Main Content
Yonn Dierwechter, Ph.D.
Professor
Education
2001 Geography and Environment, London School of Economics, Ph.D.
1993 Urban and Regional Planning, Cornell University, M.A.
1988 History, University of Iowa, B.A.
Selected Works | Curriculum Vitae
Contact
Pinkerton Building, 217
Campus Box 358437
(253) 692-4504
yonn@uw.edu
Yonn Dierwechter is Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Washington, Tacoma. His research focuses on the emerging geographies of comparative metropolitan planning practices; state/space relationships; and the links between urban growth management/smartness, sustainability policies, internationalism, and comparative city-regionalism. As an urban political geographer with a focus on spatial planning systems, he typically explores how various forms of power shape urban and regional spaces, drawing on work in critical urban geography, planning studies, historical institutionalism, and sustainability studies.
Yonn’s major books include: ‘The Urbanization of Green Internationalism’ (2019, Palgrave); ‘Smart transitions in city-regionalism: territory, politics, and the quest for competitiveness and sustainability’ (2018, Routledge, with Tassilo Herrschel); ‘Urban sustainability through smart growth: planning, intercurrence and the geographies of regional development across Greater Seattle’ (Springer, 2017); and ‘Urban growth management and its discontents: promises, practices, and geopolitics in US city-regions’ (Palgrave, 2008).
He has published extensively in journals such as Geoforum, Urban Geography, Urban Studies, The Journal of Urbanism, Environment and Planning A, The Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, Professional Geographer, Space and Polity, Territorio, Social Science Journal, Regions, and International Development Planning Review, among many other scholarly outlets.
Before his academic career, Yonn taught for a year at a teacher-training university in China, worked for several years as a community development planner in early post-apartheid South Africa, and served as a state legislative policy analyst in Indiana. Since joining the faculty in September 2001, he has consulted extensively with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris on projects in Germany, Italy, Australia, France, and South Africa. He has also served locally on multiple civic bodies for the City of Tacoma, Metro Parks, and University Place.
In the classroom, Yonn normally teaches a series of courses in both the Urban Studies and Sustainable Urban Development majors, including Cities in World Development, Land Use Planning, Understanding Metropolitan Regions, and Green Internationalism, and is also responsible for teaching Planning Theory and Practice in the graduate program in Community Planning. He is particularly interested in asking his students to consider cities and urban issues from a comparative global perspective, drawing on key debates and insights from international history, world regional geography, and spatial planning systems to contextualize and make sense of US experiences in a broader analytical framework.
Yonn holds a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University and a PhD in Geography from the London School of Economics. He is the 2014 winner of UWT’s Distinguished Research Award and was also awarded a Canada Fulbright Research Chair at the University of Calgary in 2019, where he worked on the social and environmental implications of “smart cities” with members of the Smart Cities Research Group. In addition to his work on smart cities in Canada, his current research is focused on two major book projects. The first is a co-edited book based on a Regional Studies Association research network entitled “Smart city-regional governance for sustainability.” The second major project is a monograph on the recent policy history and future prospects of urban climate action in Seattle for a new book series published by Anthem Press.
Publications
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2022 |
Dierwechter, Yonn (2022). Struggling Zones, Stagnant Cities, Inner Regions: Just Renewal through Smartness in St John, New Brunswick? In Mackinnon, D. et al. (eds). Digital (In)Justice in the Smart City. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. |
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2022 |
Miller Byron and Yonn Dierwechter (Guest Editors) (2021-22). Special Issue: “Relational Approaches to Urban Sustainability Governance.” Frontiers in Sustainable Cities: Governance and Cities. |
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2021 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2021. Climate change and the future of Seattle. London, Anthem. https://anthempress.com/climate-change-and-the-future-of-seattle-hb |
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2021 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2021. Intra-regional relationality and green city-regionalism: placing the role of ’secondary cities’. In M. Pendras and C. Williams (eds). Secondary Cities. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. |
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2021 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2021. Situating the new sharing economy: ‘regional geographies’ of Greater Seattle’s co-working facilities. In S. Di Vita et al. (eds). Doing and Undoing Workplaces in the Knowledge Economy. Geographies, Planning, and Policies. Cham: Springer. |
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2021 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2021. “Smart City-Regional Governance for Sustainability.” Regions E-Zine: https://regions.regionalstudies.org/ |
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2020 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2020. “New Urbanism as urban political development: racial geographies of ‘intercurrence’ across Greater Seattle.” Urban Planning. 5(4): 417–428. DOI: 10.17645/up.v5i4.3340. https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/3340 |
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2020 |
Dierwechter, Yonn and Mark Pendras. 2020. “Keeping blue collars in green cities: from TOD to TOM.” Frontiers in Sustainability: Governance and Cities. 1-6 Doi: 10.3389/frsc.2020.00007. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2020.00007/full |
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2020 |
Ricker, Britta, Cinnamon, Jon, and Yonn Dierwechter. 2020. “When Open Data and Data Activism Meet: an analysis of Civic Participation in Cape Town, South Africa.” The Canadian Geographer / le Géographe Canadien 64(3): 359–373. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cag.12608 |
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2020 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2020. “The Urbanization of Green Geopolitics: State Space and Global Unsustainability.” In S. Moisio, N Koch, A. Jonas, C. Lizotte and J. Luukkonen [eds]. Handbook on Changing Geographies of the State. Edward Elgar. Pp: 399–412 |
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2020 |
Dierwechter, Yonn 2020. “Urban sustainability through suburban growth? Smart regional planning in the Pacific Northwest.” In S. Garren & R. Brinkmann [ed.], Case Studies in Sustainable Suburbs. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. |
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2020 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2020. “Review essay. Moisio, S (2018). Geopolitics of the Knowledge-based Economy.” Geografiska Annaler B. 101 (2):164-170. doi: 10.1080/04353684.2018.1558865. |
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2019 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2019. The urbanization of green internationalism. New York, Palgrave. https://tinyurl.com/y5o2cjx6 |
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2019 |
Dierwechter, Y. (2019). “Cities in the urban age: a dissent.” Urban Geograph, 40(7), 1068-1070. |
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2018 |
Herrschel, Tassilo and Yonn Dierwechter. 2018. Smart transitions in city-regionalism: territory, politics and the quest for competitiveness and sustainability. London, Routledge. https://tinyurl.com/y659ejmp |
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2018 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2018. “The smart state as utopian space for urban politics.” In Ward, K, Jonas, A. Miller, B., Wilson, D. [eds]. Handbook on Spaces of Urban Politics. Routledge: London. |
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2017 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2017. Urban sustainability through smart growth: intercurrence, planning, and geographies of regional development across Greater Seattle. Cham, Springer. https://tinyurl.com/y2d57do4 |
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2017 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2017. “What’s Smart Growth got to do with Smart Cities? Searching for the ‘Smart City Region’ in Greater Seattle.” Territorio: Journal of Urbanism 83: 48-55. |
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2017 |
Dierwechter, Yonn and Brian Coffey. 2017. “The travels, triumphs, and travails of New Urbanism: discursive geographies of affirmation and dissent in US newspapers, 1990-2012.” Journal of Urbanism and Placemaking. 10[4], 385-400. |
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2017 |
Lintz, Gerd and Yonn Dierwechter. 2017. “Report on the first conference of the RSA Research Network on smart city-regional governance for sustainability.” Regions 305 [Sp]: 29-30. |
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2016 |
Herrschel, Tassilo and Yonn Dierwechter. 2016. “Smart city-regional governance: a dual transition.” Regions 300[4], 20-22 |
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2016 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2016. Review of “Governing Urban Regions through Collaboration: a View from North America” for Urban Geography. |
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2015 |
Modarres, Ali and Yonn Dierwechter. 2015. “Infrastructure and the Shaping of American Urban Geography.” Cities. 47, 81-94. |
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2014 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2014. “The spaces that smart growth makes: sustainability, segregation, and residential change across Greater Seattle.” Urban Geography. 35[5], 691-714. |
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2013 |
OECD. 2013. Rural-urban partnership: an integrated approach to economic development. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. https://tinyurl.com/yxrkeolq |
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2013 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2013. “Smart city-regionalism across Seattle: progressing transit nodes in labor space?” Geoforum 49: 139-149. |
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2013 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2013. “Smart growth and state territoriality.” Urban Studies 50[11]: 2275-2292 |
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2013 |
Dierwechter, Yonn and Anne Taufen Wessells. 2013. “The uneven localization of climate action across Greater Seattle.” Urban Studies 50 [7]: 1368-1385 |
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2012 |
Pendras, Mark and Yonn Dierwechter. 2012. “The problematic potential of universities to advance critical urban politics.” Journal of Geography in Higher Education. 36[2]: 1-15. |
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2012 |
Dierwechter, Yonn and Andy Thornley. 2012. “Urban planning and regulation: the challenge of the market.” Randall Crane and Rachel Weber, Eds. The Oxford Handbook in Urban Planning. Oxford; Oxford University Press. pp 46-68. |
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2012 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2012. “[R]urban regionalism in Geelong, Australia.” Research report prepared for the OECD Directorate of Public Governance and Territorial Development. OECD. Paris, France. August. |
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2012 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2012. “Intercommunitalite in Rennes, France.” Research report prepared for the OECD Directorate of Public Governance and Territorial Development. OECD. Paris, France. June. |
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2012 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2012. “Rural-urban linkages in Forli-Cesana, Italy.” Research report prepared for the OECD Directorate of Public Governance and Territorial Development. OECD. Paris, France. May. |
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2012 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2012. “Metropolitan rural-urban review: Nuremberg, Germany.” Research report prepared for the OECD Directorate of Public Governance and Territorial Development. OECD. Paris, France. February. |
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2010 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2010. “Metropolitan geographies of US climate action: cities, suburbs, and the ‘local divide’ in global responsibilities.” Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 12[1]: 59-82 |
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2010 |
Dierwechter, Yonn and Brian Coffey. 2010. “Assessing the effects of neighborhood councils on urban policy and governance: the case of Tacoma, Washington.” Social Science Journal 47[3]: 1-20. |
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2008 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2008. Urban growth management and its discontents: promises, practices and geopolitics in US city-regions. New York, Palgrave. https://tinyurl.com/y2j4d4tt |
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2008 |
OECD. 2008. Territorial Review: Cape Town, South Africa. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. http://tiny.cc/eoebtz |
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2007 |
Carlson, Tom and Yonn Dierwechter. 2007. “Effects of urban growth boundaries on residential development in Pierce County, Washington.” Professional Geographer 56[2]: 209-220. |
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2007 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2007. “Territorial review of the Cape Town City Region: socio-economic trends and issues in metropolitan governance.” Research report prepared for the OECD Directorate of Public Governance and Territorial Development, Paris: OECD. [2008]. Incorporated in OECD Territorial Reviews: Cape Town, South Africa. 2008. Paris: OECD. |
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2006 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2006. “The geographical limitations of neoliberalism: urban planning and the occluded territoriality of informal survival in African Cape Town.” Space and Polity 10[3]: 243-262. |
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2006 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2006. “Urban planning.” Nick Manning, Gill Pascall, James Midgely and Huck-ju Kwo (eds). International Encyclopedia of Social Policy. London, Routledge. |
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2005 |
Coffey, Brian and Yonn Dierwechter. 2005. “The university as a vehicle for inner-city renewal: the example of the University of Washington, Tacoma.” In Wim Wieval and David Perry, Eds. University as Urban Developer: The University, the City and Real Estate Development Armonk, N.Y, M.E. Sharpe. pp. 80-97. |
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2004 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2004. “Dreams, bricks and bodies: mapping ‘neglected spatialities’ in African Cape Town.” Environment and Planning A 36: 959-981. |
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2002 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2002. “Six cities of the informal sector — and beyond.” International Development Planning Review 24[1]: 21-40. |
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2002 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2002. “Enhancing ‘big ideas’ through regional planning: cross-jurisdictional value added in Washington State.” Washington APA. |
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2002 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2002. Review of “Surviving on the Move” and “Zimbabwe’s Exodus” for International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 36[2] |
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2002 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2002. Review of ‘The Frightened Land: land, landscape and politics in South Africa in the twentieth century.’ International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 32[1]: 237-8. |
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2002 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2002. “Review essay: Planning and the geographies of [un]sustainability.” Environment and Planning C: Government and Polic, 21: 779-783 |
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2002 |
Dierwechter, Yonn and Brian Coffey. 2002. “Connections matter — will Tacoma make the right ones?” Arcade 20[6]: 34-5 |
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2002 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2002. “Review of ‘Global city-regions: trends, theory, policy.’” Regional Studies 36[1]: 93-4 |
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2001 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2001. “Lefebvre’s modernities: informality, planning, and space in Cape Town.” In Rydin, Y and Thornley, A, [eds]. Planning in a Global Era. London, Ashgate. |
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2000 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2000. “Accessing food: Informal practice, local actor-networks and quality of life in Cape Town, South Africa.” In Foo, T.S. and L.L. Yuan. Planning for a Better Quality of Life in Cities. National University of Singapore, Singapore. pp. 145-162. |
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2000 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 2000. “Foodstuffs, foodscapes and urban development: the actor-networks of informal survival in Cape Town.” Foundation for Contemporary Research. Cape Town, South Africa. |
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1999 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 1999. “Clinton’s Third Way: Left, Right and All-American.” In Yalçintan, M. [ Ed]. Ucuncu Yol Arayislari ve Turkiye [The Third Way Debate in Turkey]. Buluk Press, Istanbul. |
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1999 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 1999. “Review of ‘Urban management and economic integration in South Africa.’” Environment and Planning A 32[3]: 565 |
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1999 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 1999. Foodstuffs, Foodscapes and Urban Development. Commissioned by Foundation for Contemporary Research, Cape Town. |
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1996 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 1996. The Pahuka Program: Small-Scale Industry Development in Rundu, Namibia: Evaluation and Recommendations. Commissioned by CARE-AUSTRIA [Vienna, Austria]. |
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1996 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 1996 Under-coverage and Resource Failure: A Systemic Solid Waste Analysis for the Strategic Management Plan. Commissioned by Cape Metropolitan Council [Cape Town, South Africa]. |
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1996 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 1996. Community-based Waste Management Schemes in Johannesburg: Evaluation and Recommendations. Commissioned by: the Lingelethu West Town Council [Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa]. |
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1996 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 1996. Towards new service spaces: technical analysis. Commissioned by: Cape Metropolitan Council [Cape Town, South Africa]. |
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1995 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 1995. Township urban service issues: the case of solid waste management. Commissioned by: The Environmental Planning Sub-Committee of the Cape Town 2004 Olympic Bid Committee. Cape Town, South Africa. |
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1995 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 1995. Project .Framework: SACLA Health Care [Cape Town, South Africa]. Commissioned by SACLA health, local non-governmental organization. |
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1995 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 1995. Cleaning up Khayelitsha: Alternative Strategies for Community Empowerment. Commissioned by Khayelitsha Development Forum [Cape Town, South Africa]. |
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1995 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 1995. An Analysis of the Informal Textile Industry in Black Metropolitan Cape Town: Towards Local Business Service Centre Policy. Commissioned by WESGRO [Cape Town, South Africa] |
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1995 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 1995 A Public Park and Recreation Facility: Motivation and Project Plan. Commissioned by: Mayor’s Office, Lingelethu West Town Council [Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa]. |
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1994 |
Dierwechter, Yonn. 1994. Micro-enterprise development in Franschhoek: project framework. Local client: Franschhoek Development Forum [Franschhoek, South Africa]. Commissioned by the Belgian Government. |
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1992 |
Eric Clay, Leticia LeBlanc, Yonn Dierwechter. 1992. “On the Education of Planners and the Future of Planning Education.” Colloquia. Spring. |
