Todd Swanstrom

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Todd Swanstrom

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About

As Des Lee Professor of community collaboration and public policy administration at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL), Todd Swanstrom specializes in urban politics and public policy. He has an M.A. from Washington University (1971) and a Ph.D. from Princeton (1981). Prior to joining UMSL, Todd taught at Saint Louis University and the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the University at Albany (SUNY). He also worked as a neighborhood planner in Cleveland and as the Director of Strategic Planning for the City of Albany, NY. Todd’s book, The Crisis of Growth Politics: Cleveland, Kucinich, and the Challenge of Urban Populism (Temple University Press, 1985) won the Best Book Award from the Urban Section and Policy of APSA. His co-authored Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-first Century (U. Press of Kansas, 3rd edition, 2014) won the Michael Harrington Award from the New Politics Section of APSA. In 2011 he published a co-edited volume, Justice and the American Metropolis (University of Minnesota Press), which develops the idea of ”thick injustice.” He is presently completing a book on neighborhood change, including issues of gentrification and inner-ring suburban development. Todd is using the resources of his endowed professorship to support the St. Louis Anchor Action Network, a coalition of mostly institutions of higher education and medical services in St. Louis, committed to increasing hiring and business contracts in a disinvested geography in North St. Louis City and County.

Research Interests

  • Community Development
  • Foreclosures
  • Regional Government and Policy
  • Urban Politics and Policy
  • Transportation
  • Neighborhood Change
  • Vacant and Abandoned Properties
  • Municipal Reform
  • Interviews
  • Community-based Participatory Research
  • Neighborhood Asset Mapping
  • Collective Action
  • Public Data Set: Census Data (American Community Survey)

Disciplines

  • Political Science
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