Yasminah Beebeejaun

I decided to study town planning as a mature student and completed my undergraduate degree, an MA and Phd at the Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield. I subsequently worked as a research fellow at the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Birmingham (2003-04) and then held a lectureship in planning at the University of the West of England (2004-2007).

My reasons for entering the planning profession revolved around issues of equality and social justice.

My research divides into three key areas:

1. Public participation and its role in multicultural societies. I am exploring how decisions are made within development plan making in the UK and the USA. My research considers the USA’s differing approaches to participation and community empowerment. I am particularly interested in critiques of participation as a normative activity and ways in which public involvement gains power and meaning.
2. Group Identity in the planning system. My doctoral research explored how ethnic minority group identity becomes constructed in plan-making, drawing upon how ethnicity and race are socially constructed phenomena. I am currently researching how these processes influence our understandings of chinatowns.
3. Equality & Combating Social Exclusion. I am interested in drawing upon political theorists’ conceptualisations of identity, in particular Benhabib, Harvey and IM Young and how these operate in tension within Western liberal democracies.

Undergraduate

• Practical Projects – PLAN10622
• Planning Theory and Values – PLAN30082

Postgraduate Masters

• Planning Theory and Ethics – PLAN60042

Book Chapters

'Do multicultural cities help equality?' In J. S. Davies & D. L. Imbroscio (eds) Critical Urban Studies: New Directions, New York: SUNY (forthcoming 2009).

'Sheffield city centre: the heart of the city precinct.' (with K Holmes) In B. Hayllar, T. Griffin and D. Edwards (eds) City spaces - tourist place: Urban tourism precincts, pp.319-339. UK: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2008.

'Capturing diversity issues in neighbourhood governance and management' (with L. Grimshaw) In I. Smith, E. Lepine & M. Taylor (eds) 'Disadvantaged by where you live? Proving and improving the capacity of neighbourhood governance', Bristol: The Policy Press (2007).

Refereed Journal Articles

'Making safer places: gender and the right to the city' in The Security Journal (in press).

'City Centre Masterplanning and Cultural Spaces: a case study of Sheffield' (with Dr K. Holmes) (2007), Journal of Retail and Leisure Property. Vol. 6 (1), pp.29-46.

'The Participation Trap: The limits of participation for ethnic and racial groups' (2006), International Planning Studies, Vol. 11(1), pp.3-18.

'What's in a Nation?' Professional constructions of ethnicity in the British Planning System' (2004), Planning Theory and Practice, Vol. 5(4), pp.437-451.

Reports

Community Engagement in Planning: Report commissioned by Communities and Local Government (forthcoming 2008), London: CLG.

Building Capacity in Black and Minority Ethnic Organisations: An evaluation of the national capacity-building programme of the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations (2007) (with Professor G Craig, S Adamson, B Cole, A Dadze-Arthur, B Murtuja and O Osidipe).

Participation in Planning: Barriers Faced by Under-represented groups – Report to Planning Aid Wales, (2005) (Principal Investigator with A Hull, L Carmichael & J King).

The Learning, Access and Employment Needs of Newcomers to the Birmingham and Solihull Region – Report to the Birmingham and Solihull Learning and Skills Council (2004) (with J Phillimore, L Goodson & E Ferrari.)

Panel member of the RTPI Equal Opportunities (Race) Panel.

Trustee of the Women’s Design Service, a charity which exists to further gender equality in the built environment (www.wds.org.uk).

Member of Planners Network UK.