Vivek Mishra, PhD
Dr. Vivek Mishra is an interdisciplinary scholar with interests in post-colonial cities, Critical Urban Theory, urban political economy, housing informality, governance, urban and queer social movements, and justice. Dr. Mishra has taught courses on urban studies and race and ethnicity at Northeastern University, Boston and Brown University, Providence.
His research draws on historical, ethnographic, case study, and spatial methods and contributes to existing scholarly discussions on the understanding of how cities are developed and governed outside formal urbanization processes. Specifically, his research challenges the conflation of housing informality with poverty, calling for a broader analysis of class, power, privilege, and culture within the context of urban informality.
Select Publications
Mishra, V. (2025). CLASS, PROPERTY RIGHTS AND CITIZENSHIP: Affluent Informal Settlements and the Cultural Production of Property in Delhi. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.
Shatkin, G., Mishra, V., & Khristine Alvarez, M. (2023). Debates Paper: COVID-19 and urban informality: Exploring the implications of the pandemic for the politics of planning and inequality. Urban Studies, 60(9), 1771-1791.
Weinstein, L., & Mishra, V. (2022). Historicising Housing Rights: Critical Events and Political Ruptures in Post-Partition Urban India. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 45(5), 869-886.
Mishra, V., & Bhandari, S., in conversation with Prof. Chia-Lin Chen (2021). Circulation of Planning Theories and Practices: A Case for a Two-Way Knowledge Transfer, in Mukhopadhyay, C., C. Belingardi, G. Papparaldo, and M. Hendawy, Special issue: Planning Practices and Theories from the Global South. Dortmund, Germany: Association of European Schools of Planning-Young Academic Network.
Mander, H., Bhattacharya, A., Mishra, V., Singla, A., & Siddiqi, U. J. (2019). Unequal Life Chances: Equity & Demographic Transition in India. New Delhi, Sage and Yoda Press.
Research Interests
Critical Urban Theory
Urban planning
Urban political economy
Housing informality
Global South
Race and ethnicity
Urban social movements and queer urbanism
Education
- PhD, Urban and Regional Development, Northeastern University, Boston
