Staff Profiles

Emma is heavily involved in teaching.  She is Subject Coordinator for the School's new MSc Infrastructure and Sustainable Development and leads on a number of modules across postgraduate and undergraduate programmes.  She is also involved with colleagues in the School of the Built Environment in developing the delivery of the School's online programmes for distance learners and exploring novel ways of enhancing interdisciplinary training in the School.  Her teaching interests include development theory; urban policy and planning in the global South; dynamics of globalization; legal frameworks; urban social theory; urban diversity and equalities; academic skills and research methodologies.

Modules taught

Emma leads and teaches on the following postgraduate and undergraduate modules:

Development and Urbanisation

Globalisation: Environment and Development

Urban Diversity: People, society and space

Urban Lab one: Urban Design and Place Experience

Legal and Regulatory Frameworks (on-line)

Essential Skills in the Built Environment

Supervision

Emma supervises Msc and BA dissertations in planning at Oxford Brookes.  She has also been involved in the supervision of MSc dissertations in planning at the University of Zambia and is currently acting as an external supervisor for PhD in planning  in the Copperbelt University in Zambia. 

Emma completed her PhD at Oxford Brookes in 2010 on informal housing markets in Lusaka, Zambia. Her research interests relate to processes of informal land delivery; peri-urban transformation in the context of market reform; home based enterprises in unplanned settlements; informal institutions in peri-urban housing delivery; pro poor infrastructure delivery and urban diversity and equalities.

Journal articles

• Wragg E, Lim R, 'Urban Visions from Lusaka, Zambia'
  Habitat International 46 (2014) pp.260-270
  ISSN: 0197-3975
  Abstract Economic growth in African cities has attracted the attention of international property developers and architecture firms seeking new opportunities as demand has waned in the shrinking economies of the Global North. Their interest has produced new computer generated master plans for African cities depicting modern utopias which would not look out of place in Dubai or Shanghai. The incongruity of these plans for cities where 70% or more of urban residents live on the margins in unplanned settlements raises important questions about the processes shaping the future of African cities.
   
  Urban theories, in particular neoliberal ideologies of urban entrepreneurialism, offer compelling explanations for how these visions have come to be. What is less well understood is the local dynamics at play in the structuring of African cities and the role of local actors in the construction of these new master plans. This paper documents the attitudes of residents of Lusaka to market driven development in their city and new master plans for African cities. Making use of concepts of policy mobility – it explores the aspirations of those that live in the city and the extent to which these correspond to the promises of these grand new visions. The findings highlight ways in which these new visions of African cities are at odds with lives and concerns of residents in Lusaka from across the social spectrum.
  Website 

Conference papers

• Wragg E, Kurul E, Spencer-Chapman N, Lim R, 'Preparing Graduates for Interdisciplinary Collaboration in the Workplace'
  (2019) pp.3426-3436
  ISBN: 9789623678216
  Abstract

  This paper reports the findings of six focus groups on developing skills for interdisciplinary collaboration in Higher Education (HE), and our literature view. This work is associated with a Teaching Innovation Project that received funding from the authors’ institution. This project aims to develop a systemic pedagogy for facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration, which is deemed critical for the delivery of Smart Cities, and to test and disseminate this pedagogy. The focus groups aimed to critically evaluate the current thinking and practice on inter-disciplinary collaboration from a different standpoint. The perceived wisdom that solely creating opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, e.g. live projects, as part of the curriculum, will develop practitioners who can collaborate across disciplinary boundaries, was challenged.

  The use of group work for developing skills for collaboration is an established and well-researched pedagogical approach.  However, far less attention has been given to the skills for interdisciplinary collaboration (Park & Mills 2014).  Working in interdisciplinary teams presents a unique set of challenges. The transferable skills required to do this are increasingly recognised as crucial to respond to the complex sustainability challenges of the 21st Century (Marinova & McGrath 2004, Defila & Di Giulio, 2015), including the delivery of Smart Cities.  Simply putting students in interdisciplinary teams is not sufficient to develop these skills (Ritcher 2009). Small-scale interventions and exploratory projects rather than embedded programmatic approaches, are needed (Klein & Schneider, 2010). Teaching strategies that promote the skills required for interdisciplinary collaboration should be developed (Ritcher et al 2009). We argue that learning and teaching for inter-disciplinary collaboration should place more emphasis on:  shared (across disciplines) modules or lectures based on case or problem-based learning; and actively developing students’ understanding of the dynamics of teams and personal relationships, and behaviours within teams; and their ability to effectively function in interdisciplinary teams.

  
  
  Website 

• Wragg, E. (forthcoming) Landlords and room renting in unplanned settlements in Lusaka: the role of social networks in the production of rental housing.
• Wragg, E. (forthcoming) A livelihood for the urban poor under threat: room renting and home based enterprises in Lusaka’s unplanned settlements.
• Mpembamoto, K, Nchito, W, Siame, G and Wragg, E (2017) Impact of sector-based upgrading on home-based enterprises: a case study of Chaisa Settlement Environment and Urbanization Volume: 29 issue: 2, page(s): 597-614
• Wragg, E., Kurul, E., Novo De Azevedo, L. Sames, D. and Lim, R. Developing the “model office” as an approach to interdisciplinary practice-based learning. Paper to be presented at Oxford Brookes Teaching and Learning Conference July 2016.
• Wragg, E. (2016) Strategies for increasing student engagement. Presentation for Oxford Brookes SBE “SPARK” research and teaching seminar series, February 2016.
• Wragg, E. and Novo De Azevedo, L. (2016) Integrating practice/work based learning into the curriculum. Presentation for Oxford Brookes SBE “SPARK” research and teaching seminar series, February 2016.
• Wragg, E. (2016) Strategies for increasing student engagement. Presentation for Oxford Brookes OCSLD seminar series, December 2015.
• Wragg, E. & Lim R. (2015) Urban Visions from Lusaka, Zambia. Habitat International 46: pp 260-270
• Wragg, E. & Lim R (2014) Economic Geographies of Globalisation. Presentation for Oxford Brookes SBE research seminar series.
• Wragg, E. & Lim R. (2013) Urban Visions of the Excluded. Experiences of globalization in Lusaka, Zambia. Paper presented at the 14th N‐AERUS / GISDECO Conference. Enscheda.