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Dr Matthew Wargent

Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Teams and roles for Matthew Wargent

Overview

I am a social scientist who researches the planning, development, and governance of cities. My research focuses on the contested politics of community development and how participation helps shape urban space, the changing nature of expertise and the commodification of urban knowledge, and how digital technology increasingly structures decision-making and governance.

My latest research project, Just Neighbourhoods?, examines questions of social and environmental justice in under-represented urban neighbourhoods across the UK.

I joined Cardiff in October 2021. Prior to this, I held posts at the University of Reading, University of Sheffield and UCL. I completed my PhD at the University of Sheffield in 2017 funded by the ESRC. I am a Fellow of Advance HE (FHEA) and Associate Member of the RTPI (AssocRTPI). I serve as Book Review Editor for Town Planning Review and welcome enquiries about forthcoming titles for review.

Publication

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2015

Articles

Book sections

Books

Monographs

Research

Recent research projects

  • 2025: Delivering public health and well-being priorities through development plans in Wales. Public Health Wales, £11,402
  • 2023-2025: Just neighbourhoods? Under-representation in UK community-led planning. Nuffield Foundation, £269,614
  • 2022-2023: Underrepresented Neighbourhood Plan areas within Middlesbrough. Middlesbrough Council, £15,100
  • 2022-2023: What is the street for? Interrogating ‘ways of seeing’ and the epistemic justice of reconfiguring public space. British Academy and Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, £4,991
  • 2020-2021: Impact of Neighbourhood Planning in England. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, £63,039

Teaching

I am Course Director for the BSc Urban Planning and Development and teach a number of modules across the School.

Current modules

  • CP0145 Property, Urban Development and Regeneration
  • CP0259 Community Engagement, Mediation and Negotiation Skills
  • CP0312 Planning Theory and Practice
  • CPT930 Governing Urban and Regional Dynamics
  • CPT931 Digital Planning and Development

Previous modules

  • CP0384 Digital Planning
  • CPT857 Planning and Real Estate
  • CPT870 Space and Place: International Planning Practice

Contact Details

Email WargentM@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone +44 29208 75281
Campuses Glamorgan Building, Room 1.52, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WA

External profiles