Alistair Kefford is a historian and urbanist. He is a specialist in the development of cities and society in the modern era. His current research focuses on the rise of real estate development and its far-reaching impacts on cities and citizens all over the world. He is chair of Leiden's Urban Studies BA program in The Hague.

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Alistair Kefford is a historian and urbanist. He is a specialist in the development of cities and society in the modern era. His current research focuses on the rise of real estate development and its far-reaching impacts on cities and citizens all over the world. He is chair of Leiden's Urban Studies BA program in The Hague.

Fields of interest

• Urban planning and architecture
• Urban renewal and regeneration
• Real estate development
• Urban economic and social development
• Retail, consumption and consumerism
• Contemporary urban studies
• History of capitalism

Research

Alistair Kefford is a historian and urbanist. He is a specialist in the development of cities and society in the modern era. His research combines urban, economic and social history with contemporary urban studies in order to offer original perspectives on our global urban condition.

His 2022 book, The Life and Death of the Shopping City: Public Planning and Private Redevelopment in Britain since 1945, was published with Cambridge University Press and traces the rise of retail-driven urbanism across the second half of the twentieth century to its present-day crisis and collapse. This highly relevant research has been featured in The Financial Times, Arte TV, Prospect Magazine, and elsewhere. He has also produced original research on housing, architecture, urban renewal, industrial development, deindustrialisation, and inner cities.

His current research focuses on the global rise of real estate development and its far-reaching impacts on cities and citizens all over the world. This work has appeared in the leading historical journal Past & Present (2024). A related forthcoming book is entitled The New Empire Builders: The Global Rise of Real Estate.

Grants and awards

• 2018 British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2011 Economic and Social Research Council (UK) Doctoral Scholarship

Curriculum Vitae

Alistair Kefford holds a PhD in Economic and Social History (2015) and an MA in Urban Regeneration and Development (2011), both received from the University of Manchester, UK. Prior to postgraduate study he worked for a number of years in local government planning.

In 2016 he was appointed Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Manchester. In 2018 he was awarded a prestigious British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, which was held at the internationally renowned Centre for Urban History, University of Leicester. In 2020 he was appointed Assistant Professor in History and Urban Studies at the University of Leiden. He is currently Chair of the Urban Studies BA program at Campus Den Haag.

Selected publications

The Life and Death of the Shopping City: Public Planning and Private Redevelopment in Britain since 1945 (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

Kefford A. (2024), The Global Rise of the British Property Development Sector, 1945–1975, Past and Present: a Journal of Historical Studie.

Publications

Activities