Trained as an urban planner and architect, Ashok Das is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) at the San Francisco State University (SFSU), San Francisco, CA.
Broadly, his research explores innovations in and challenges to ameliorating urban poverty in developing countries. Community participation and empowerment, slum upgrading, decentralization and local governance, and the role of civil society in development are his key interests.
Ashok's doctoral work in Urban Planning at UCLA explored the nature, measurement, and comparison of empowerment arising from participation in slum upgrading programs in post-decentralization India and Indonesia. He is particularly intrigued by how different institutional arrangements and socio-cultural factors inhibit or contribute to empowerment in different contexts, and how those can be explained empirically. His new research seeks to explore the impacts of natural disasters on cities, local government-led and community-based efforts for disaster response and preparedness, and the impacts of integrated microfinance on urban poverty alleviation and community empowerment. How globalization is affecting urban form in emerging economies, and historic preservation are some other areas he hopes to research in the near future.
At SFSU Ashok teaches courses on urban poverty, cities and globalization, and policy analysis, among others.
Ashok is a native of India and holds a B.Arch from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India. He also has M.Arch and MA (Environmental Planning & Management) degrees from Kansas State University.
“The Urban Planning program at UCLA was wonderful in terms of the breadth of research interests of the faculty and students. The courses constitute some of the most progressive and novel ideas in the field of planning and development, which constantly push the limits of academic scholarship and professional expertise.” |
