David López-García

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy (UPP), where I contribute to the department's Economic Development area of specialization. I am a research fellow at both the Center for Urban Economic Development (CUED) and the Great Cities Institute (GCI). Broadly speaking, my research looks at shifts in the urban spatial structure of large urban regions and its implications for accessibility to jobs and workers' quality of life. I use spatial analytic tools and statistical modeling to understand whether places of increasing employment are accessible to those most in need of work. I also look at the politics of plans, urban policies, and infrastructure location decisions that affect the urban spatial structure and accessibility to jobs. Most of my research is focused on Latin American urban regions, and I occasionally work in other areas of the Global South and the United States.

My book titled "Worker Mobility and urban policy in Latin America: Policy Interactions and Urban Outcomes in Mexico City," is a result of my doctoral dissertation, and was published by Routledge in 2023. My book develops and applies the Policy Interactions Framework to put forward the Choiceless Mobility Hypothesis: a process by which the interaction between the spatial location of the demand for labor, the housing pathways available for workers, and the political economy of public transport interact to produce geographies of low accessibility to jobs with costly mobility.

My main ongoing research project titled "The Governance of Urban Spatial Structure in Large Urban Regions" seeks to understand better what governs the evolution of urban spatial structure in the Mexico City Metropolitan Zone. To answer to this question, I am conducting a series of individual studies about the elements that the literature has identified as playing a role in the evolution of urban spatial structure: economic development policy and the evolution of economic agglomerations, housing policy and workers' housing pathways, public transport policy, the distribution of urban amenities, changes in land-use regulation, and the spatial distribution of informal economic activity. I have secondary research projects on related topics in Guadalajara in Mexico, Sao Paulo in Brazil, as well as New York City and Chicago in the United States.

I am part of several research networks, both at UIC and internationally. I am the Academic Coordinator for the International Network for Transport and Accessibility in Low-Income Communities (INTALInC-LAC) for 2023-2026. I am co-coordinator of the Urban Spatial Structure Working Group (URBS-WG) at UIC, dedicated to advancing the field of econometric techniques to assess urban spatial structure. I am the coordinator of a seminar series at UPP titled "The Many Urbanisms of the Global South: Policy Nuances and Particularities." I am also an active member of the Spatial Inequalities Working Group organized by El Colegio de México and the Policy Mobilities Working Group (PMWG).

Peer review journals

López-García, D. & Baker, D. (2023) Diverging Mobility Situations: Measuring Relative Job Accessibility and Differing Socioeconomic Conditions in New York City. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 113(1), 149-168.

Whitney, R. & López-García, D. (2023) Fast-track institutionalization: The opening of urban planning best practice agencies in Mexico City. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 41(3), 600-616.

López-García, D. & Heathcott, J. (2022) Showcase Politics: The production and distribution of new public space in Mexico City. Journal of Urban Affairs. Online first.

Heathcott, J. & López-García, D. (2022) Design Highs and Policy Lows in the Making of New Public Space in Mexico City. Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability. Online first.

López-García, D. & Gómez-Álvarez, D. (2022) Estructura urbana del Área Metropolitana de Guadalajara, 1999-2019: Un análisis de subcentros de empleo. Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos, 37(2), 427-481.

López-García, D. (2017) Mediation styles and participant’s perception of success in consultative councils: The case of Guadalajara, Mexico. Journal of Public Deliberation, 13(2), Article 10.

Authored books

López-García, D. (2023) Worker mobility and urban policy in Latin America: Policy interactions and urban outcomes in Mexico City. London: Routledge.

Edited books

Delgado, G. & López-García, D. (2020) Cities and COVID-19: New Directions for Urban Research and Public Policies. Mexico City: Knowledge Platform for Urban Transformation, International Network for Government and Science.

Book chapters

López-García, D. (forthcoming) Desigualdades en el viaje al trabajo en la Zona Metropolitana de la Ciudad de México. In Martha Schteingart, Clara Salazar, and Jaime Sobrino (Eds.), Desigualdades Territoriales: Miradas Cruzadas. México: El Colegio de México.

López-García, D. (2023) Planeación e Infraestructura Urbana en Jalisco: Una Mirada al Transporte Público Masivo desde la Accesibilidad y la Exclusión Social. In David Gómez-Álvarez et al (Eds.). Jalisco, balance parcial 2018-2021: Diagnóstico, evaluación y recomendación de políticas públicas locales. Guadalajara: Universidad de Guadalajara.

López-García, D. (2022) Building Inequality: Infrastructure and Intra-Urban Inequality in the Capitalist City. In Deljana Iossifova, Yahya Gamal and Alexandros Gasparatos (Eds.), Urban Infrastructuring: reconfigurations, transformations, and sustainability in the Global South. Singapore: Springer Nature.

López-García, D. (2019) La Paz, Bolivia: The social construction of risk and vulnerability. In Michael Cohen, Margarita Gutman and María Carrizosa (Eds.) Facing Risk. New Urban Resilience Practices in Latin America, The New School.

Policy reports

López-García, D. (2022) How just is public transport in African Cities? Nairobi: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES).

Cohen, M., Simet, L., López-García, D., Orr, B., De La Cruz, M. & Issadeen, A. (2018) The Habitat Commitment Project: Monitoring and assessing progress at the city level. New York: Global Urban Futures Project, The New School.

Cohen, M., López-García, D., Jaimes, M., Simet, L., Gálvez, J., Delgado, G. & Verduzco, B. (2017) Análisis costo-beneficio de la Ecozona-Toluca [Cost-benefit analysis of Ecozona-Toluca]. New York: German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), The New School.

López-García, D. & Issadeen, A. (2017) Habitat Commitment Index: Access to safe, clean water. New York: Global Urban Futures Project, The New School.

Cohen, M., Orr, B., Simet, L., Carter, C., De La Cruz, M., Jaimes, M., Kim, Y., López-García, D. & Roberts, J. (2016) The Habitat Commitment Project: Assessing the past for a better urban future. New York: Global Urban Futures Project, The New School.

Ph.D. in Public and Urban Policy, The New School.
M.Phil. in Public and Urban Policy, The New School.
M.S. in Comparative Public Policy, FLACSO-México,.
B.A. in Management, Universidad de Guadalajara.

• The governance of urban spatial structure in large urban regions, with the case study of Mexico City Metropolitan Zone.
• The journey to work as relative accessibility to jobs in selected urban regions across Latin America and the United States.
• Shifts in the spatial location of the demand for labor in Mexican metropolitan areas and in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• Urban Growth Machines with Latin American characteristics: The Governance of urban form in Guadalajara, Mexico.
• Race, travel time, and quality job access in Chicagoland: Comparing models of job accessibility with actual commuting burden.