People > Faculty ProfiLes > Diane Davis
- Geographic Areas of Expertise:Latin America (primarily Mexico but also Argentina); East Asia (South Korea and Mexico); and less so, South Africa and Russia.
- Teaching Focus:Comparative urban politics and policy; relations between urban and national development; insecurity and violence in cities of the developing world; cities and globalization.
- Recent Awards:Best Book in Political Sociology, Awarded by the Section on Political Sociology, American Sociological Association, July 2005.
- Scholarly Achievement Award, Best Article of the Year, New England Association of Latin Americanists, November 1990.
- Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
- Contact:dedavis@mit.edu
617.452.2804
Room: 9-637 - Assistant:Phil Sunde
psunde@mit.edu
617.253.9315
Q. Who most influenced your work as a scholar of international development and why?
Davis: I had two major influences: Manuel Castells and Maurice Zeitlin. Both were co-chairs of my dissertation, both motivated me with their dynamic personalities and serious commitment to scholarship and politics, and both introduced me to the serious study of Latin America and its developmental challenges. Zeitin inculcated in me an appreciation for history and for the complexities of state-class politics; Castells taught me to link the study of cities to the major transformations of our times. Both modeled the value of social justice and social change in theory and practice.
Q. What is your research focus?
Davis: In addition to my ongoing research on urban political economy, leftist mayors in the developing world, and the challenges of metropolitanism in a globalizing Latin America, I am currently examining the rise of public insecurity in cities of the developing world. This project, which focuses on Mexico City, Johannesburg, and Mexico City has three component parts. 1) study of the history of policing and police corruption in urban Latin America, as well as the relationship between regime change and shifting police practice; 2) examination of the proliferation of private security forces (ranging from private guards to mafia) and private security techniques (such as surveillance cameras, gating, BIDs); and 3) documentation of the global expansion of firms and investments in the security industry.
Q. Please tell us about of your most recent publications of note.
Davis: I recently had one of my papers posted in the MIT International Review (Spring 2008) entitled, "Insecure and Secure Cities: Towards a Reclassification of World Cities in a Global Era". Other papers are " Conflict, Cooperation, and Convergence: Globalization and the Politics of Downtown Development in Mexico City." In Research in Political Sociology, vol. 15: 143-178 (2006). And a two volume double issue of the International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society called The New Sociological Imagination, published by Springer Verlag Publishers (2006).
Q. What are some of your most recent public lectures?
Davis: "The Insecure City", The University of Florence, "Discipline and Development", Yale University and "The Resilient City", MIT (available on MIT World).
