Dr. Hutson is currently an Associate Professor of Urban Planning in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University in the City of New York. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia University Dr. Hutson was an Associate Professor and the Chancellor's Professor of City and Regional Planning in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley and Associate Director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development. His research focuses on how neighborhood, community, and metropolitan-level factors affect the health and the economic, environmental, political, and social well-being of urban residents. Specifically, his research is at the intersection of urban planning and health inequities. The following are some of my research and teaching:
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Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation Conversations:
Dean Amale Andraos speaks with GSAPP Associate Professor Malo Hutson on the occasion of the launching of the Urban Community and Health Equity Lab. They discuss how housing and place affects residents’ health, day-to-day life, and sense of community – particularly for areas going through a neighborhood transformation. They also speak about how the benefits can be shared equitably between diverse communities as cities change, and how to move beyond the “paralysis of analysis.” “So much of the built environment impacts our everyday lives and shapes the places that we live. The fundamental piece of my work is asking how does place matter: for your health, for economic opportunities, for education, for the environment – for all those things” —Malo Hutson |
Urban Community and Health Equity Lab
I am the Director of the Urban Community and Health Equity. The Lab is based in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) at Columbia University. The mission of the Urban Community and Health Equity Lab is to conduct interdisciplinary research to transform institutions, policies, and practices that cause health inequities, both domestically and internationally. Specifically, its research uses a social justice framework, and is at the intersection of architecture, law, public health, public policy, and urban planning.The issues that we research broadly include a better understanding of how the built and natural environment, economy, and law and governance ameliorate or exacerbate health inequities. Through a series of real projects and engagements with communities in the United States as well as around the world, the Urban Community and Health Equity Lab is charged with identifying health-related risk factors in the urban built environment, proposing a wide-range of planning policies, strategies, and practices that influence institutional change and strengthen democratic processes which lead towards more sustainable and equitable regions.
Some of the areas our work touches upon, include the following:
I am the Director of the Urban Community and Health Equity. The Lab is based in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) at Columbia University. The mission of the Urban Community and Health Equity Lab is to conduct interdisciplinary research to transform institutions, policies, and practices that cause health inequities, both domestically and internationally. Specifically, its research uses a social justice framework, and is at the intersection of architecture, law, public health, public policy, and urban planning.The issues that we research broadly include a better understanding of how the built and natural environment, economy, and law and governance ameliorate or exacerbate health inequities. Through a series of real projects and engagements with communities in the United States as well as around the world, the Urban Community and Health Equity Lab is charged with identifying health-related risk factors in the urban built environment, proposing a wide-range of planning policies, strategies, and practices that influence institutional change and strengthen democratic processes which lead towards more sustainable and equitable regions.
Some of the areas our work touches upon, include the following:
- Climate change, resiliency, and adaptation .
- Environmental degradation
- Food access and education
- Housing
- Income inequality
- Mass incarceration
- Segregation (income, gender, race)
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The Urban Struggle for Economic, Environmental, and Social Justice:
Deepening Their Roots My latest book entitled The Urban Struggle for Economic, Environmental, and Social Justice: Deepening Their Roots, which explores how coalitions of residents, community leaders, unions, and others are trying to resist displacement as a result of neighborhood change and transform their communities to sustainable healthy communities (defined as economically strong, environmentally clean, and socially just communities). I am doing case studies on four major U.S. cities--Boston, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C..
My book is part of Routledge’s Equity, Justice, and the Sustainable City series. According to Routledge: “The series introduces critical perspectives and new approaches to the practice and theory of urban planning and policy that ask how the world's cities can become ‘greener’ while becoming more fair, equitable and just. Routledge Equity, Justice and the Sustainable City series addresses sustainable city trends in the global North and South and investigates them for their potential to ensure a transition to urban sustainability that is equitable and just for all. These trends include municipal climate action plans; resource scarcity as tipping points into a vortex of urban dysfunction; inclusive urbanization; "complete streets" as a tool for realizing more "livable cities"; the use of information and analytics toward the creation of "smart cities". The series welcomes submissions for high-level cutting edge research books that push thinking about sustainability, cities, justice and equity in new directions by challenging current conceptualizations and developing new ones. The series offers theoretical, methodological, and empirical advances that can be used by professionals and as supplementary reading in courses in urban geography, urban sociology, urban policy, environment and sustainability, development studies, planning, and a wide range of academic disciplines.” |
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Research in Chile
During the summer of 2015, I took 10 students to Chile as part of a collaboration with the Center for Urban & Regional Studies (CEUT) of the Catholic University of Maule to research how leveraging university-city partnerships could foster reconstruction efforts. Eight masters students (from U.C. Berkeley's City Planning, Landscape Architecture, Public Health, and Transportation Departments) and two undergraduate students (from the Environmental Science, Policy, and Management Department and the Department of Development Studies) spent a month collecting data with researchers from CEUT, evaluating possibilities for re-locating part of the Catholic University of Maule to central areas of the City. In addition, students met with local residents, non-government organization leaders, and government officials. The final studio report was completed in December 2015. To read more about the studio project click here Berkeley Chile Studio Project.
My colleagues in Chile and I have been building on this earlier work by collaborating around a robust 5-year research agenda focused on three broad areas: 1) Urban Sustainability and Regional Development 2) Citizen Participation and Engagement 3) Economic recovery from socio-ecological disasters This partnership is among Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, the Universidad Católica del Maule and the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism, and the University of Chile. I recently was awarded a 2018 Columbia University President's Global Innovation Fund grant to support this work. I will work closely with colleagues at the Columbia Global Center in Santiago. Our project is entitled, An Examination of Disaster Management and Recovery in Post-Disaster Chile. This research will examine the recovery phase of the disaster management process in post-disaster Chile. Specifically, I am leading an effort to conduct a case study analysis of the recovery phase process in Santa Olga within the Municipality of Constitucion in the Maule region, with recently experienced the worst wildfire in Chile's modern history. The wildfire destroyed 1,000 homes, displaced roughly 5,000 residents, and claimed ten lives. |
The Circular Economy: Circular Cities
Recently I have become interested in learning and researching the ways in which the principles of the circular economy can be applied to cities and metropolitan areas. As the world continues to urbanize, cities and government entities have the opportunity to bolster their economy, create jobs and reduce environmental impacts.
During the last two years my graduate students Jack "Bo" Chung and Christelle Rohaut and I have participated in the Schmidt MacArthur Fellowship Program.
Recently I have become interested in learning and researching the ways in which the principles of the circular economy can be applied to cities and metropolitan areas. As the world continues to urbanize, cities and government entities have the opportunity to bolster their economy, create jobs and reduce environmental impacts.
During the last two years my graduate students Jack "Bo" Chung and Christelle Rohaut and I have participated in the Schmidt MacArthur Fellowship Program.
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Photos courtesy of © Martin Allen Photography |
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Rethinking School Lunch Oakland Research Project, University of California at Berkeley
The Berkeley Food Institute, The TomKat Foundation, and The Stupski Foundation have jointly funded interdisciplinary research across planning, law, and public health, to study the Oakland Unified School District's Rethinking School Lunch Oakland (RSLO) initiative and its implementation. RSLO intends a system-wide change to the District's school meal program, addressing food access, health, education, environment and social issues simultaneously. When completed, the research will be available to School Districts nationwide as they look at transforming their school meal programs. Dr. Hutson is part of the research team that includes Associate Research Scientist Moira O'Neill, Associate Professor Mahasin Mujahid, and Professor Jason Corburn.
The Oakland RSLO initiative is based on the Rethinking School Lunch planning framework created by the Center for Ecoliteracy. The framework helped CEL and OUSD jointly formulate a strategy to address food and health, wellness, learning and the dining experience for the children. To implement the framework, OUSD needed to analyze its food procurement, facilities, financing, waste management and staff professional development processes. Oakland has a critical need to reform its school lunch program. According to OUSD and CEL, students nationwide typically consume at least 35% of their daily calories at school. But in OUSD schools, the students often consume far more calories than the national average, with many students eating breakfast, lunch, and supper at school. Over 73% of OUSD students qualify for free, or reduced price lunches. The volume of school meals OUSD serves presented an incredible opportunity to improve school meals and wellness while addressing staff professional development issues and agro-ecology issues simultaneously. A 2011 CEL feasibility study determined three-quarters of student meals were originating at three separate central kitchens ill-equipped to produce the number of meals needed daily and severely limited the District's ability to serve freshly prepared food. OUSD’s new vision includes a district-wide network of school kitchens, gardens and produce markets with a Central Kitchen, Instructional Farm and Education Center at the hub of the network. This new system will allow OUSD to provide freshly prepared food sourced from California ingredients. The new facility will also support educational pathways in multiple related disciplines for students, including connecting students to where their food comes from on a nearby instructional farm. The new environment will also improve the working conditions of the Nutrition Services staff. Oakland voters passed a bond measure to fund this initiative. The study will focus on both implementation and the impact on OUSD students and families. The findings will have significant relevance for urban food system change-makers and school communities nationwide as they seek to address chronic public childhood health issues. Once complete, the findings will be accessible to school districts nationwide considering similar projects. |