Dr Guldem Ozatagan

Guldem is an urban and economic geographer, with a particular interest in geographies of uneven development, urban/regional policy, politics and governance, and sustainable and inclusive geographies.

Her work advances place-based and temporal understandings of uneven development; demystifies governance and policy challenges in cities variably positioned as shrinking, peripheral and left-behind; uncovers place-based conflicts and contestations; and engages with local stakeholders, governments, and voluntary organisations for developing more sustainable, inclusive, and place-based policy responses.

She takes an interdisciplinary approach in investigating these issues and combines a range of qualitative and qualitative methods. Her research engages with a range of interdisciplinary audiences through publications in economic geography, urban/regional studies, planning, and politics journals. 

She has previously leaded and collaborated in research projects investigating processes of de-growth and shrinkage (COST Action CIRES & TUBITAK), the resilience and transformation of inner peripheral cities (JPI Urban Europe/ERA-NET, 3S RECIPE), the politics and governance of left behind places and place-based disaffection and discontent (IIE-SRF Fellowhip), and policy and governance structures that close spaces for democratic engagement (EuropeAid Turkey). 

Her committment to engaged research across these projects has led to international policy and advocacy impacts, including by informing urban policy and pioneering models of scholar-activist collaboration and research-led advocacy in Turkey. She has been invited to communicate her work in Turkish, where she is known for her work on urban-rural, intra- and inter-regional inequalities, and on the potentials for and challenges facing just and sustainable transitions in closed contexts. Her articles, guest interviews and invited talks has been published across a range of platforms led by policy circles, think-tanks, and voluntary organisations.  

Her current research at Exeter, as part of the ESRC funded Governing Sustainability Transitions project, seeks to develop new conceptual and empirical understandings of sustainability flashpoints and environmental governance and advance the use of participatory mechanisms for addressing place-based contestations.