Sergio Montero

Associate Professor (he/him)
HL 542 (Highland Hall at UTSC)

Campus

Cross-Appointments

Inaugural Director, Institute for Inclusive Economies and Sustainable Livelihoods (2023-present)

Fields of Study

Areas of Interest

  • Urban & regional planning and governance
  • Inclusive economies
  • Local economic development
  • Policy mobilities
  • Sustainable livelihoods
  • Global comparative methods 

Biography

Sergio Montero is Associate Professor of Geography & Planning and Inaugural Director of the Institute for Inclusive Economies and Sustainable Livelihoods (IIESL) at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. Prof. Montero is interested in place-based and inclusive approaches to reimagine local economic development and urban & regional planning. His research is often comparative and emphasizes thinking from the Global South and from the peripheries of economic development. His recent research has been focused on the politics and governance of urban and regional planning; on the South-South and South-North circulation, learning and adoption of international policy models and “best practices,” particularly around sustainable transport; and on local and regional economic development strategies, especially in Latin America. He has published on these topics in several academic journals such as Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Urban Studies, Economic Development Quarterly, Latin American Studies, the Journal of Rural Studies or the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, among others. He has edited two books on local economic development in Latin America (in English and Spanish) and a recent collection on the global mobilities and diffusion of policy knowledge (in English and Portuguese). Sergio is associate editor of the journal Regional Studies and international corresponding editor of Urban Studies. He holds a master and PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley (USA) and a BA in Economics from Universidad de Granada (Spain). Before coming to the University of Toronto, he was a professor of urban & regional development at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. 

Publications

Montero, S. and G. Baiocchi. (2022). A Posteriori Comparisons, Repeated Instances and Urban Policy Mobilities: What ‘Best Practices’ Leave Behind. Urban Studies, 59(8), 1536–1555. 

Montero, S. (2020) Leveraging Bogotá: Sustainable Development, Global Philanthropy and the Rise of Urban Solutionism, Urban Studies, 57 (11), 2263-2281.  

Porto, O., C. Osorio, S. Montero and C. Kerches (Eds.) (2019). Latin America and Policy Diffusion: From Import to Export. London: Routledge.  

Montero, S. and K. Chapple (Eds.) (2018). Fragile Governance and Local Economic Development: Theory and Evidence from Peripheral Regions in Latin America. London: Routledge.  

Montero, S. (2017). Study Tours and Inter-City Policy Learning: Mobilizing Bogotá’s Transportation Policies in Guadalajara. Environment & Planning A: Economy and Space, 49(2), 332-350. 

Education

PhD in City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley (US)
Master of City Planning, University of California, Berkeley (US)
BA in Economics, Universidad de Granada (Spain)