Shauna Brail
Biography
Shauna Brail is a Professor at the Institute for Management & Innovation and holds a cross-appointment at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto. An economic geographer and urban planner, her work examines the transformation of cities in response to economic, social, technological and cultural change.
Her research explores major forces shaping 21st-century cities, including the impacts of crises and disruption; the relationship between cities and digital platform economies, particularly in the area of mobility; and evolving approaches to urban governance, policy and planning in the context of innovation and technological change. An internationally engaged scholar, Professor Brail is a Scientific Advisor on a Horizon Europe project led by the University of Bologna (2023-2027), held a Visiting Fellowship at the Urban Institute, Singapore Management University (2023-2025) and was a Visiting Professor at Tel Aviv University (2026). She is associate editor of Cities: Smarter Futures and serves on the editorial boards of Applied Geography, Canadian Geographies and Progress in Economic Geography. She advises governments and civil society organizations in Canada and internationally on urban economic transformation, housing and transportation policy innovation, and the governance of digital platform technologies. Brail is a frequent media contributor.
Select publications
- Brail, S. and Lorinc, J. 2025. Rebuilding public housing in Regent Park: The shifting dynamics of financialized redevelopment models. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 45(1), 53-65. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X231183353.
- Brail, S. and Donald, B. (eds) 2024. Urban Mobility: How the iphone, covid and climate changed everything. University of Toronto Press, 354 pages.
- Brail, S. and Donald, B. 2024. From ride hailing to food hailing: Understanding on-demand food delivery through platform urbanism and urban policy. Journal of Urban Affairs, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2024.2427643
- Keidar, N., Fox, M., Friedman, O., Grinberger, Y., Kirresh, T., Li, Y., Rosner Manor, Y., Rotman, D., Silverman, E. and Brail, S. 2024. Progress in placemaking. Planning Theory & Practice 25(1), 143-151. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2023.2286131
- Brail, S. and Breznitz, S. 2024. The role of university research in urban innovation. In Huggins, R., Kitagawa, F. and Prokop, D. (Eds.) Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Cities and Regions: Emergence, Evolution and Future. Oxford University Press, 119-133.
- Vinodrai, T. and Brail, S. 2023. Cities, COVID-19, and counting. Big Data & Society, 10(2), 1-5. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20539517231188724
- Brail, S. 2022. COVID-19 and the future of urban policy and planning. Current History, 121(838), 298-303. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.2022.121.838.298.
- Brail, S. and Kleinman, M. 2022. Impacts and implications for the post-covid city: The case of Toronto. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 15(3), 495-513. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsac022
- Brail, S. 2022. World cities of ride-hailing. Urban Geography, 43(1), 12-33. DOI: 10.1080/02723638.2020.1775030
- Dodman, D., Hayward, B., Pelling, M. (Coordinating Lead Authors), Castan Broto, V., Chow, W., Chu, E., Dawson, R., Khirfan, L., McPhearson, T., Prakash, A., Zheng, Y., Ziervogel, (Lead Authors), Archer, D., Bertolin, C., Brail, S. …Westman, L. (Contributing Authors). 2022. Cities, Settlements and Key Infrastructure, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, February 2022.
- Brail, S. 2021. Patterns Amidst the Turmoil: COVID-19 & Cities. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 48(4), 598-603. DOI: /10.1177/23998083211009638.
- Brail, S. and Vinodrai, T. 2020. The elusive, inclusive city: Toronto at a crossroads. In Bunce, S., Livingstone, N, March, L, Moore, S, and Walks, A. (Eds.) Critical Dialogues of Urban Governance, Development and Activism: London & Toronto. UCL Press, 38-53.
- Brail, S. 2018. From renegade to regulated: The digital platform economy, ride-hailing and the case of Toronto. Canadian Journal of Urban Research. 27(2): 51-64.
