Ronald Kempen

Ronald van Kempen is a Professor of Urban Geography at the Faculty of Geosciences of Utrecht University, the Netherlands. His research focuses on urban spatial segregation, urban diversity, housing for low-income groups, urban governance and its effects on neighbourhoods and residents, social exclusion, and minority ethnic groups. He has coordinated several large projects, e.g. the EU 5th-Framework RESTATE project (the comparison and future of 29 post-WWII housing estates in ten European countries). At present he is the PI of the EU-FP7 project DIVERCITIES (Governing Urban Diversity). The principal aim of DIVERCITIES is to examine how European cities can benefit from diversity. The project’s central hypothesis is that urban diversity is an asset. Van Kempen has co-edited books and special issues of international scientific journals. He has published over 200 reports and articles, most of them in international social and urban geography journals. He is experienced in administrative and managerial tasks: he has been Research Director, Vice-Dean and Dean of the Faculty of Geosciences.