Faranak Miraftab

Contact Information

111 Buell Hall
611 E Lorado Taft Dr
M/C 619
Champaign, IL 61820

(217) 333-3890

faranak@illinois.edu

Research Areas

Global Governance

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Professor, Urban & Regional Planning

Department Affiliate, Gender and Women's Studies

Department Affiliate, Geography

Research Interests

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.

Education

PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 1995

Courses Taught

teaching statement

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.

selected publications

2010	Miraftab, F. “Contradictions in the Gender-Poverty Nexus: Reflections on the Privatisation of Social Reproduction and Urban Informality in South African Townships” in Silvia Chant (ed.) The International Handbook on Gender and Poverty: Concepts, Research and Policy. Edward Elgar Publishers.
2009	Miraftab, F. “Insurgent Planning: Situating Radical Planning in the Global South.” Planning Theory 8(1):32-50. Diaz McConnell, E. and F. Miraftab. “Sundown Town to ‘Mexican Town’: Newcomers, Old Timers, and Housing in Small Town America,” Rural Sociology 74 (4): 605-629.
2008	Miraftab, F. and E. Diaz McConnell. “Multiculturalizing Rural Towns: Insights for Inclusive Planning.” International Planning Studies 13(4): 343-360. 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). 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. 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. 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 39(4): 606-626.
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
	Miraftab, F. "Feminist Praxis, Citizenship and Informal Politics: Reflections on South Africa’s Anti-Eviction Campaign." International Feminist Journal of Politics vol. 8.
	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.
	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.
	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.