Institute of Geography

Group Portrait

Jessica Verheij

PhD student

E-Mail
jessica.verheij@unibe.ch
Office
110
Postal Address
Universität Bern
Geographisches Institut
Politische Stadtforschung und nachhaltige Raumentwicklung
Hallerstrasse 12
CH-3012 Bern

How to plan for the green and dense city? My research focuses on how densification and urban greening are combined in inner-city development and how densification shapes who gains access to urban green spaces and who does not. More specifically, I understand urban green spaces as commons resources that are affected by densification through changes in property rights. I apply a new institutionalist approach based on the Institutional Resource Regime (IRR) framework, combining a property lens with public policy analysis and paying attention to power dynamics in urban development. Based on this approach, I ask how processes of densification function as a driver for the (re)production of socio-environmental inequalities.

Short CV

Since 07/2020  PhD student, University of Bern
 2019-2020 Research fellow on urban regeneration and public participatory processes - Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon (Portugal) 
 2019 Visiting MSc student at Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon (Portugal)
2017-2019  MSc in Sustainable Urban Planning & Design - KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (Sweden)
 2013-2014 MSc in Human Geography - University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands)
 2009-2012 BA in International Relations - Institute of Social and Political Sciences, Technical University of Lisbon (Portugal)

Research interests

Land policy & land-use planning 

  • Governance of densification processes 
  • Planning law and instruments 
  • Land policy and property rights 
  • Institutional inequalities in planning 

Urban sustainability 

  • The politics of urban greening 
  • Political ecology
  • Environmental justice 
  • Urban commons and decommodification

Publications

Verheij, J., Ay, D., Gerber, J.-D. & Nahrath, S. (2023) Ensuring Public Access to Green Spaces in Urban Densification: The Role of Planning and Property Rights. Planning Theory & Practice. DOI: 10.1080/14649357.2023.2239215 

Falanga R, Verheij J, Bina O. (2021) Green(er) Cities and Their Citizens: Insights from the Participatory Budget of Lisbon. Sustainability. 13(15):8243. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158243

Verheij, J. & Corrêa Nunes, M. (2020) Justice and power relations in urban greening: can Lisbon’s urban greening strategies lead to more environmental justice?, Local Environment, 26:3, 329-346, DOI: 10.1080/13549839.2020.1801616