Professor Chris Webster

National Teaching Fellow 2011 Chris Webster is head of the School of City and Regional Planning, one of Europe's largest planning schools. He has degrees in urban planning, computer science, economics and economic geography and is a leading urban theorist and spatial economic modeller, writing and speaking about how cities develop at the boundary of market and government order. He is a popular keynote speaker at conferences and universities all over the world. Passionate about teaching, Chris enjoys leading a school which is known both for the quality of its research (topping RAE lists since the 1980s) and for its innovations in undergraduate, masters and postgraduate research teaching. Many of his staff have won teaching awards. Chris has published over 150 scholarly papers on the idea of spontaneous urban order and has had over £10.5 million in grants for research and teaching and learning projects. Recent funded research includes two UK Department for International Development/ESRC funded projects on urban property rights and poverty in Chinese cities; and a National Institute for Health Research project looking at the relationship between alcohol outlet density, alcohol policy in city centres and alcohol-related morbidity. As well as being an active researcher-teacher, Chris has given leadership to the teaching and learning agenda of his subject area on a national and international stage. He has advised UNESCAP, UNESCO and UNDP on educational matters in human settlement planning and was the founding director of the HEA (formerly LTSN) subject centre for the built environment (CEBE) (2000-2011). He has organised and addressed numerous workshops and conferences on educational matters. Chris edits both an international ISI listed research journal, Environment and Planning B; and a Scopus-listed practitioner-oriented teaching and learning journal, CEBE Transactions, which he founded. Recent books include Webster and Lai (2003) Property Rights, Planning and Markets, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar; Glasze, Webster and Frantz, (2006) Private Cities, London, Routledge; Wu, Webster, He and Liu, (2010) Urban Poverty in China, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar; and Wu and Webster (Editors) Marginalisation in Urban China. London: Palgrave McMillan.