Dr Oleg Golubchikov

Biography

Career

• Reader in Human Geography, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University (since 2018)
• Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University (2013-2018)
• Lecturer in Urban Resilience, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham (2010-2013)
• ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford (2009-2010)
• Research Assistant, Bartlett School of Planning, University College London (2008-2009)
• DPhil (PhD) in Human Geography, University of Oxford (2002-2007)

Consulting Experience

Dr Golubchikov has many years of consulting experience, advising the United Nations and other international organisations and corporations on aspects of urban and regional development, sustainable cities and housing, and energy policies. He has been Consultant and Advisor to the Secretariat of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), one of the five UN regional commissions. He has also consulted UN-HABITAT on sustainable housing and sustainable cities.

Advisory and Expert Boards

• Member of the ESRC Peer Review College, since 2010
• Consultant to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), since 2008
• Consultant to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), since 2011
• Member of Expert Panel on the preparation of HABITAT III United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Policy Unit 5: Municipal Finance and Local Fiscal System, 2015-2016

Reviewer for Research Councils

• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
• Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
• Fund for Scientific Research – F.R.S.-FNRS – Belgium
• British Academy
• Hong Kong Research Grant Council (RGC)
• JPI Climate
• Estonian Research Council (ETAg)
• US National Science Foundation (NSF)

Journal Reviewer

Area Development and Policy; Canadian Journal of Development Studies; East European Politics; Economic Policy in Emerging Economies; Energy and Buildings; Energy Policy; Energy Procedia; Environment and Planning A; Environment and Planning B; Environment and Planning C; Eurasian Geography and Economics; Europa Regional; European Planning Studies; European Urban and Regional Studies; Europe-Asia Studies; Geoforum; Geografie; Geografiska Annaler B; Geopolitics; International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies; International Journal of Urban and Regional Research; International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development; International Planning Studies; Journal of Social Policy Studies; Moravian Geographical Reports; Nationalities Papers; Palgrave Communications; REGION: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia; Regional Science, Policy and Practice; Slovo; Survey Review; Sustainability; Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers; Urban Affairs Review; Urban Research and Practice; Urban Studies; Urban Studies and Practices

Visiting and Honourable Positions

• Visiting Associate Professor, Higher School of Economics (since 2014)
• Leibniz Fellow, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (2013-2016)
• Visiting Scholar, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Research of China, China Academy of Science (2014)
• Senior Visiting Research Associate, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford (2007-2014)
• Visiting Scholar, United Nations University - World Institute for Development Economics Research, UNU-WIDER (2008)
• Visiting Research Fellow, School of Urban Studies, Royal Institute of Technology, KTH (2003-2005)

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy
• Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)
• Member of the Association of American Geographers

Speaking engagements

Invited talks and keynotes (selection)

• ‘A vision for people-smart sustainable cities’, invited presentation at the 11th International Envirocities Conference 2022, “Sustainable, Smart and Resilient Cities Applications”, Fujairah, UAE, 23.11.2022, https://www.fujmun.gov.ae/EnviroCitiesConf/assets/speakers/Dr.%20Oleg%20Golubchikov.pdf  
• ‘Energy and digital transitions’, invited panel talk at the RSA Central and Eastern Europe Programme, The EU and regional policies in CEE: European regional policy perspectives between cohesion and polarization, (online), 05.04.2022  https://www.regionalstudies.org/news/cee-online-panel-discussion-series
• ‘Soviet sputnik towns: the past of a sustainable urban future?’, invited presentation, Workshop on Peripheral Centralities: Lost, Past, Present and Future, Melbourne (online), 24/09/2021, https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/research/projects/current/peripheral-centralities-lost-past-present-and-future/seminar-1-peripheral-centralities-lost-and-past/24-pm/18.15-pm-soviet-sputnik-towns-the-past-of-a-sustainable-urban-future
• ‘Mobility as a cornerstone of People-Smart Sustainable Cities’, keynote address, Workshop on Green Urban Transport, UNECE (online), 17/09/2021, https://unece.org/info/Transport/Transport-Trends-and-Economics/events/359169 
• Presentation of the ECE Flagship Publication “People-Smart Sustainable Cities: A Policy Nexus for a Prosperous, Green and Liveable Future”, invited presentation at the 81st Session of the UNECE Committee on Urban Development, Housing and Land Management, Geneva (online), 08/10/2020. https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2020-08/Detailed%20programme%2081st%20CUDHLM%20session%20ver%204%20Aug%202020_ENG.pdf
• ‘Urban change and redevelopment in Moscow’, invited lecture, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China, 23/09/2019.
• ‘Smart sustainable cities for all?’, invited presentation at the Forum on Future Smart Cities, National Taipei University, Taipei, Taiwan, 19/09/2019.
• ‘Urbanization of transition: cities as the agency of change’, inaugural lecture at International Conference on Cities and Change: Three Decades of Post-Socialist Transition, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, 17/05/2019. https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/9212/
• ‘‘Urban transitions: Key challenges for post-Soviet cities’ invited talk at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 11/12/2018.
• 'The governance of smart city’, invited presentation at Tao-Yuan City Government, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan, 03/12/2018.
• ‘The development of smart city’, invited presentation at Smart Cities Workshop, National Taipei University, Taipei, Taiwan, 02/12/2018.
• 'Urban agenda in the countries of the Northern and Central Asia’, invited talk at the The Future of Asia and Pacific Cities Report 2019: Sub-regional meeting for North and Central Asia, UNESCAP, UN-Habitat and UNECE, Geneva, Switzerland, 05/10/2018. https://www.unescap.org/events/future-asia-and-pacific-cities-2019-report-subregional-meeting-north-and-central-asia  
• ‘Urban challenges on post-Soviet space’, plenary talk at the Global Challenges for Regions and Cities: Adaptation, Development, Governance, RSA Russia Division Workshop, Yekaterinburg, Russia, 17/11/2017. https://www.regionalstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2017-Program-of-RSA-Workshop-1.pdf
• ‘National urban policies and urban development in transitional economies’, invited presentation at the UN Workshop - Final Regional Meeting on the Strengthening National Capacity for Sustainable Housing, Urban Development and Land Management: Development, Implementation and Monitoring of National Action Plans, Chisinau, Moldova, 5/10/2017. https://unece.org/DAM/hlm/projects/UNDA-9th_tranche/Documents/Moldova/2017_October/Agenda_ENG.pdf  
• ‘Extraverted urbanism: Large urban developments as state spatiality in Russia’, panel lecture at the “The Real Estate/Financial Complex” International Conference, Leuven, Belgium, 20/09/2017.
• ‘Smart urbanism, energy and social justice’, invited talk at the Workshop on Future/Smart Cities: Initiatives for City Planning, Growth and Geography Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 8/09/2017
• ‘Sustainable housing and urban development’, invited talk at the UN Workshop on Strengthening National Capacities for Sustainable Housing, Urban Development and Land Management: National Action Plans, Belgrade, Serbia, 31/01/2017, https://unece.org/housing-and-land-management/events/workshop-strengthening-national-capacities-sustainable-housing
• ‘Re-imagining the post-Soviet city: worlding spaces of extraordinary change’, keynote talk at the Redefining cities in post-Soviet space, Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde, Leipzig, Germany, 24/11/2016.
• ‘The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and the return of geography in Russia’s economic modernization strategies’, invited paper presentation at the Olympic Leverage and Legacy Leverhulme Symposium, Birmingham, UK, 29/06/2016.
• Invited panellist address at the Panel on financing urban development (Policy Unit 5), the HABITAT III Open-ended Informal Consultative Meetings, UN Headquarters, New York, USA, 29/04/2016. https://enb.iisd.org/download/pdf/sd/enbplus231num1e.pdf
• ‘Regional report on CIS countries’, invited talk at the United Nations Expert Group and Inter-agency Meeting on Habitat III, Brussels, Belgium, 21/09/2015. https://unece.org/info/events/event/348563 
• ‘The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics: A sports mega-event or a regional development mega-project?’, invited paper presentation at the Olympic Leverage and Legacy Leverhulme Symposium, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 04/09/2015

 

Publications

We are currently unable to retrieve the list of publications. Visit our institutional repository.

Teaching

Current teaching

• Director of Urban and Regional Development MSc Programme
• Urban and Regional Development in Practice, MSc (module leader)
• Planning City Futures, MSc (contributor)

Previous teaching

• Director of MSc in European Spatial Planning and Environmental Policy (Planet Europe) programme
• Post-Carbon Worlds: Energy Geographies, Year 2 (module leader)
• Human Geography in Practice, Year 3 (contributor)
• Professional Development, MSc (module leader)
• Space and Place: International Planning Practice, MSc (contributor)
• The Big Questions in Human Geography, Year 1 (contributor)
• Planning, Markets and Land, Year 2 (module leader)
• Economic Change and Spatial Policy, Year 3 (module leader)
• Environmental Management, MSc (contributor)
• Economic Principles for Urban and Regional Studies, Year 1 (contributor)
• Spaces of Production: Economic Geography, Year 2 (contributor)

Currently Funded Projects

• SMARTUP: Smart(ening up the modern) home: Redesigning power dynamics through domestic space digitalization (€1,515,000, ESRC/CHANSE - Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe), 2022-2025
• Strengthening policy capacities for sustainable housing and urban development in countries with economies in transition (£13,183, ESRC IAA), 2020-2023
• Country profile on urban development, housing and land management of Albania (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe), 2022-2023

Research Interests

My research interests focus on the politics of urban and regional development, the policy and practice of sustainable urbanism, as well as on a spatial critique of energy transitions. These interests have recently developed as three strands of research activity informing my theoretical, empirical and practical perspectives: (a) urban and spatial restructurings under market transitions, (b) sustainable urbanism in low-carbon and digital transitions, and (c) policy engagement and advocacy in the field of sustainable urban and housing development.

Urban and spatial restructuring under market transitions. For the first research strand, I explore how varied political and economic imaginaries shape urban trajectories and with what broader implications for social and spatial change. I investigate the relationships between state institutions, legacies, and innovations in the production of uneven spatialities at different scales. I explore these processes particularly in the context of market transition, which is associated with rapid social, economic and political restructuring. Here, my research seeks to understand the evolution of institutions of housing policy, urban planning and urban governance; the patterns of urban change and the role that cities play in the formation of new socio-spatial differences and inequalities; factors underpinning geographical disparity and uneven capacities and resilience of cities in adapting to the new economy. Overall, this strand of research advances the understanding of the evolution, variegated forms, hybridity, and contradictions of capitalism in its long-ranging influences on the production of space.

Sustainable urbanism in low-carbon and digital transitions. The second strand of my research encompasses interdisciplinary perspectives on sustainable urbanism, energy policy and sustainability more broadly. This research is particularly placed in the context of energy and digital transitions, which have become key constituents in sustainability policies. I explore the relationships between governance, technology and equity with regard to climate-neutral and energy-efficient cities, smart cities, and sustainable urban development and their social, economic and spatial implications. This research offers spatial critiques of sustainable urbanism and energy transitions and stresses the importance of addressing geographical contexts and place-based vulnerabilities in devising policies for transitioning more justly.

Sustainable urban and housing development in policy and practice. The third strand of my academic activity extends my academic research into the world of policy and engagement. I participate in high-level dialogues for the development of international and national policies and legislation in sustainable urban development. Part of my research was commissioned by, and conducted directly in collaboration with, the United Nations. This has resulted a range of reports that substantiate the work of the UN and inform governments and other stakeholders across the world. My research helps identify key pressure points, dilemmas and priorities for sustainable urbanisation by providing a knowledge base for understanding key vectors of change and the challenges that cities face. I advocate for more socially and spatially inclusive forms of urban development and governance and reconciling the demands of capital and citizens in the provision of urban services and housing. Examples of my key policy writings for the United Nations include:

• UNECE flagship publication on People-Smart Sustainable Cities
• UN-HABITAT policy framework on sustainable housing
• UNECE publication on Climate-Neutral Cities
• Contribution to the New Urban Agenda

Supervision

Suitable candidates for a PhD project are very welcome to approach me and discuss their ideas. I am interested in supervising PhD students in the broad areas of my research interests, for example, on:

• Urban geography
• State geographies
• Post-socialist transitions
• Urban entrepreneurialism
• Smart cities
• Energy transitions

Current supervision

Past projects

• Kate O’Sullivan, Uneven Geographies of Low-Carbon Transition: Exploring Energy Vulnerabilities in Peripheral Communities
• Pawel Pustelnik, European Struggles and American Resistance: Inclusion of Aviation into the EU ETS