Luisa Sotomayor
Biographic Data
| ID | 1691652 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Luisa Sotomayor |
| GIVEN NAMES | Luisa |
| FAMILY NAME | Sotomayor |
| SIGNATURE | SOTOMAYOR L |
| AFFILIATIONS | York University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2529-0377 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 43 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Re-territorializing democracy: Social service regionalism and ‘recalibrated’ governance in Ontario’s Peel Region
In 2023-2024, the Ontario government proposed dissolving Peel Region, a two-tier governance structure serving one of Canada’s most diverse and rapidly urbanizing suburban areas. While framed as technocratic restructuring, the initiative was underpinned by political calculation and populist appeals to local autonomy, revealing deeper tensions in how territory, governance and social service delivery are imagined and politicized. Approaching territo…
Non‐Status Citizenship and the Paradoxes of Immigration Regimes in a Sanctuary City
Non‐status people face a socio‐legal precariousness that contradicts the promises of an inclusive city. Marking Toronto's tenth anniversary of its “sanctuary city” policy, our research assesses the progress and potential of social planning and municipalist agendas to support irregularised residents. Drawing from interviews with service providers, city officials, and non‐status citizens in Toronto, we propose a decolonial politics of urban citizen…
Housing beyond land rent: A critique of market housing solutionism
Toronto is in a housing crisis. Many residents lack access to adequate and affordable housing. In response, neoliberals and reformers have radicalized their advocacy for more market housing as the only possible alternative. Drawing attention to the role housing plays in the reproduction of labour power and the crisis-ridden dynamic of capital accumulation, we highlight the inability of market housing to meet a range of social needs. We tackle cru…
Who Drinks Bubble Tea? Coethnic Studentification in Toronto’s Chinatown
This article examines studentification in Toronto’s Chinatown, a centrally located neighborhood experiencing increases in student populations due to nearby university expansion. This expansion has been met with land-use planning policies of intensification and containment, and market-driven development propelling substantial density increases. We seek to answer, first, what types of development and residential trends result from rising student ho…
University Student Housing as Business Proposition and Entrepreneurial Activity: The Canadian Case
Canadian universities are increasingly relying on private-sector participation in the provision of student housing through new means and strategies, such as financialization and public–private partnerships (P3s). Such participation is furthering the transformation of students as consumers and universities as neoliberal subjects embracing business propositions and entrepreneurial initiatives. We discuss the precedents, current motivations for univ…
Barred and Banished: Encampment Evictions, Public Space, and Permanent Displaceability in Toronto
Despite Toronto's motto of diversity and inclusion, the municipality has recently mobilised exclusionary spatio‐legal tools against unhoused populations using claims to law and order. This article examines one such case of legal action, its precedents, and its constitutive effects on urban citizenship and governance. In 2021, amidst a homelessness crisis aggravated by COVID‐19, Toronto police executed violent raids against encampment residents in…
Peripheral best practices and the politics of visibility: Urban planning and social urbanism in Mexico City
Theorizing Local Migration Law and Governance
In many regions around the world, the governance of migration increasingly involves local authorities and actors. This edited volume introduces theoretical contributions that, departing from the 'local turn' in migration studies, highlight the distinct role that legal processes, debates, and instruments play in driving this development. Drawing on historical and contemporary case studies, it demonstrates how paying closer analytical attention to …
Mobilizing legal expertise in and against cities: Urban planning amidst increased legal action in Bogotá
In the past decade, there has been a rise in legal action around urban policy and planning in Colombia. Legal expertise has been mobilized by a plethora of actors, including social movements, local politicians, neighborhood groups and individual citizens. This has resulted in legal experts and judges often dictating how social housing, transport corridors, public space, or waste management schemes ought to be implemented by municipal administrati…
When students are house-poor: Urban universities, student marginality, and the hidden curriculum of student housing
Democratic Public or Populist Rabble: Repositioning the City amidst Social Fracture
The current degree of social fracture that has attended the growing prevalence of populist movements calls into question the viability of democratic practices grounded in collective deliberation. Urban practitioners committed to democratic inclusion must confront the practical question of how to deal with a divided public. Any such effort must address longstanding and mutually reinforcing trends that have both aggravated social fragmentation and …
Towards plush new digs in Toronto’s in-between city: The changing governance of student housing in Canada
This paper examines the emergence of Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) in Canada and the role of neoliberal policies in reshaping the governance and territoriality of higher education. In doing so, it reflects on the implications of these socio-spatial shifts for current notions of studenthood. Using a case study from a university located in Toronto’s low-income inner suburbs, we question, first, the extent to which policy changes have e…
The Dilemmas of Equity Planning in the Global South: A Comparative View from Bangkok and Medellín
This paper examines equity planning in the face of growing adversity in cities of the Global South. The literature broadly addresses this question from the perspective of empowered social movements and/or insurgent citizenship practice. The actual experience of how equity practitioners interface with grass-roots efforts, however, remains understudied. Using case study data from urban upgrading programs in Medellín and Bangkok, we show that equity…
Dealing with Dangerous Spaces: The Construction of Urban Policy in Medellín
In Latin America, cities with security challenges are increasingly invoking urban planning policy to rebuild governance in neighborhoods perceived as unruly. While the state's "arrival" in marginalized areas is long overdue, it is also embedded in complex histories of violence and socio-spatial marginalization. Medellín's Comuna 13 has historically been materially and discursively constructed as a space of relegation. Interview and focus group da…
Equitable planning through territories of exception: The contours of Medellin’s urban development projects
In the last two decades, large-scale urban development projects (UDPs) have become ubiquitous. As strategic planning tools, UDPs are typically employed to trigger market-driven socio-spatial transformations in derelict areas of a city. This article explores whether the strategic features of UPDs might also serve the goals of a redistributive planning agenda in Latin America’s socio-spatially divided cities. I examine a UDP approach employed in Me…
Dealing with Dangerous Spaces: The Construction of Urban Policy in Medellín
In Latin America, cities with security challenges are increasingly invoking urban planning policy to rebuild governance in neighborhoods perceived as unruly. While the state's "arrival" in marginalized areas is long overdue, it is also embedded in complex histories of violence and socio-spatial marginalization. Medellín's Comuna 13 has historically been materially and discursively constructed as a space of relegation. Interview and focus group da…
When students are house-poor: Urban universities, student marginality, and the hidden curriculum of student housing
Towards plush new digs in Toronto’s in-between city: The changing governance of student housing in Canada
This paper examines the emergence of Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) in Canada and the role of neoliberal policies in reshaping the governance and territoriality of higher education. In doing so, it reflects on the implications of these socio-spatial shifts for current notions of studenthood. Using a case study from a university located in Toronto’s low-income inner suburbs, we question, first, the extent to which policy changes have e…
Mobilizing legal expertise in and against cities: Urban planning amidst increased legal action in Bogotá
In the past decade, there has been a rise in legal action around urban policy and planning in Colombia. Legal expertise has been mobilized by a plethora of actors, including social movements, local politicians, neighborhood groups and individual citizens. This has resulted in legal experts and judges often dictating how social housing, transport corridors, public space, or waste management schemes ought to be implemented by municipal administrati…
Democratic Public or Populist Rabble: Repositioning the City amidst Social Fracture
The current degree of social fracture that has attended the growing prevalence of populist movements calls into question the viability of democratic practices grounded in collective deliberation. Urban practitioners committed to democratic inclusion must confront the practical question of how to deal with a divided public. Any such effort must address longstanding and mutually reinforcing trends that have both aggravated social fragmentation and …
The Dilemmas of Equity Planning in the Global South: A Comparative View from Bangkok and Medellín
This paper examines equity planning in the face of growing adversity in cities of the Global South. The literature broadly addresses this question from the perspective of empowered social movements and/or insurgent citizenship practice. The actual experience of how equity practitioners interface with grass-roots efforts, however, remains understudied. Using case study data from urban upgrading programs in Medellín and Bangkok, we show that equity…
Equitable planning through territories of exception: The contours of Medellin’s urban development projects
In the last two decades, large-scale urban development projects (UDPs) have become ubiquitous. As strategic planning tools, UDPs are typically employed to trigger market-driven socio-spatial transformations in derelict areas of a city. This article explores whether the strategic features of UPDs might also serve the goals of a redistributive planning agenda in Latin America’s socio-spatially divided cities. I examine a UDP approach employed in Me…
Peripheral best practices and the politics of visibility: Urban planning and social urbanism in Mexico City
Barred and Banished: Encampment Evictions, Public Space, and Permanent Displaceability in Toronto
Despite Toronto's motto of diversity and inclusion, the municipality has recently mobilised exclusionary spatio‐legal tools against unhoused populations using claims to law and order. This article examines one such case of legal action, its precedents, and its constitutive effects on urban citizenship and governance. In 2021, amidst a homelessness crisis aggravated by COVID‐19, Toronto police executed violent raids against encampment residents in…
Equitable planning through territories of exception: The contours of Medellin’s urban development projects
In the last two decades, large-scale urban development projects (UDPs) have become ubiquitous. As strategic planning tools, UDPs are typically employed to trigger market-driven socio-spatial transformations in derelict areas of a city. This article explores whether the strategic features of UPDs might also serve the goals of a redistributive planning agenda in Latin America’s socio-spatially divided cities. I examine a UDP approach employed in Me…
The Dilemmas of Equity Planning in the Global South: A Comparative View from Bangkok and Medellín
This paper examines equity planning in the face of growing adversity in cities of the Global South. The literature broadly addresses this question from the perspective of empowered social movements and/or insurgent citizenship practice. The actual experience of how equity practitioners interface with grass-roots efforts, however, remains understudied. Using case study data from urban upgrading programs in Medellín and Bangkok, we show that equity…
Dealing with Dangerous Spaces: The Construction of Urban Policy in Medellín
In Latin America, cities with security challenges are increasingly invoking urban planning policy to rebuild governance in neighborhoods perceived as unruly. While the state's "arrival" in marginalized areas is long overdue, it is also embedded in complex histories of violence and socio-spatial marginalization. Medellín's Comuna 13 has historically been materially and discursively constructed as a space of relegation. Interview and focus group da…
Towards plush new digs in Toronto’s in-between city: The changing governance of student housing in Canada
This paper examines the emergence of Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) in Canada and the role of neoliberal policies in reshaping the governance and territoriality of higher education. In doing so, it reflects on the implications of these socio-spatial shifts for current notions of studenthood. Using a case study from a university located in Toronto’s low-income inner suburbs, we question, first, the extent to which policy changes have e…
Theorizing Local Migration Law and Governance
In many regions around the world, the governance of migration increasingly involves local authorities and actors. This edited volume introduces theoretical contributions that, departing from the 'local turn' in migration studies, highlight the distinct role that legal processes, debates, and instruments play in driving this development. Drawing on historical and contemporary case studies, it demonstrates how paying closer analytical attention to …
Mobilizing legal expertise in and against cities: Urban planning amidst increased legal action in Bogotá
In the past decade, there has been a rise in legal action around urban policy and planning in Colombia. Legal expertise has been mobilized by a plethora of actors, including social movements, local politicians, neighborhood groups and individual citizens. This has resulted in legal experts and judges often dictating how social housing, transport corridors, public space, or waste management schemes ought to be implemented by municipal administrati…
When students are house-poor: Urban universities, student marginality, and the hidden curriculum of student housing
Democratic Public or Populist Rabble: Repositioning the City amidst Social Fracture
The current degree of social fracture that has attended the growing prevalence of populist movements calls into question the viability of democratic practices grounded in collective deliberation. Urban practitioners committed to democratic inclusion must confront the practical question of how to deal with a divided public. Any such effort must address longstanding and mutually reinforcing trends that have both aggravated social fragmentation and …
Housing beyond land rent: A critique of market housing solutionism
Toronto is in a housing crisis. Many residents lack access to adequate and affordable housing. In response, neoliberals and reformers have radicalized their advocacy for more market housing as the only possible alternative. Drawing attention to the role housing plays in the reproduction of labour power and the crisis-ridden dynamic of capital accumulation, we highlight the inability of market housing to meet a range of social needs. We tackle cru…
Who Drinks Bubble Tea? Coethnic Studentification in Toronto’s Chinatown
This article examines studentification in Toronto’s Chinatown, a centrally located neighborhood experiencing increases in student populations due to nearby university expansion. This expansion has been met with land-use planning policies of intensification and containment, and market-driven development propelling substantial density increases. We seek to answer, first, what types of development and residential trends result from rising student ho…
University Student Housing as Business Proposition and Entrepreneurial Activity: The Canadian Case
Canadian universities are increasingly relying on private-sector participation in the provision of student housing through new means and strategies, such as financialization and public–private partnerships (P3s). Such participation is furthering the transformation of students as consumers and universities as neoliberal subjects embracing business propositions and entrepreneurial initiatives. We discuss the precedents, current motivations for univ…
Barred and Banished: Encampment Evictions, Public Space, and Permanent Displaceability in Toronto
Despite Toronto's motto of diversity and inclusion, the municipality has recently mobilised exclusionary spatio‐legal tools against unhoused populations using claims to law and order. This article examines one such case of legal action, its precedents, and its constitutive effects on urban citizenship and governance. In 2021, amidst a homelessness crisis aggravated by COVID‐19, Toronto police executed violent raids against encampment residents in…
Peripheral best practices and the politics of visibility: Urban planning and social urbanism in Mexico City
Re-territorializing democracy: Social service regionalism and ‘recalibrated’ governance in Ontario’s Peel Region
In 2023-2024, the Ontario government proposed dissolving Peel Region, a two-tier governance structure serving one of Canada’s most diverse and rapidly urbanizing suburban areas. While framed as technocratic restructuring, the initiative was underpinned by political calculation and populist appeals to local autonomy, revealing deeper tensions in how territory, governance and social service delivery are imagined and politicized. Approaching territo…
Non‐Status Citizenship and the Paradoxes of Immigration Regimes in a Sanctuary City
Non‐status people face a socio‐legal precariousness that contradicts the promises of an inclusive city. Marking Toronto's tenth anniversary of its “sanctuary city” policy, our research assesses the progress and potential of social planning and municipalist agendas to support irregularised residents. Drawing from interviews with service providers, city officials, and non‐status citizens in Toronto, we propose a decolonial politics of urban citizen…
Political science (14 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Economics (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Politics (8 works) · Economic growth (7 works) · Geography (6 works) · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism (6 works) · Urban Planning and Governance (6 works) · Law (5 works)