Planning in an era of growing urban and spatial inequality

A structural transition away from manufacturing and toward knowledge- and skill-intensive services, induced by globalization, is widening interregional inequalities in the United States and many other countries across the Global North and South. This regional divergence has amplified calls for “place-based policy” that can address the social, economic, and political challenges wrought by growing spatial inequality. I am interested how the extra-local economic forces producing regional divergence help to explain contemporary urban problems in both leading and lagging regions, such as the housing affordability crisis in the United States. I am also interrogating whether the planning field is equipped to meet the moment

Related Publications and Working Papers

Randolph, G.F. & Currid-Halkett, E. (2021) Planning in the Era of Regional Divergence: Place, Scale and Development in Confronting Spatial Inequalities. Journal of the American Planning Association. doi: 10.1080/01944363.2021.1935302.

Buchholz, M., Kemeny, T., Randolph, G.F. and Storper, M. (2026) Inequality, not regulation, drives America's housing affordability crisis. III Working Paper (159). International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/131070/.

Work in Progress

With Michael Storper and Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, I am conducting a reflective analysis of planning research and education to understand its capacities to address three societal crises: rising inequality, social isolation, and loss of trust in institutions.