缅北禁地

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Staff Profile

Dr William Otchere-Darko

Lectureship in Urban Planning

  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 7801
Background

I am a Lecturer and Researcher with an interdisciplinary interest in energy, environmental politics, and planning practice. My research asks planners energy questions. Specifically, if “planning is what planners do” (Vickers, 1968), my research explores the substantive and procedural planning approaches that are implemented in relation to the networked and multi-scalar landscapes, actors, infrastructures, processes, standards, requirements and normative politics about (de/carbonised, un/sustainable) energy. Do energy questions require urban/rural/regional planning as part of its network of attendant institutions? Does the colonial complicity and Global North worldview of planning render it intractable with energy future(s)? This brings broader questions about what is planning and who is the planner in our current times. In applying similar questions to other built-environment bureaucracies, what institutional politics, transformations, relations and limits emerge with regards to the crisis of energy, climate and exploitation?

Research

I am currently a Principal Investigator on a British-Academy-Funded research project () which utilises interdisciplinary methods to explore and address the multidimensional land and livelihood challenges linked to large-scale energy infrastructures in some selected communities in Ghana. This project focuses on three geographically diverse communities situated near distinct energy infrastructures (gas, hydroelectric, and solar).

Additional research interests include: District heating and Planning Practices; Low carbon and Degrowth Futures in planning.

Teaching

As a Lecturer in Urban Planning, I lead three Modules:

  • Globalisation and Social Justice Project (TCP8920) – PG
  • Spatial Strategies (TCP7021) – PG
  • Linked Research Project (TCP8025) – PG

I also contribute to other Modules:

  • Globalisation and Social Justice (TCP8921) – PG
  • Practice Issues Report and Presentation (TCP4002/4003) – PG 
  • Dissertation Mentoring (TCP8099) – PG
  • Dissertation Mentoring (TCP3099) – UG
Publications

  • Articles

    • Otchere-Darko W, Crilly M, Jenkinson T, Harper C, Ingall-Tombs E, Bryson-Harris E, Ritchie E, Siu R, Wightman S, Kearns A. . Sustainability Science 2025, Epub ahead of print.
    • Otchere-Darko W, Weszkalnys G. . Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 2025, 43(6), 1056-1076.
    • Otchere-Darko W. . Environment and Planning F 2024, 3(4), 247-267.
    • Otchere-Darko W. . Urban Studies 2023, 60(7), 1316-1325.
    • Otchere-Darko W, Ablo A. . International Development Planning Review 2022, 44(3), 289-315.
    • Otchere-Darko W. . Town Planning Review 2021, 92(2), 209-213.
    • de-Vidovich L, Otchere-Darko W. . Territorio 2020, 92, 86-96.
    • Otchere-Darko W, Salah-Ovadia J. . Geoforum 2020, 113, 69-80.

  • Book Chapters

    • Ablo A, Otchere-Darko W. . In: Acheampong T; Stephens T, ed. Petroleum Resource Management in Africa: Lessons from Ten Years of Oil and Gas Production in Ghana. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, pp.291-313.
    • Ablo A, Otchere-Darko W. . In: Onyango,G, ed. Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in Africa. London: Routledge, 2021, pp.634-644.
    • Otchere-Darko W. . In: Stoustrup S, ed. Cities: Changes, Places, Spaces. Vienna: Department of Geography and Regional Research, University of Vienna, 2017, pp.94-116.

  • Creative Writing

    • Weszkalnys G, Zeco M, Otchere-Darko W, Grant R. . 2024.