Dr Pablo Navarrete

Dr Pablo Navarrete

Visiting Fellow

Latin America and Caribbean Centre (LACC)

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Languages
English, French, Spanish
Key Expertise
Planning and Design, Informal Economy, Urban Employment

About me

Pablo is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS) at Universidad Catolica de Chile, a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Latin America and Caribbean Centre, and Visiting Scholar at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. He is also co-founder of the experimental big-data analysis platform urban-experiment.com. Pablo holds an Architecture Degree (equivalent to RIBA parts 1, 2 and 3) from the Universidad de Chile, a double MSc in Urban Policy from Sciences-Po Paris and the London School of Economics (LSE), and a PhD in Regional and Urban Planning from LSE. Pablo taught courses on urban policy and design at the Universidad San Sebastian (Chile) as well as courses on qualitative and quantitative research methods at LSE.

Pablo’s research focuses on urban policy rationality and impact. His early research focused on urban recycling strategies for the inclusion of waste-picking in solid waste management in Santiago of Chile. The results showed the benefits of government support on social mobility, leading him to extend his research to other informal sectors, notably street vending and home-based enterprises. Pablo's research used a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods and concluded that supporting informal enterprises may be the most effective way of promoting the Sustainable Development Objective of decent work in a context of globally spread and expanding informality.

Pablo's current research involves two principal projects. The first project brings forward his research at the intersection of urban policy and employment. A dimension of this work includes the policy evaluation of different policy approaches towards the informal economy in Santiago de Chile and, more recently, in Bogota resulting in publications in World Development and Investigaciones Regionales. Pablo is currently completing a paper (Journal of Development Studies, with Mathew Alford) discussing the distribution and capture of value in formal and informal value chains analysing the trade networks of street vendors in Chile. The second looks at how unequal access to urban space and public services is generated as well as its impact on people´s opportunities. A first stream of this research explores how half a century of neoliberal reforms in Santiago de Chile have built “systems of urban accumulation” of opportunities in wealthy urban areas. Another stream explores the causal impact of unequal urban environments on people´s perceived quality of life (happiness, safety and stress) by using experimental methods and biometric measurements.

Pablo worked as an architect and urban planner in the private and public sector, in the local and central government. In particular, he worked as an urban planner for La Cisterna Council in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development of Chile and Ministry of Transport of Chile, and as a consultant for for the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF). In 2013, Pablo was appointed as the urban and regional policy advisor of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet's presidential campaign, leading on the housing, urban planning, and regional development sections of her manifesto. These policy proposals were then implemented by the Ministries of Housing and Urban Development, Economy, Transport and by The National Commission of Urban Development (CNUD).

Expertise Details

Urban Policies; Planning and Design; Informal Economy and Urbanisation; Urban Employment and Entrepreneurship; Housing Policy

My research