Urban planners have had a contested yet tangible impact on the public realm through the design and regulation of public spaces. What role can planners play now that issues of inclusivity, sociability, and access to opportunities are increasingly mediated by online platforms? How to plan for just outcomes in intangible digital spaces as well as physical public spaces? In this talk, Huê-Tâm Jamme connects the dots between planning, informality, and the digital realm. Within a theoretical framework inspired by Lefebvre’s production of space, Sen and Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, and Castells’ spaces of flows and spaces of places, she elaborates on two empirical studies that look at i) productive frictions between transportation networks and informal street vendors in Vietnam; and ii) gender equity in the gig economy in Thailand and Cambodia. Common to these projects is a mixed-method approach that reveals the lived experience of socio-spatial and technological transformations.

Huê-Tâm Jamme is an assistant professor at the Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. Through her research and teaching, she promotes a de-centered perspective on planning. She focuses in particular on new mobilities, the platform economy, and their impacts on existing urbanisms. She graduated from SciencesPo Rennes in 2010; worked as a consultant in urban development in Asia for six years; and received a PhD in urban planning from the University of Southern California in 2020.

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