John West
Department Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Associate Professor of Urban Planning
Bio
John West has an extensive background in planning history and theory, land banking, tenant rights, low-income housing policy research, program evaluation. His theoretical interest is in how ideas, technology and local political action shape urban citizenship.
As an engaged teacher scholar West is the founding chair of the Muncie Land Bank, a planning agency that seeks to address property abandonment. He and his students have partnered with non-profits to create The Renter’s Book, an extensive collection of information, sample forms, and procedural steps to help renters understand their rights and advocate for their interests. They also spearheaded creation of the state’s first landlord-tenant mediation program through partnerships with the Delaware County courts and others.
Education
- (2016) PhD, Urban Planning, Columbia University, New York.
- (2012) Masters of Philosophy, Columbia University, New York.
- (2007) MA in Urban Planning and Policy, University of Illinois, Chicago.
- (2003) BA double major in Sociology and Modern Languages and Literature, Kenyon College, Ohio.
Major Research and Teaching Emphasis
- Landbanks and abandoned property
- Planning history and theory
- Urban politics and policy
- Economic theory in planning
- Applied research methods
Recent Research and Publications (select)
- West, John (2021) “The Rule of Choice: Frames and Overflows in the History of New York City Roadway Planning.” Journal of Planning Education and Research doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X211041396
- West, John. (2021) “Land Banking regulation as rhetorical infrastructure: Planning as translation in the Muncie Land Bank,” in Planning as Regulation, edited by Yvonne Rydin,
Robert Beauregard, Laura Lieto and Marco Cremaschi.
- West, John (2020) “Land Bank Formation: Reorganizing Civic Capacity for Resilience”, in The Routledge Handbook of Urban Resilience, edited by Michael A. Burayidi, Andriana Allen, John Twigg, and Christine Wamsler. New York, NY: Routledge.
- West, John (2020) “Land Bank Formation: Reorganizing Civic Capacity for Resilience”, in The Routledge Handbook of Urban Resilience, edited by Michael A. Burayidi, Andriana Allen, John Twigg, and Christine Wamsler. New York, NY: Routledge.
- West, John H. (2017) “Making Market Rationality: Material Semiotics and the Case of Congestion Pricing in New York City.” Urban Geography http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2016.1206711
Recent conference presentations (select)
- Invited presenter, “Muncie Land Bank Presentation to the Muncie Redevelopment Commission” Muncie Redevelopment Commission, August 2020.
- Presenter, “Laws and Markets in Land Banking Practice” Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning meeting Buffalo, N.Y., October 2018.
- Presenter, “Technologies of urban citizenship, or what controls who, when and what does it mean?” Workshop on the Ostrom Workshop, Bloomington, Ind., August 2019
- Co-organizer and presenter, “Choice in Urban Planning History: From the Social to the Individual Subject,” Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning meeting Portland Oregon, November 2016.
- Presenter, “The Representational Politics of Digital Disruption: Creating Education Consumers in New York City,” The American Association of Geographers, San Francisco, CA, March 2016.
In the news
- West, John. (2020) “Partnerships for Better Rental Housing Improve Communities,” Inside Indiana Business.
- West, John. (2021) “Take the Muncie Land Banking Model State Wide,” The Star Press.