Benjamin Bradlow

Benjamin Bradlow is a PhD candidate in sociology and a NSF-IGERT fellow in development and inequality at Brown University. His dissertation research compares urban governance of public goods (housing, public transportation, and sanitation) in São Paulo and Johannesburg after transitions to democracy. This work has won a Fulbright Scholarship and a grant from the Brazilian Studies Association. He has been a visiting researcher hosted by the Center for Metropolitan Studies at the University of São Paulo and the Public Affairs Research Institute at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. His research interests are in political economy of globalization and development, comparative urban sociology, and state-society relations. He holds a Masters in City Planning from MIT and a BA in history from Swarthmore College.

His career has crossed research and practice and he worked in the management of the secretariat of Shack/Slum Dwellers International in Cape Town between 2009 and 2014. SDI is a network of urban social movements in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He worked previously as a journalist covering politics and economics in Johannesburg and Philadelphia (USA). His work has been published in Environment & Urbanization, International Development Planning Review, Sustainable Development Law & Policy, and in news and analysis publications including The Conversation and the Financial Times.