Victoria A. Beard

Victoria Beard's research and teaching focus on comparative urbanization and international development planning.

Beard's research focuses on how planners address urban inequality and poverty. In cities in the Global South, communities often plan for themselves, outside of, in collaboration with, and in opposition to formal planning and regulatory frameworks. In response to the limitations of community-based planning, Beard has expanded her work to focus on the city perspective and access to basic services, particularly water and sanitation, and the broader processes that create and sustain city-wide transformation.

From 2015 to 2017, Beard served as director of research for the Ross Center for Cities at the World Resources Institute. In this role, she led work on the World Resources Report, Towards a More Equal City.

Over the past 20 years, she has worked for the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, AusAID, Mercy Corps, the Research Triangle Institute, and RAND.

Beard holds a Ph.D. in community and regional planning from the University of British Columbia (1999); an M.A. in urban planning from University of California–Los Angeles (1995); and a B.A. in urban studies and planning from the University of California–San Diego (1992).

"I have always felt most inspired and creative when I am in the field talking to people, producing research work that can be applied and that has the possibility of having a visible impact."

Academic Research/Specialty Areas

  • International development planning
  • Comparative urbanization with a focus on the Global South
  • Community-based planning and informality
  • Urban inequality and poverty
  • Urban infrastructure planning, specifically water and sanitation

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Classes (Selected)

  • CRP 6720 International Institutions The course introduces students to the theory and practice of international development planning from an institutional perspective. It begins with an introduction to the field and provides a historical, institutional and theoretical overview. The course examines the main actors involved in the practice of international development planning: the public sector, civil society, community-based organizations and the private sector. It critically analyzes some of the large international institutions engaged in urban policy-making and global governance. The last section of the course examines timely topics that have the potential to reconfigure the institutional landscape, planning practice, and cities.
  • CRP 1101 The Global CityThe course introduces students to urbanization in the Global South. It examines the demographic, economic and historical processes that create cities. Attention is given to the role of the state, market, non-governmental actors and communities in planning, building, and governing of cities. The course investigates opportunities and challenges facing cities, including but not limited to unprecedented increases in inequality, migration, climate change, informality, and access to shelter and core infrastructure.

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

  • International Faculty Fellow, Global Cornell (2017)
  • Principal investigator, Transnational Community-Based Planning in Southern California and Oaxaca, CORCL, University of California–Irvine (2010–11)
  • Principal investigator, A Comparison of Decentralization Policies, Community-Level Collective Action and Elite Capture in Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia, University of California Pacific Rim Research Program (2008–09)
  • Fulbright Scholar to Indonesia (1993–94)

Publications (Selected)

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