Jason Spicer

Jason Spicer, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Economic Development/Planning at the University of Toronto’s St. George Campus, where he teaches in the Graduate Planning and Undergraduate Geography programs in the Department of Geography and Planning, and is the graduate concentration adviser for Economic Development Planning. He is also the founder and co-director of the Community Economies Lab. His work has been published in a number of leading social science journals and featured in media outlets such as The Washington Post, PBS Newshour, and Foreign Policy.

Before becoming a professor, Jason had a 15-year career in the global urban development industry, based in New York City, working with local, national, and trans-national government, private sector, and third-sector organizations in a variety of capacities.

His research and teaching focuses on the relationship between politics and the economy at multiple spatial scales, from the local to the trans-national, in the rich democracies of the Global North with a focus on the US and Canada in comparative perspective. He primarily studies: (a) the potential of alternative economic models, such as cooperatives and social and solidarity economy organizational forms, to create a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable economy; and (b) the role policy, planning, and political processes play in conditioning the viability of alternative economic arrangements in different contexts.

Topics and themes: urban, regional, and community economic development; cooperatives, alternative enterprises, and the social economy; economic democracy; housing and community development; institutions and organizations; social movements; economic geography; urban and regional electoral politics and plans; international and comparative political economy.