Dr Tanja Winkler: General Information

Lecturer in Town and Regional Planning

Before joining the University of Sheffield in May 2009, I spent a number of years lecturing and researching at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, where I still hold an honorary post. I completed a PhD on resident involved and led urban regeneration in January 2006 from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and I worked as an urban design consultant and a municipal official in South Africa and Britain, respectively.

My current research interests include critically assessing `the voice of the poor´ in urban governance and public decision making processes. To this end, I´m in the process of investigating the intersections and complexities between civil society, planning policies, and democratic governance. This research forms part of a collaborative project, known as CORUS, which is coordinated by Gecko at the University of Paris X and the Centre for Urban and Built Environment Studies (CUBES) at the University of the Witwatersrand. While the focus of this research is based in South Africa, I hope to explore and expand lessons learned from South African case studies in other contexts of the `global South´ and the `global North´. In 2008, I also received a research grant from the South African National Research Foundation, THUTHUKA (Women in Research), to facilitate an ongoing project on `civil society, poverty and inner city regeneration´.

telephone : 01142 226926

email : t.winkler@sheffield.ac.uk