Prof. Dr. Jean-David Gerber

Executive Director GIUB / Unit Leader Political Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development

E-Mail
jean-david.gerber@unibe.ch
Office
111
Postal Address
University of Bern
Institute of Geography
Political Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development
Hallerstrasse 12
CH-3012 Bern
Consultation Hour
by agreement

Short CV

Short CV
2025 Promotion to full professor
since 2023

Chairman of the foundation board of durabilitas, a think-and-do tank committed to promote sustainability
2017-2025

Associate Professor for Political Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development, Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland
2012-2017

Assistant Professor for Urban & Regional Planning, Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland
2009-2012  Lecturer, Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
2007-2009
 Postdoc, University of California, Berkeley, USA
2005-2007  Research Associate, IDHEAP, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
2005
PhD in Public Administration, Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP), University of Lausanne, Switzerland
2004
Postgraduate degree in ‘Urban Development, Resources Management and Governance’, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
2001

MSc in Environmental Sciences, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Research Interests

Land use planning:

  • Land use planning as a public policy
  • Land policy and the role of the property rights in land use planning
  • Land as a scarce resource
  • Agency and the role of actors' strategies, including issues of empowerment, participation, local governance and conflicts 

Housing policy:

  • Housing policy and politics
  • Housing as a right vs. housing as a commodity
  • Housing cooperatives and other alternative models

Resources and sustainability:

  • Constructivist approach to natural resources
  • Processes of commodification and decommodification of resources
  • Landscape as a resource
  • Commons and other forms of collective action

Land conflicts and regional development in sub-Saharan Africa

  • Large-scale land acquisitions at the meeting point between different scales of regulation
  • Legal pluralism
  • Local resistance strategies, resistance from below
  • Appropriation of the Commons
  • Formalized arrangements of collective tenure (FACT)

Publications

Publication Year Type

Website Articles

27/05/2024

Understanding property

Property rights are formative for how actors can gain access to resources, use them or exploit them. An integrative analysis of the distribution of resources is not possible without a stringent understanding of property itself.
An article by Jean-David Gerber