Shauna Brail
Biography
Shauna Brail is Professor and Director at the Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto Mississauga and holds a cross-appointment at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto. As an economic geographer and urban planner, her research focuses on the transformation of cities as a result ofeconomic, social, and cultural change.
Professor Brail’s research encompasses studies of urban change and vibrancy; the relationship between cities and the digital platform economy with an emphasis on mobility; and shifts in urban governance, policy and planning in connection to urban innovation and technological change. Her scholarly publications have appeared in internationally top ranked journals in the fields of geography, urban and regional planning and urban studies. She advises governments and civic society organizations, both in Canada and internationally, on matters relating to urban economic change, housing and transportation policy innovation, and the regulation of digital platform technologies. Brail is a frequent media contributor.
Brail is an Affiliated Faculty at the Innovation Policy Lab in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. She is an Editorial Board member at Applied Geography, Progress in Economic Geography and Canadian Geographies.
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.
