Mary
Dellenbaugh
Validated Lead Expert
Generic Skills
B.1. Understanding of integrated and sustainable urban development:
My bachelor of science in forest science, my masters in landscape architecture and my doctorate in cultural geography have equipped me well to address the complex challenges that arise in urban areas from an ecological, architectural, and cultural/social perspective. Based on this broad background, I offer strategies and solutions to integrated urban renewal that simultaneously address local identity, cooperative economic forms, ecological sustainability, and the involvement of cultural and creative industries.
I am the author and editor of multiple works on these topics, including an edited volume about urban commons and a forthcoming monograph about urban development through culture. I have addressed subjects such as authenticity in urban branding and integrated design strategies in shrinking contexts in multiple book chapters and refereed journal articles. I am currently or have previously been part of several international scientific review committees covering these and other urban issues.
In addition to numerous talks at academic and policy conferences throughout Europe, including invitations to speak at the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Berlin Architecture Biennale, I have also lectured at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Freie Universität and moderated policy workshops at conferences organized by the Berlin Senate Department for Labour, Integration and Women’s Issues.
B.2. Understanding of exchange and learning processes at transnational level:
Cooperation across borders, whether in person at meetings or conferences, or at a distance using digital platforms and tools, is a fundamental component of my working life. From organizing international conferences and workshops during my doctoral research and postdoctoral positions at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, to maintaining working collaborations between highly-engaged partners across Europe, I am not only adept at keeping partners in long-term projects and partnerships motivated, but also maintaining momentum and structure even during difficult periods. My ability to multitask and my skill in coordination and organization are demonstrated by my management of multiple simultaneous projects and cooperations. Examples from my CV include my role as co-founder of the Urban Research Group at the Georg Simmel Centre for Metropolitan Research, my ensuing role as main organizer of our 2013 conference “Urban Commons: Moving beyond State and Market” and head of the editing team for the resultant publication, and my position as EU project manager and policy consultant (2015 – 2016) in which I managed three EU projects for two companies while also working as a policy consultant for the Berlin Senate Department for Labour, Integration and Women’s Issues’ Europe Agency. These and other experiences have honed my skills in clear and goal-oriented communication, efficient and effective meetings, digital collaboration strategies, time management and workflow planning.
B.3. Proficiency in English:
I am an English native speaker. My years-long, international experience in public speaking in academic, policy, and civil society contexts has allowed me to hone my communication skills with different groups and audiences with disparate starting points, English capabilities, backgrounds and perspectives. I am well versed in presenting information effectively in order to reach goals, stimulate discussion and promote cooperation and co-learning, in particular with non-native English speakers. In addition, learning a second language, German, up to complete professional proficiency has sensitized me even further to the potential pitfalls of intercultural communication, above all in a shared second language, such as idioms, regional colloquialisms and dialects.
Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities:
Summary Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities:
I have been designing & delivering exchange and learning activities since 2012. I have in-depth experience in meeting design, online collaboration, maintaining structure through the course of long-term projects, and communicating results to a variety of audiences. Through my work as an EU project manager and policy consultant, I have in depth experience in stakeholder engagement, writing local action plans, planning and managing transnational meetings, engaging partners in goal-oriented exchange, & maintaining cooperation and workflows at a distance using various online platforms. Fairness is a critical aspect of cooperation, and ensuring that each partner leaves a meeting with the feeling that he or she was heard and understood is one of the biggest challenges of meeting moderation, especially in the transnational context. I employ a variety of methods in order to engage with different participatory styles and cultures. I frequently use templates to support the standardization of input, but also to help balance out disparities in working cultures and experience levels between partners. Regular reviews of protocols ensure that deadlines get met, and misunderstandings can be easily avoided.
I have extensive experience in the communication of complex topics to non-native English speakers, and in the adjustment (at times at short notice) of content, language use, speaking speed, presentation style and/or use of supplementary materials to fit my audience’s needs and background.
Thematic expertise:
Theme / Policy:
Arts and Culture
Summary Thematic expertise:
My doctoral research (2010 – 2013) dealt with urban identity and belonging in post-Wall Berlin based on street names, architectural styles, monuments and participation in planning measures. The insights gained in this work have allowed to me address such varied topics as the stigmatization of large-scale slab housing estates, identity in post-socialist cities and belonging as a fundamental prerequisite of solidarity and cooperation. My dissertation was published in 2013. During and since my doctoral research, I have published multiple articles and policy papers and speak regularly about these topics at academic and policy conferences.
Theme / Policy:
Integrated Urban Renewal
Summary Thematic expertise:
I have years of expertise in the analysis of urban shrinkage, deindustrialization and structural change and in the development of integrated concepts to address these issues which touch all levels of sustainability under consideration of the current shift to knowledge-based economy and the increasing role of creativity in urban development. I stress the needs to address the perspective of cultural actors more fully, a topic which I have addressed in detail in my forthcoming book about urban development through culture. These groups are often highly mobile, therefore the deliberate incorporation of their voices into the process can help create a more sustainable and cooperative development concept, and one in which creativity, the arts, culture and creative industries represent a fundamental and long-term aspect of urban growth and prosperity, instead of a short term planning goal. I am the author of not only that monograph, but also multiple policy-oriented publications analysing the structural change which attends deindustrialization (rising vacancy rates, increasing median age, lower birth rates, negative demographic development, etc.). I have addressed these and other topics in my work as a policy consultant for European labour market policy for the Berlin Senate Department for Labour, Integration and Women’s Issues, and in my active contribution to and cooperation with the Akademie der Zusammenkunft (https://hausderstatistik.org/akademie/).
Theme / Policy:
Integrated Urban Renewal
Summary Thematic expertise:
I have been researching and working with the topic of urban commons since 2012, when I co-founded the Urban Research Group, a self-organized group of postdoctoral researchers, at the Georg Simmel Centre for Metropolitan Research. Together with the other four members, I organized the conference “Urban Commons: Moving beyond State and Market,” which took place in September of 2013. Over the course of the next 2 years, we engaged in intense reading, research and exchange with each other and the conference participants selected to publish their work in a collected volume of the same title (https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/430778). As a group, we collectively researched and wrote a meta-analysis of commons theory and its relation to the urban which consequently became the introductory chapter to the collected work.
Since then, I have spoken at numerous workshops, given invited talks and presented at policy conferences. I was also on the international scientific committee for the IASC conference about urban commons and the international scientific committee for the project INDIGO. I have been integral in the planning of our follow-up event series, where, instead of hosting an event myself, I have chosen to take responsibility for dissemination and exploitation, and I am currently formulating a policy-oriented publication for a wider audience to address challenges and special characteristics of urban commons, tentatively entitled “The Urban Commons Cookbook.”
Informations
Residence location:
Germany
Languages:
English - Mother tongue
Foreign Languages level:
Foreign languages:
Email:
m.dellenbaugh@gmail.com