Staff Profiles

Sues teaching interests include public participation in planning and regeneration; neighbourhood regeneration and planning; critical perspectives on urban policy; international waterfront regeneration with a focus on London Docklands and East London; urban governance in theory and practice; urban social theory; urban diversity and equalities and research philosophy and methodology.

Modules taught

Neighbourhood Regeneration and Community Planning

The Philosophy of Research

Qualitiative Research Methods

Cities and Society

People Cities and Diversity

Supervision

Recent and current topics supervised include; Mega Events and Urban Displacement in Brazil, South Africa and London; Co-creation and Urban Stigmatization in Rio; Community Renewable Energy in Egypt; Family Travel Behaviour and Urban Mobility;  Community-Led Housing; Squatter Settlement Upgrading Strategies in Nairobi and Social Networks amongst Refugees in Coventry.

My research interests focus on how planning and regeneration can both involve people and promote more socially sustainable and equitable places. I have carried out a range of research projects into public participation in planning and regeneration with a recent focus on neighbourhood planning, a new community right to draw up statutory land-use plans. My research has also critically explored the possibilities of major regeneration schemes to address social sustainability focusing on international waterfront regeneration with a particular emphasis on London Docklands  and more recently Olympic legacies in London and Rio. I have also researched the delivery of affordable housing both through the planning system and other community-led mechanisms as.  A key theme in my research is to work with local communities as reflected in two recent projects on ways of neighbourhood knowing and using co-cretation to challenge the stigmatisation of urban communities. 

 

Research group membership

Sue is a member of the Spatial Planning Research Group in the School of the Built Environment.

Research grants and awards

 

Sue has worked on projects funded by a variety of soruces including Research Councils, central and local government and charities and NGOs including:

• Housing Precarity; Understanding the Structured Stories of Young People's Housing Histories in Oxford: Brookes CRF (2017-18)
• RISE; EU funded project on using co-creation to challenge the stigmatisation of low income neighbourhoods (2017-2020)
• Healthy Urban Mobility; ESRC project exploring the links between health and mobility in low to medium income communities in the UK and Brazil (2016-2019).
• Ways of  Neighbourhood Knowing and Working, ESRC seminar series (2015-17)
• Rethinking Planning Obligations. Joseph Rowntree Organisation (2013-2015)
• Neighbouhood Planning: British Academy (2013-14) 
• Olymic Legacies in London and Rio; Oxford Brookes CRF and Santander Research Fund (2012-2016)
• Reflections on Regeneration; British Academy funded project on the continuing regeneration of London Docklands and its national and international resonances. (2010-11)
• Olympics Legacy Literature Review – funding by the Greater London Authority (2010)
• Brazil-UK Network on Governance for Sustainable Urban Futures – funded by Centre for Cities, Oxford University (2010-2011)
• Thames Gateway Evidence Review – funded by ODPM (2006)
• Evaluation of National Planning Aid- funded by RTPI (2003-2006)
• Member of Steering group and evaluator of Cowley Road Matters public consultation exercise – funded by East Oxford Action (2004)

 

Research projects

Sue's current and recent research projects reflect her wide interest in urban issues. They inlcude

• Precarious Housing; this project which will be led by Sue starting in 2017 will use the concept of precarity to explore the experiences of housing of a range of young people in Oxford. It will draw on digitial ethnogrpahies to reveal the structured stories of the interplay of the housing system with people's lives and their hosuing experiences.
• Co-Creation:  the aim of this project which Sue will jointly lead is to build an international and interdisciplinary network to exchange knowledge and understanding about urban disadvantage in the EU and Latin America, developing a new Co-Creation method to address stigmatization.
• Healthy Urban Mobility; Sue is a member of a team on this cross-national project which  aims to draw out the ways that mobility can affect health and wellbeing at an individual and collective level, particularly among low income and excluded groups. The project, by bringing a multidisciplinary perspective to these issues with a particular focus on their social dimensions, will contribute to the development of more equitable transport policies to enhance health, wellbeing and mobility among all sections of the urban population.
• Rethinking Planning Obligations; this project which finished in 2015 and was led by Sue explored the ways in which the plannign system can deliver more affordable housing. It focused in particular on the role of planning obligations (s106 agreements) and the impact of chages in the planning system on their ability to deliver affordable homes. The report put forward a number of recommendations for ways to deliver more affordable homes through the plannign system and other mechanisms
  
  

Research impact

Sue's research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on afforbale housing and planning obligations wsa cited by a range of reports into ways to increase the delivery of affordable housing including the House Of Lords Economics Affiars Committee into housing, The London Housing Commission and the Lyons Review of Housing. She also presented to the Greater London Assembly and to a series of events organised for practicing planners by the RTPI.

Her work on neighbourhood planning through her own research and the ESRC seminar series has also been drawn on by the Department of Communities and Local Government and she has worked closely with neighbourhood groups in Oxfordshire and London.

 

Her recent joint article with Prof Glen O'Hara from the Dept of Hisotry at Brookes won the Planning Perspectives journal prize for the best paper published bewteen 2014 and 2016.

 

Further information

Ways of Neighbouhood Knowing and Working; https://neighbourhoodworking.wordpress.com/

Co-creation https://www.co-creation-network.org/

Healthy Urban Mobility https://www.hum-mus.org/en/home/

Books

• Brownill S, Bradley Q, Ed., Localism and Neighbourhood Planning; Power the the People?, Policy Press (2017)
  ISBN: 978-1447329503
  Abstract Governments around the world are seeing the locality as a key arena for effecting changes in governance, restructuring state/civil society relations and achieving sustainable growth. This is the first book to critically analyse this shift towards localism in planning through exploring neighbourhood planning; one of the fastest growing, most popular and most contentious contemporary planning initiatives. 
  Bringing together original empirical research with critical perspectives on governance and planning, the book engages with broader debates on the purposes of planning, the construction of active citizenship, the uneven geographies of localism and the extent to which power is actually being devolved. Setting this within an international context with cases from the US, Australia and France the book reflects on the possibilities for the emergence of a more progressive form of localism. 
  Website 
• Brownill S, London docklands: reflections on regeneration, Routledge (2012)
  ISBN: 9780415256223
  
• Brownill, S, Developing London's Docklands; Another Great Planning Disaster?, Paul Chapman (1990)
  ISBN: 1-85396-098-5
  

Journal articles

• M. Reza Shirazi; Ramin Keivani; Sue Brownill; Georgia Butina Watson, 'Promoting Social Sustainability of Urban Neighbourhoods: The Case of Bethnal Green, London'
  International Journal of Urban and Regional Research x (2020)
  ISSN: 0309-1317
  Abstract

  Growing significance of neighbourhoods in different areas of urban planning, along with the increasing attention to the social dimension of sustainable communities and societies, emphasizes the need for conceptualizing socially sustainable neighbourhoods. This article first critically reflects on the concept of socially sustainable neighbourhoods in two areas of definition and operationalization. It then proposes a tripartite framework for measuring social sustainability of urban neighbourhoods which combines three elements of neighbourhood,
  neighbouring, and neighbours. This framework is tested, examined, and discussed in the case of Bethnal Green, London. The findings are integrated into a Social Sustainability Enhancement Index which encompasses practical recommendations to promote social sustainability of Bethnal Green. The article concludes with highlighting research and policy implications of the proposed framework, and suggests some methodological improvements for the future research.
  

  Website 
• Ramin M-Keivani, Erick Omena de Melo, Sue Brownill, 'Durable inequality and the scope for pro-poor development in a globalising world: Lessons from Rio de Janeiro'
  City 24 (3/4) (2020) pp.530-551
  ISSN: 1360-4813 eISSN: 1470-3629
  Abstract

  Cities are today undergoing major economic and spatial transformations in line with the requirements of global capital and neoliberalism. A main question to address in this scenario is: what is the scope for actions aiming to advance a more pro-poor agenda and curb the acute inequality found in the metropolises of the so-called developing countries? With that concern in mind, this paper examines the potentials and limitations of recent redevelopments in Rio de Janeiro to counteract durable inequality, as conceptualised by Charles Tilly. To do so we analysed secondary evidence and recent primary fieldwork drawing on 48 interviews with a range of stakeholders involved in the city’s preparations for the mega events, urban development and resistance to evictions, particularly in Vila Autódromo and Providência communities. Results show that there is room for progressive intervention and change at the local level if the underlying drivers of structural inequality are appropriately identified and systematically targeted by combined state and social movements’ political actions.  
  

  Website 
• Brownill S, 'Planning and Participation in a Time of Pandemic'
  Town and Country Planning -London- Town and Country Planning Association- 89 (6/7) (2020) pp.166-178
  ISSN: 0040-9960
  
• Brownill S, Inch A, 'Framing People and Planning: 50 Years of Debate'
  Built Environment 45 (1) (2019) pp.7-25
  ISSN: 0263-7960
  Abstract

  The last 50 years have not only seen major changes in the forms and practices of participation but also in the ways in which it has been characterized and understood. Alongside the report of the Skeffington Committee on public participation in planning, 1969 saw the publication of Sherry Arnstein's 'ladder of participation' which famously typified participation from tokenism to citizen control. Since then the ladder has been replaced by the networks of collaborative planning and both have been challenged by the focus on planning's 'dark side' where participation is associated with coercive forms of governmentality and governance through community. This article discusses the evolution of these ideas, not to provide a historiography per se, but to highlight the themes, issues and contradictions they suggest lie behind participation. These include debates about the extent to which power can ever be devolved to the people; clashes between the different modes of governance inherent in planning (representative, legal/bureaucratic, participatory); the significance of action outside the formal participation apparatus (insurgent planning); and the ways in which the publics of planning have been made and remade within different planning regimes, often with profound implications for the inclusion and exclusion of different social groups and concerns. The article concludes that as a result public participation in planning can be seen as a shifting terrain of underlying tensions and contradictions, which presents both openings and closures for citizens seeking to influence the use and development of land.
  

  Website 
• Brownill S, O'Hara G, 'From planning to opportunism? Re-examining the creation of the London Docklands Development Corporation'
  Planning Perspectives 30 (4) (2015) pp.537-570
  ISSN: 0266-5433 eISSN: 1466-4518
  Abstract

  East London’s former docklands have been at the centre of planning and regeneration debates for the past four decades. The setting up of the LDDC has been variously interpreted as ‘3-D Thatcherism’ in action, a symbol of the death of comprehensive planning and the replacement of a corporatist, Keynesian era of urban policy with a more neo-liberal approach. Moving away from simplistic and straightforward interpretations of the processes happening at this time, this paper uses new archival and interview material to re-examine the setting up of the LDDC and its early years, revealing a more complex and contradictory picture than existing accounts suggest. It focuses on three themes: changing forms of state intervention; the uncertain ‘break’ in the post-war consensus as evidenced by the changes in approaches to the regeneration of Docklands; and the unintended, disordered process of actual policy change. As such we aim to reveal  how shifting visions, modes of governance and practices can compete and co-exist in the midst of seemingly coherent ‘eras’, as Docklands as a place and as an approach to regeneration was constantly made and re-made – a process that continues to this day. 

  Website 
• Brownill S, Cho Y, 'Time to Rebalance Housing Numbers and Affordability'
  Town and Country Planning -London- Town and Country Planning Association- 84 (11) (2015) pp.503-507
  ISSN: 0040-9960
  Abstract
  This article considers how planning reforms are contributing to the dramatic fall in the provision of homes that are affordable for those on lower incomes.
   
• Brownill S, Keivani R, Pereira G, 'Olympic Legacies and City Development Strategies in London and Rio; Beyond the Carnival Mask?'
  International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 5 (2) (2013) pp.111-131
  ISSN: 1946-3138
  Abstract

  The need to ensure a lasting legacy has become an increasing part of Olympic rhetoric. While there is a body of literature which characterises legacy as part of the ‘carnival mask’ of neo-liberal urbanisation and evidence of a globalised urban policy, this article asks the question what can thinking with assemblage offer to a critical understanding of mega-events? The article addresses this question and responds to calls for urban theory to ‘see from the South’, by exploring how legacy has been assembled in two Olympic cities focusing on the role of ‘spatial practices of assemblage’, including city development strategies and global policy mobility. Drawing on empirical work in London and Rio, the article reveals that thinking with assemblage can contribute to a nuanced, yet still critical, understanding of legacy as a contradictory and contested concept which is constantly being made and remade through the contingent practices of Olympic city building. It can also suggest how legacy can be conceived and realised in ways that allow for alternative legacies and forms of urbanisation to emerge but that its potential can only be realised in conjunction with other critical perspectives.

  Website 
• Brownill S, Parker G, 'Why bother with good works? The relevance of public participation(s) in planning in a post-collaborative era'
  Planning Practice and Research 25 (3) (2010) pp.275-282
  ISSN: 0269-7459
  Abstract

  The concern to ensure public participation or community engagement within and in support of spatial planning has been an ongoing and widely aired topic since at least the 1960s. The basis and justification, however, for academics and policy-makers in agonizing over this issue and the practices of participation has been variously questioned. Similarly, exhortations to understand the motives and limitations of different interests and their positions or relative power have also been widely debated. Works looking at participation have also ranged widely and many have been critical of the merits or benefits of participation in planning and more broadly in local governance. This special issue of Planning Practice & Research aims both to engage with these debates and to reflect on the direction of travel of current research within the continuously evolving landscape of the theory and practice of participation.

  Website 
• Brownill S, 'The dynamics of participation: modes of governance and increasing participation in planning'
  Urban Policy and Research 27 (4) (2009) pp.357-375
  ISSN: 0811-1146 eISSN: 1476-7244
  Abstract This article examines recent attempts to increase participation in planning. To this end a framework which focuses on the dynamics between the contrasting modes of governance which exist within such reforms is developed to understand and characterise emerging experience. In particular, the tension between participatory and representative modes of governance is highlighted. This framework is used to examine a local case study, Cowley Road Matters, in Oxford, UK. The resulting analysis suggests that a contradictory potential for participation is emerging as these tensions play themselves out on the ground. The article argues that a focus on the dynamics of participation can help move analysis away from dichotomous views on the prospects for participation and can provide a framework for exploring the range of likely outcomes in different places.Website 
• Brownill S, Carpenter J, 'Governance and 'integrated' planning: the case of sustainable communities in the Thames Gateway, England'
  Urban Studies 46 (2) (2009) pp.251-274
  ISSN: 0042-0980 eISSN: 1360-063X
  Abstract

  This paper explores the relationship between the increasing emphasis on the integration of social, economic, democratic and environmental objectives within planning practice and the emergence of new forms of networked governance. Using a framework which stresses the hybridity and tensions that characterise current governance arrangements, the article investigates attempts to create `sustainable communities' in the Thames Gateway, England. The analysis reveals the tensions and contradictions arising from governing the Gateway, including those between the conflicting goals of economic competitiveness and social and environmental sustainability, between horizontal, networked governance and forms of and requirements for hierarchical direction and between a focus on delivery and participatory governance. The paper concludes by reflecting on the implications of the hybridity and complexity in governance forms for the search for sustainable communities and the forms of governance `fit for purpose' in their realisation.

  Website 
• Carpenter J, Brownill S, 'Approaches to democratic involvement: widening community engagement in the English planning system'
  Planning Theory and Practice 9 (2) (2008) pp.227-248
  ISSN: 1464-9357
  Abstract Participation has become integral to the delivery of public services, as governments attempt to involve citizens in decision making through processes of consultation and engagement. This paper addresses the issue of community participation in the context of the English planning system, which has recently been restructured to focus more sharply on integrating communities in the planning process. It presents findings of research into the workings of the reformed planning system, in particular in relation to the objective of public participation, using the case of the Planning Aid service. The paper sets the discussion in the context of two different forms of democracy (representative and deliberative democracy) and associated strategies for participation. It then outlines the recent reforms in the planning system, highlighting the different approaches to participation that are being applied. The paper then examines the case of Planning Aid, a service that aims to involve disadvantaged groups in the planning system. The paper concludes that the outcomes from recent experiences of participation in planning are in part due to the -œhybrid- approaches that are emerging within the system. While this provides the potential for more inclusive planning, it is argued that this -œhybridity- needs to be acknowledged by policy makers and practitioners if strategies and mechanisms are to be put in place that respond to the demands of different forms of democracy.Website 
• Brownill S, Carpenter J, 'Increasing participation in planning: Emergent experiences of the reformed planning system in England'
  Planning Practice and Research 22 (4) (2007) pp.619-634
  ISSN: 0269-7459 eISSN: 1360-0583
  Website 
• Brownill S, Carpenter J, 'Participation and planning: Dichotomies, rationalities and strategies for power'
  Town Planning Review 78 (4) (2007) pp.401-428
  ISSN: 0041-0020 eISSN: 1478-341X
  Website 
• Thomas H, Stirling T, Brownill S, Razzaque K, 'Locality, Urban Governance and Contested Meanings of Place'
  Area 28 (2) (1996) pp.186-198
  ISSN: 0004-0894 eISSN: 1475-4762
  Website 
• Brownill S, Razzaque K, Stirling T, Thomas H, 'Local Governance and the Racialisation of Urban Policy in the Uk: the Case of Urban Development Corporations'
  Urban Studies 33 (8) (1996) pp.1337-1355
  ISSN: 0042-0980 eISSN: 1360-063X
  Abstract This paper examines the impact of changing patterns of local governance on black and ethnic minority influence over urban policy, focusing on Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) as one aspect of local governance. Evidence is drawn from a recent study of six UDCs. The paper concludes that a contradictory and variable pattern of black and ethnic minority influence is emerging, with processes of exclusion and inclusion occurring, and there is evidence that the emerging system of local governance is producing a marginalisation of issues to do with race. This suggests that it is important to look at the racialisation of policy and policy processes within UDCs, their localities and at a national level in an attempt to analyse and understand these emerging and diverging patterns.Website 
• BROWNILL S, HALFORD S, 'Understanding Womens Involvement in Local-politics - How Useful Is a Formal Informal Dichotomy'
  Political Geography Quarterly 9 (1990) pp.396-414
  ISSN: 0260-9827
  
• Brownill S, 'The people's plan for the Royal Docks: Some contradictions in popular planning'
  Planning Practice and Research 2 (4) (1988) pp.15-21
  ISSN: 0269-7459
  Website 

Book chapters

• Brownill S, Natividad O, 'Co-creation and the State in a Global Context' in Horvath C, Carpenter J. (ed.), Co-Creation in Theory and Practice, Policy Press (2020)
  ISBN: 9781447353966
  Website 
• Brownill S, 'The Song remains the Same; Regeneration Narratives in the Royal Docks' in Duman A, Hancox D, James,M, Minton, A (ed.), Regeneration Songs, Repeater (2018)
  ISBN: 9781912248230 eISBN: 9781912248247
  Website 
• Brownill S, 'Assembling localism: Practices of Assemblage and Building the "Big Society" in Oxfordshire, England' in Rydin Y, Tate L (ed.), 5 Assembling localism, Routledge (2016)
  ISBN: 9781138886407 eISBN: 9781315714882
  Website 
• Brownill S, 'Just Add Water: Waterfront Regeneration as a Global Phenomenon' in Leary ME, McCarthy J (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Urban Regeneration, Routledge (2013)
  ISBN: 9780415539043 eISBN: 9780203108581
  Abstract From the Inner Harbor in Baltimore to the Canary Wharf in London Docklands, from Darling Harbor in Sydney to the Victoria and Albert Waterfront in Cape Town, from the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao to Wan Chai in Hong Kong, it seems that no city is complete without a revitalized waterfront. Not only are such developments seemingly ubiquitous but they often bear a striking resemblance to each other, suggesting that a formula or ‘instant mix’ recipe for regeneration is being followed. Increasingly, this trend is not just restricted to post-industrial cities in the West but is also seen in the fast-developing economies of Latin America, the Gulf States and South East Asia. This chapter explores this global phenomenon by focusing on two inter-related issues: how this ubiquity can be characterized and understood, and the international mobility of regeneration ideas and practices. The chapter begins by outlining a brief history of waterfront regeneration and some general characteristics and trends. It then goes on to critically explore – through a number of case studies – two ways in which the global reach of waterfront development has been understood in the literature, namely (1) as the international transfer of ‘models’, or (2) as the expression of a universal urban policy, linked to competitiveness and neo-liberal urbanization. The chapter concludes by arguing that an alternative analysis based on the concept and practices of assemblage – the bringing together of different elements, actors and ‘ideas from elsewhere’ in the creation of urban space – can play a useful role in framing studies of waterfront regeneration. In particular, it argues that such an alternative analysis can ensure that the interplay between the local and the global and the tensions and contradictions often found within such schemes are recognized.Website 
• Brownill S, 'London docklands revisited: The dynamics of waterfront development ' in Transforming urban waterfronts: fixity and flow, Routledge (2010)
  ISBN: 9780415874939 eISBN: 4.15874939E8
  Abstract Book Description: In port cities around the world, waterfront development projects have been hailed both as spaces of promise and as crucial territorial wedges in twenty-first century competitive growth strategies. Frequently, these mega-projects have been intended to transform derelict docklands into communities of hope with sustainable urban economies—economies intended to both compete in and support globally-networked hierarchies of cities. This collection engages with major theoretical debates and empirical findings on the ways waterfronts transform and have been transformed in port-cities in North and South America, Europe, the Caribbean. It is organized around the themes of fixities (built environments, institutional and regulatory structures, and cultural practices) and flows (information, labor, capital, energy, and knowledge), which are key categories for understanding processes of change. By focusing on these fixities and flows, the contributors to this volume develop new insights for understanding both historical and current cases of change on urban waterfronts, those special areas of cities where land and water meet. As such, it will be a valuable resource for teaching faculty, students, and any audience interested in a broad scope of issues within the field of urban studies.
• Brownill S, 'Selling the inner city: regeneration and place marketing in London’s Docklands' in Gold JR, Ward SV (ed.), Selling the inner city: regeneration and place marketing in London’s Docklands, John Wiley & Sons (1994)
  ISBN: 978-0471948346
  
• Brownill S, 'The Docklands experience: locality and community in London' in Imrie, R and Thomas, H (ed.), The Docklands experience: locality and community in London, Paul Chapman (1993)
  ISBN: 1-85396-207-4
  
• Brownill, S, 'The People's Plan for the Royal Docks; Some Contradictions in Popular Planning' in Radical Planning Initiatives, Gower (1990)
  ISBN: 0 566 05778 6
  

Reviews

• Brownill S, review of Port Cities - Dynamic Landscapes and Global Networks, in Planning Perspectives 27 (2013) pp.483-485ISSN: 0266-5433
  Website 
• Brownill S, review of Urban Regeneration, Community Power and the (in)significance of Race, in Housing Studies 20 (2005) pp.1011-1012ISSN: 0267-3037
  
• Brownill S, review of Unequal City: London in the Global Arena, in Housing Studies 19 (2004) pp.673-674ISSN: 0267-3037
  
• Brownill S, review of Poverty Street: the Dynamics of Neighbourhood Decline and Renewal, in Urban Studies 41 (2004) pp.1613-1614ISSN: 0042-0980 eISSN: 1360-063X
  
• Brownill S, review of Partnerships and Regimes: the Politics of Urban Regeneration in the Uk, in Urban Studies 40 (2003) pp.646-647ISSN: 0042-0980 eISSN: 1360-063X
  
• Brownill S, review of Neighbourhood Planning and Community-based Development: the Potential and Limits of Grassroots Action, in Housing Studies 16 (2001) pp.257-259ISSN: 0267-3037
  
• Brownill S, review of Rising in the East: the Regeneration of East London - Butler,t, Rustin,m, in Urban Studies 34 (1997) pp.1320-1322ISSN: 0042-0980 eISSN: 1360-063X
  

Other publications

• Brownill S, Cho Y, Keivani R, Nase I, Downing L, Valler D, Whitehouse N, Penny Bernstock, 'Rethinking planning obligations: balancing housing numbers and affordability'
  (2015) Abstract
  It is now widely acknowledged that there is a pressing need to increase the supply of housing in England, including for those on the lowest incomes. Planning obligations are a major way in which the planning system contributes to the supply of affrdable housing, yet numbers delivered are still insuffient to meet overall needs, vary greatly between different parts of the country and have been affcted by the economic downturn and changes to the planning system. Given these challenges, this research explores what works and what doesn’t in the operation of planning obligations and whether there are alternative localised ways of increasing the supply of affordable housing.
  Website 
• Brownill S, Keivani R, de Melo EO, 'People’s right to the city has been eroded by mega-event evictions in Rio de Janiero'
  LSE American Politics and Policy (2014) Abstract Brazil has been preparing furiously for the upcoming World Cup and 2016 Olympics. While these developments are thought to represent the country’s growing economy and rising middle class, such “progress” has come at the expense of Brazil’s poorest citizens. Sue Brownill, Ramin Keivani, and Erick Omena de Melo look at the forced evictions in Vila Autódromo to make way for Olympic venues, in spite of the residents’ legal title to their site, arguing that it is representative of global trends of market and state forces eroding people’s right to the city.Website 
• Butina Watson G, Carpenter J, Brownill S, Durning B, Reeve A, 'Thames Gateway Evidence Review'
  (2006) Website 

Areas of expertise

Sue's areas of expertise include community involvement in planning, affordable housing delivery, community-led housing, waterfront regeneration and achieving social sustainability in major urban projects.

Membership of professional bodies

Sue is a member of the Town and Country Planning Association. She has presented evidence to the Public Administration Committee of the House of Commons on public consultation and was a part of a DCLG round table group on neighbourhood planning. She was on the judging panel for the Guangzhou Urban Sustainability Awards in 2015.

Other experience

Before working at Brookes Sue was a research fellow oat the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, UCL, London. She also worked for the Docklands Forum, a community organisation involved in the regernation of London's Docklands. Sue combines her academic interests with involvement with community and housing groups. She was been a board member of Oxford Citizens Housing Association and currently Chairs the Oxfordshire Community Land Trust.