Susannah Bunce

My research centres on the geographies of community engagement and development and spatial planning practices in urban communities and neighbourhoods. I explore socio-environmental discourses, sustainability planning, and strategies for socio-environmental justice and change at the urban neighbourhood scale. I am interested in the local politics of land use, socio-environmental contestations over local spaces - particularly those caused by gentrification and other land-based struggles - as well as more hopeful community-based methods for affordable, accessible, and sustainable land stewardship (urban community land trusts and urban eco-villages). I conduct most of my research in Canadian and British cities. My work is grounded in scholar-activism, which blends long-term interest and engagement in anti-poverty and environmental activism with my scholarly research and teaching practices. I am currently undertaking two research projects, one focusing on the politics and planning of Community Land Trusts in Canadian and international urban contexts that is funded through my role as a Co-Investigator on a SSHRC Partnership Grant (2020-2025 - Balanced Supply of Housing Node, University of British Columbia) and through funding from the University of Toronto's School of Cities, as Co-Lead (with Dr. Alan Walks, Geography & Planning) of the Affordable Housing Challenge Project. The other project, funded through a SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2021-2023) explores community engagement and Indigenous place-keeping in the Highland Creek watershed in Scarborough, Toronto (with Dr. Nicole Latulippe, Geography & Planning), that examines community-based stewardship practices and Indigenous and non-Indigenous community relationships with the river and land.

Publications

Books

Bunce, S., Livingstone, N., March, L., Moore, S. & Walks, A. (Eds.). (2020). Critical Dialogues of Governance, Development and Activism: London and Toronto UCL Press, London. https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/126990

Bunce, S. (2018). Sustainability Policy, Planning, and Gentrification in Cities Routledge, Abingdon.

Journal Articles

Bunce, S. (2016). Pursuing Urban Commons: Politics and Alliances in Community Land Trust Activism in East London Antipode 48(1), 134-150

Book Chapters

Bunce, S. (2020). Engagement and Activism in Community Land Ownership: The Emergence of Community Land Trusts in London and Toronto in: S. Bunce, N. Livingstone, L. March*, S. Moore & A. Walks (Eds.) Critical Dialogues of Governance, Development and Activism in London and Toronto UCL Press, London. Pp. 274-288.

Bunce, S. & Barndt, J. (2020). Origins and Evolution of Urban Community Land Trusts in Canada
In: John E. Davis, L. Algeod, & M. Hernandez (Eds.). On Common Ground: International Perspectives on Community Land Trusts. Terra Nostra Press, Madison. pp.89-108.