Elena Besussi is a Lecturer (Teaching) in Plan Making and Strategic Planning at The Bartlett School of Planning and the Programme Director for the BSc in Urban Planning, Design, and Management and BSc in Urban Studies at University College London. She is a teaching-focused academic with research interests in planning and urban politics, urban and economic development in the capitalist city, local government finance, socio-economic exclusion in the context of austerity and authoritarian governance.
Current research activities focus on the agency of economic actors in shaping the regulation and production of workspaces, with a focus on small manufacturing; the comparative analysis of the impacts of fiscal arrangements for local government on spatial planning and development strategies; the micropolitics of local state’s investments in neighbourhood regeneration. Her teaching practice is informed by principles and methods of community engaged learning and knowledge co-production in collaboration with grassroots and community groups in London. Since 2014 she has created over 20 collaborative teaching and learning projects for students at post and undergraduate levels.
Previous to joining the Bartlett School of Planning she has been a research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at UCL from 2002 to 2005, planning policy advisor at the Willowbrook Centre (in Southwark, London) from 2005 to 2008 and an independent planning consultant supporting community groups involved in planning, housing and regeneration processes. She has produced academic and professional research for national organisations (BURA, RICS), international institutions (EU Commission). She is also the chair (unpaid) of the South Hampstead and Kilburn Community Partnership, a resident-led charity who works with local young people and adults to improve well-being, inclusion and life chances in the context of high socio-economic deprivation.