Steffen
Wetzstein
Validated Lead Expert
Generic Skills
B.1. Understanding of integrated and sustainable urban development:
My understanding of integrated/sustainable urban development stems from 18 years of vibrant academic and policy engagement in three countries. Based on my Ph.D. in economic geography, I taught on economic development, planning, housing, governance, urban branding, population, strategic development etc. in six universities. I worked with local government and business in strategic urban development, economic development, land use, transport and infrastructure, local governance and agenda-setting. My highlights: Besides more than 50 international presentations and workshops, and around 40 publications, I influenced Perth’ strategic repositioning in the areas of liveability, connectivity, governance, housing and branding (acclaimed by both policy makers and communities), co-developed the implementation model of the Auckland Economic Development Strategy and identified the business requirements of Auckland’s Land Use Strategy. My main focus since 2015 has been affordable urban housing provision in an international pan-urban context (5 cities, three global regions). I gained first-hand experience of how stakeholders learn (or not) across cities, their understanding of challenging contexts, and how to influence them through expertise, engagement and facilitation. Modern urban development to me: envisioning common futures, understanding issues, actors, cultures, past and context, developing grounded strategies, sharing implementation work and removing tricky obstacles on the way.
B.2. Understanding of exchange and learning processes at transnational level:
City-2-City (c-2-c) learning is vital to good practice development, as is learning from past developments and actions. Benchmarks and indicators only tell us a limited (but still useful) story, but we have to move ‘deeper’ to understand how and why cities excel, and how to transfer wisdom and knowledge. My approach: talking to many stakeholders, reading publications, reports and media publications – and truly understanding place and culture – before facilitating policy and practice transfer. My experience: ‘Creative City’ benchmarking project (Asia-Pacific, 2002/3); two transport benchmarking (c-2-c) learning projects (Asia-Pacific/US/UK; 2001; 2003/4), metropolitan economic governance (Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Auckland, 2010/12), and affordable urban housing provision (Berlin, Vienna, Singapore, Sydney, Auckland, 2015/18). I am particularly interested in how cities brand themselves (Barcelona, Vienna!), how positive trajectories emerge, how good policy transfer operates (networks, events…), and what exactly determines transfer success and failure. I have contributed to several European-wide policy initiatives on urban development recently. As coordinator Policy-Research of the European Network of Housing Research, I actively create evidence-grounded dialogue and cross-sector (academy, policy, community, business) learning across European contexts in order to tackle one of the most problematic post-GFC problems in our cities: lacking adequate and affordable housing for ALL.
B.3. Proficiency in English:
Though I am a native German speaker, I possess an excellent ability to communicate fluently and effectively in the English language in written and oral forms. My CV gives evidence to around 40 international and national publications (books, academic journals articles, policy publications, online-contributions) as well as around 50 presentations and workshops to international academic and policy audiences. In my various research projects I conducted more than 250 semi-structured, in-depth research interviews worldwide in the English language inclusive of note taking. I have taught almost all my university courses in English, and supervised many postgraduate students in this language. Many of my international students come from countries that struggle with English proficiency (countries in Asia, South America, Africa; also Italy, Albania and Turkey), so I have to make sure that those people understand me well. My approach: slowing down speech speed, clear articulation and expression, avoiding jargon and inviting instant feedback. 14 years living and working in the Anglophone world has helped me to perfect the language. English became the number one spoken language at home (…we are a mixed German/New Zealand family) and it has forced me to always think in-between languages and make myself understood. Overall, excellent and effective communication in English is a proven asset of mine – and it will help URBACT-partners to engage in dialogue and interact more successfully.
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:
Transnational learning is central to my understanding on urban issues (global experiences on urban policy transfer, best/worst practice diffusion and international benchmarking). It guided my transnational empirical research (e.g. 4-city project on urban governance, 5-city project on housing affordability); having resulted in high quality academic papers and policy-directed reports that captured the comparative insights and lessons learnt from engaging diverse international stakeholders.
My transnational and cross-sectoral policy and agenda-setting work culminated in exciting projects on urban transport policy comparison and creative city benchmarking in the Asia-Pacific region, Australasian cross-city perceptions on municipal strengths and weaknesses, and global best practice scanning in fields of local/metropolitan governance reform and urban housing solutions. Qualitative (in-person) methods as well as proactive knowledge dissemination and management have added to remarkable project success.
As joint coordinator ‘policy and research’ at the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) I currently co-initiate/organise and facilitate dialogue-based stakeholder events that aim for effective cross-locational learning and good practice development across Europe (e.g. in Sweden and Ireland). My goal is to upscale this format and use strategic expert facilitation (SEF) as potentially rewarding transnational co-learning tool across interested urban stakeholder communities.
Thematic expertise:
Theme / Policy:
Sustainable Housing
Summary Thematic expertise:
Besides regularly teaching/supervision at universities, and in addition to earlier practitioner experience (Real Estate, Building Services), I gained comprehensive insights into housing across many in-depth research and policy projects.
My ‘5-city affordable housing’ project, for example, explored policy challenges/solutions in Auckland, Sydney, Singapore, Berlin and Vienna (2015-2018). Based on close stakeholder engagement I assessed the solution potential of contemporary policies/practices (output: 8 publications, 21 presentations). For Perth (Australia) I problematized the particular housing challenges and globally sourced (potential) solutions for a high-growth city (2009-2011), culminating in the highly acclaimed report Managing Boomtown Perth that triggered a high-profile media campaign. Delivering influential report and discussion forum, the policy project on developing Auckland’s Regional Growth Strategy (2001/2) examined the links/gaps between business/employment needs and land-use/housing policies.
Effective translation of project results into improving urban policy/practice occurred via advancing academic understandings; delivering research-led academic teaching/supervision, using regular multi-channel output dissemination to my stakeholder network, and directly feeding into policy dialogue, agenda-setting and public awareness raising. As joint ENHR coordinator ‘policy and research’ I currently engage stakeholders across Europe in innovative co-learning sessions.
Theme / Policy:
Urban Strategic Planning
Summary Thematic expertise:
My inter-disciplinary and pan-geographical experiences on Urban Strategic Planning relate to five key areas: repositioning of cities globally, responses to competitiveness pressures and state funding constraints, challenges arising from population growth, balancing increasingly polarizing urban communities, and conflict resolution in market-driven urbanizing societies.
My qualitatively-based research explored economic governance (Ph.D.), comparative work on business-led agenda-setting, land-use, housing and infrastructure, globalising policy settings and institutional innovation. Latest focus has been on housing affordability evaluation across 5 international cities, culminating in currently conducted co-learning sessions across Europe as ENHR-joint coordinator ‘policy and research’.
Via policy-directed work I approached topics such as urban liveability, housing, transport, administrative governance, regional economic policy, and examined several local reform attempts. My knowledge on Europe, Australasia and the Asia-Pacific region stems from rich institutional contact with local stakeholder, strategies and organizations. This work stream produced influential papers and reports.
My university-based teaching in Auckland, Wellington, Perth and Erfurt incorporated various aspects of strategic urban development in courses focused on urban studies, social geography and planning, globalising cities, contemporary urban policies as well as regional analysis and development.
Theme / Policy:
Local Economic Development
Summary Thematic expertise:
I would be delighted to share my local economic development expertise in theory, policy and practice with URBACT-stakeholders. I am very familiar with guiding ideas in the field and their implementation in various cities; including clusters, innovation systems, growth pole theory, commodity and value chain approaches, urban enterprise zones, ‘creative class’ attraction, inner city redevelopment initiatives and sector-based globalization strategies.
I wrote extensively about the new global economic governance for cities (influencing capital, trade, ideas and people flows across countries) and used those insights for strategy-building in Auckland and Perth in Australasia. Implementation-wise, I contributed to discussions on retail trade reform, labour force restructuring, tourism and regional marketing as well as urban leadership in the global resource industries. My work had impact, for example, on implementing Auckland’s economic strategy, resulting in the creation of a new purpose-build development agency on city-regional level staffed with ten economic development officers.
In addition I have taught at university level and presented about those issues since 2003, inspiring students of all ages, urban stakeholders and international audiences from Shanghai to Belfast. I favour critical thinking; clusters don’t work everywhere, inner city revitalization often pushes out existing businesses and residents, and to create a new global hub needs big aspiration and solid funding.
Theme / Policy:
Local Governance
Summary Thematic expertise:
Facilitating adequate responses to local/urban governance challenges is at the core of my competencies. Vexed questions like the ‘hollowing out’ of nation states and increasing stakeholder/business involvement make transnational (co)-learning an important necessity of progressive change. I have built interdisciplinary expertise on good local governance practice/structures in domains such as civic administration, economic development, transport, land-use planning, housing, tourism and urban branding.
My comprehensive experience stems from comparative academic work (e.g. Urban Economic Governance, Business and Globalisation, 2013), in-depth best practice scanning, evaluation and dissemination (e.g. Successful’ Local and Metropolitan Local Government Models Elsewhere, 2010), extensively teaching urban governance topics at six universities in three countries, and delivering keynotes/ talks to various international professional audiences.
My contributions to local governance reform facilitated transformation. The paper focused on Perth for example shaped debates regarding whether council amalgamation or closer coordination of region-wide services best solve political and economic inefficiencies. In return I received the Minister’s praise for “having considerably raised the quality and breath of the debate”.
I look forward to working with urban stakeholders across Europe on best practices, processes and structures in local governance that deliver inclusive and lasting returns.
Expertise support to local authorities and other stakeholders in designing & delivering integrated and participatory policies
E.1. Knowledge on participatory methods and tools for co-production and implementation of local polices :
Four distinct projects prioritized participation and co-production.
First, my role in the AREDS-implementation work stream incorporated participatory methods; e.g. key local stakeholder interviews (policy makers, senior administrators etc.), jointly developing a draft implementation option, its distribution to all stakeholders and the final endorsement process before the final report.
Second, the AREDS work program 7 involved the timely briefing and distribution of background papers to all stakeholders, organising and facilitating of project group meetings, adequate conflict resolution, final meeting result summarizing and decisions on action points with responsibility, milestones and deadlines (see also section C.2.4.).
Third, a good example of co-producing urban policies was/is the FACTBase partnership; an institutional partnership Committee for Perth/University of Western Australia. Our output included reports, working group contributions and interviews that - together - served directly as debate influencer, policy advice and public awareness raiser.
Fourth, the masters class ‘Regions, Networking and Governance’ (University of Auckland, 2003) I turned into a well-received co-learning experiment between policy makers from all local councils, students and lecturers (including me). Out of this cross-sector experiment I developed the dialogue format of strategic expert facilitation for urban stakeholder communities as contemporary co-learning tool (see section C.2.3.).
E.2. Knowledge on integrated approach for the design, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of urban strategies/policies:
Three initiatives stand out. First, there is the ARDEEM-initiative, the social evidence-gathering process around the Auckland Region Dynamic Environment-Economy Model (ARDEEM). The latter is a tool for analysing regional futures for Auckland based on measuring economy-environment interactions. I co-designed, conducted and evaluated stakeholder workshops to identify and explore what drivers may be especially important to achieve future scenarios (e.g. ‘compact city’).
Second, the AREDS initiative was guided by objectives of policy integration and sustainability from early visions to the monitoring stage. My role allowed a close liaison between academic knowledge and policy making. It encouraged me to confront stakeholders/partners with academic evidence and show the merit of integrating various policy domains, especially those on social equity and cultural integration. I was particularly influential in reconciling the later adopted implementation model (agency) with both ongoing dialogue and partnership processes and the need to create new actor-alliances across the city.
The third example concerns monitoring capacities. In 2003/4 I assisted the leadership of the Auckland’s Regional Council with the development of a performance indicator framework for its multi-facetted policy/regulatory work portfolio; identifying and drawing together quantifiable data streams from diverse policy domains that would allow more adequate feedback on performance and gaps.
E.3. Awareness of the main policy and funding schemes for sustainable urban development at EU and national level:
In order to keep up-to date with important patterns of urban development and new funding opportunities I utilise several channels. Central is access to my comprehensive professional network, representing - in addition to academic personal in universities and research agencies - key stakeholders from organisations such as Housing Europe, the EU Urban Partnership, UNECE, Habitat for Humanity, Urban Innovative Actions (UIA), FEPS and the European Housing Platform.I also regularly get alerts and messages via email and LinkedIn about new initiatives or up-to-date information about existing ones. For example, details about Horizon 2020 and INTERREG-programs are equally interesting as URBACT or UIA-projects.
My academic knowledge keeps up-to-date because I receive the latest publications from around 30 different journals in the field broadly described as ‘Urban Studies’; allowing for truly interdisciplinary knowledge production incorporating diverse academic disciplines like human geography, urban planning, business studies, regional innovations, urban policy and practice, political economy etc.. Parallel access to the information systems at the University of Western Australia and the University of Erfurt ensures that a wide and comprehensive range of literatures can be accessed and used for immediate stakeholder work.
Finally, I follow daily politics and news both nationally and internationally to pick-up the ‘hot’ political issues surrounding urban change and development.
E.4. Ability to understand specific local situations and adapt tools and content to different local realities:
My comprehensive academic work has centrally involved the context-specific understanding of specific local situations; the conditions and circumstances local actors find themselves in. Empirically, I acquired specific knowledge on Auckland and Wellington (New Zealand), Sydney, Melbourne and Perth (Australia), Berlin and Vienna (Europe), Singapore, and to a lesser degree Portland and Vancouver (North America). Relevant projects included the ‘Creative City’ Benchmarking Project (Asia-Pacific region/ 2002/3) and the Comparative Research Project: ‘Brokers of Urban Transformations? Metropolitan Economic Governance and Business Elites in Australasia’ (four cities; 2010/12). In my latest comparative research project (‘Global Housing Affordability Challenges and Solutions’/2015-18) I conducted a total of 130 semi-structured research interviews and worked with dozens of reports and media publications in each of the five case study cities across Europe, Asia and Australasia.
Over time I have developed skills and conceptual/communicational frameworks to adapt tools and content to different local realities. Key is the willingness and ability to deeply think about the specific city first, then reconcile findings with more general frameworks and theory. My achievements: solid sense of context specificity for each city, very good understanding of comparative/relational aspects between cities, and expert knowledge on policy transfer, mobility and good/best practice diffusion and barriers.
Summary Expertise:
Integrated and participatory urban policy-making is at the heart of my approach to urban development thinking and practice. My 5-city housing affordability project benefits from knowledge dissemination strongly geared towards result sharing and dialogue. For New Zealand’s economic capital Auckland, and Australia’s Boomtown Perth, I applied those principles and added particular value to debates, policy and practice.
The implementation of Auckland’s Economic Development Strategy profited from incorporating participatory methods. In my case these were local stakeholder interviews, the joint development of a draft implementation option, its distribution to all stakeholders and the final endorsement process before the final report.
Co-producing urban policies was/is at the core of the FACTBase partnership; a joint venture between the Committee for Perth and the University of Western Australia. Our output included reports, working group contributions and interviews that - together - served directly as debate influencer, policy advice and public awareness raiser on topics such as housing, administrative reform, liveability and urban branding.
My comprehensive past academic work helps me to understand cities as they are, not what a textbook claims they should be. I came to appreciate specific local situations, conditions and circumstances in Auckland and Wellington, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, Singapore as well as Berlin and Vienna in Europe. Let your city be next on this list.
Informations
Residence location:
Germany
Languages:
German - Mother tongue
Foreign Languages level:
Foreign languages:
Foreign Languages level:
Foreign languages:
Email:
steffen.wetzstein@uwa.edu.au