Kuni Kamizaki

Kuni Kamizaki is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. His research adopts a multi-scalar approach to urban transformation with an emphasis on issues of poverty, displacement and housing inequality. His research combines political-economic accounts with neighbourhood-based ethnographic engagement to explore community-led initiatives for social and racial justice. He is currently engaged in two strands of research in Tokyo and Toronto. A first strand of research investigates the decline of world city Tokyo in the time of post-growth. Specifically, it examines planning responses to unprecedented population decline and aging, with a focus on housing revitalization (e.g. post-war newtown and SROs), the crisis of care, financialization and urban effects of central bank’s monetary easing. A second strand focuses on the potential of community land trusts (CLTs) to challenge displacement and pursue housing justice. This work emerges from his public scholarship for social justice in collaboration with grassroots community organizations such as the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust. Currently, he is conducting community action research in partnership with Toronto Chinatown Land Trust to explore anti-racist and decolonial approaches to CLT development and land stewardship.