Kuni Kamizaki

My research adopts a multi-scalar approach to urban transformation with an emphasis on issues of poverty and inequality. My research combines political-economic accounts with neighbourhood ethnographic engagement to explore community-led initiatives for social and racial justice. I am currently engaged in two strands of research in Tokyo and Toronto. My first strand of research focuses on the decline of world city Tokyo in the time of “post-growth” Japan. Specifically, it examines planning responses to unprecedented population decline and aging, with a focus on understanding spatial effects of central bank’s monetary easing, the crisis of care and the remaking of urban-rural relations. A second strand focuses on the potential of community land trusts (CLTs) to challenge displacement and pursue housing justice. This work emerges from my public scholarship for social justice in collaboration with grassroots community organizations such as the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust. Currently, I am conducting community action research in partnership with Chinatown’s CLT to explore anti-racist and anti-colonial approaches to CLT development and land stewardship.