in the Global South. New York: Routledge (Taylor and Francis).
 2008. Miraftab, F. “Decentralization and Entrepreneurial Planning,” in Victoria Beard, Faranak Miraftab and Chris Silver (eds.) Planning and Decentralization: Contested Spaces for Public Action in the Global South. New York: Routledge.Pp.
21-35
2008. Miraftab, F. Victoria Bear and Chris Silver. “Introduction: Situating Contested Notions of Decentralized Planning in the Global South" in Victoria Beard, Faranak Miraftab and Chris Silver (eds.) Planning and Decentralization: Contested Spaces for Public Action in the Global South. New York: Routledge. Pp.
1-18
2008. Silver, Chris, Faranak Miraftab, and Victoria Beard. “Conclusion: Decentralized Planning and the Ways Ahead,” in Victoria Beard, Faranak Miraftab and Chris Silver (eds.) Planning and Decentralization: Contested Spaces for Public Action in the Global South. New York: Routledge. Pp. 216-224 |
| 2007 |
Miraftab, F. "Governing
Post-apartheid Spatiality: Implementing City Improvement
Districts in Cape Town." Antipode: Radical Journal of Geography. |
| 2006 |
2006. “Informalizing
the Means of Reproduction: The Case of Waste Collection
Services in Cape Town, South Africa,” in Beneria,
Lourdes and Neema Kudva (eds.) Rethinking Informalization:
Precarious Jobs, Poverty and Social Protection. Ithaca,
NY: Cornell University e-Publishing Program. Pp 148-162. Open
access |
| 2006 |
Miraftab, F. "Feminist
Praxis, Citizenship and Informal Politics: Reflections
on South Africa’s Anti-Eviction Campaign." International
Feminist Journal of Politics vol. 8. |
| 2006 |
Miraftab, F. "On
Loan from Home: Women’s Participation in
Formulating Human Settlements Policies” in Jaquette,
Jane and Gale Summerfield (eds.) Institutions, Resources,
and Mobilization: Women and Gender Equity in Development
Theory and Practice. Duke University
Press. |
| 2005 |
Miraftab F. and
S. Wills. “Insurgency and Spaces of Active Citizenship:
The Story of Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign in South Africa.” Journal
of Planning Education and Research 25(2):200-217. |
| 2005 |
Miraftab, F. “Making
Neoliberal Governance: The Disempowering Work of Empowerment.” International
Planning Studies 9(4):239-259. |
| 2004 |
Miraftab, F. “Can you
Belly Dance? Methodological Questions in the Era of Transnational
Feminist Research.” Gender, Place
and Culture: Journal of Feminist Geography 11(4):595-604. |
| 2004 |
Miraftab, F. “Neoliberalism
and Casualization of Public Sector Services: The Case of
Waste Collection Services in Cape Town, South Africa.” International
Journal of Urban and Regional Research 28(4): 874-92. |
| 2004 |
Miraftab, F. “Public-private
Partnerships: the Trojan Horse of Neoliberal Development?” Journal
of Planning Education and Research 24(1):89-101. |
| 2003 |
Miraftab, F. “ The Perils
of Participatory Discourse: Housing Policy in Post-apartheid
South Africa .” Journal of Planning Education
and Research. 22(3):226-239. |
| 2001 |
Miraftab, F. “Risks
and Opportunities in Gender Gaps to Access Shelter: A Platform
for Intervention.” International Journal
of Politics, Culture, and Society. 15(1):143-160. |
| 2000 |
Miraftab, F. “Sheltering
Refugees: The Housing Experience of Refugees in the Metropolitan
Vancouver, Canada.” Canadian Journal of
Urban Research. Vol. 9(1): 42-63. |
| 1999 |
Miraftab, F. “ Sustainability
in Environmental Design: Case Studies from the Vernacular
Tradition in Iran.” Australian Planner Vol.
36 (4): 210-215. |
| 1998 |
Miraftab, F. “Complexities
of the Margin: Housing Decisions of Female Householders in
Mexico.” Society and Space: Environment
and Planning D Vol. 16: 289-310. |
| 1997 |
Miraftab, F. “Flirting
with the Enemy: Challenges Faced by NGOs in Development and
Empowerment.” Habitat International Vol
21 (4):361-375.
|
| 1997 |
Miraftab, F. “Revisiting
Informal Sector Homeownership: The Relevance of Household
Compositions for Housing Options of the Poor.” International
Journal of Urban and Regional Research. June Vol 21(2): 303-322. |
| 1996 |
Miraftab, F. "Space, Gender
and Work: Home-Based Workers in Guadalajara, Mexico,” in
Eileen Boris and Elisabeth Prugl (eds.) Homeworkers
in Global Perspective: Invisible No More. New York: Routledge. Pp.63-80. |
| 1994 |
Miraftab, F. “(Re)Production
at Home: Reconceptualizing Home and Family." Journal
of Family Issues Sept. Vol. 15(3): 467-489. |
| 1993 |
Miraftab, F. "Shelter as
Sustenance: Exclusionary Mechanisms Limiting Women's Access
to Housing," in Hemalata Dandekar (ed.) Shelter,
Women and Development. Ann Arbor: Wahr Publishing Co. Pp. 225-233. |
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