Savannah Willits

Minahil Naqvi

March 28th, 2022

Progressing Planning – our podcast with Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Savannah Willits

Minahil Naqvi

March 28th, 2022

Progressing Planning – our podcast with Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

In this episode, we chat with Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman, an American urban anthropologist. She studies heart centered cities, in which a care mentality comes first, and focuses on a more humanistic approach to the building of cities. 

Previously, Johnston-Zimmerman co-founded The Women Led Cities Initiative and was recognized by BBC as one of the top 100 inspirational women in 2019. Today, she is the founder and director of THINK.urban, an urban consultant firm that specializes in research and analysis of behavior in public space. 

Johnston-Zimmerman combines rigorous research methods, evidence-based design, and humanist intent to advocate for a care mentality within the city. By utilizing the tools of anthropology, she is at the forefront of cultivating better cities for everyone by observing and documenting how people behave in space and society during their everyday life. Through her research  Johnson-Zimmerman highlights the importance of rethinking the ways cities or “artificial ecosystems” can be designed to better care for our mental and physical needs. 

Johnston-Zimmerman is currently based in her hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States.  She firmly believes in her city’s potential to center people, places, and possibilities. 

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About the author

Savannah Willits

Savannah is a master’s student at LSE in the Regional and Urban Planning Studies program. She is particularly interested in the intersection of urban development, housing, and behavioral economics. She plans to write her dissertation on the impact of planning development rights in London. Previously, she has experience working in a variety of disciplines, from policy and economics to history and real estate. While completing her undergraduate degree at Boise State she researched historic preservation, income segregation, and the impact of de-industrialization in the western United States.

Minahil Naqvi

Minahil is a master’s student at LSE in the Regional and Urban Planning Studies program. She is interested in advocating for inclusivity through a gender aware and decolonised approach to planning – particularly in the global south. She seeks to challenge structures that create and perpetuate urban inequalities of class, gender and race. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics with a minor in Sociology and Anthropology from the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Posted In: Podcasts

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