Judith Allen is a Principal Lecturer, Urban Development and Regeneration Department, University of Westminster. She was the scientific manager for three major cross-national research projects on neighbourhoods, funded by the European Union. She has been a visiting scholar at University of California at Berkeley, Curtin University in Australia, and Tallinn Technical University in Estonia. She lectures regularly at IUAV in Venice, New University of Lisbon and Tallinn Pedagogical University. Allen also serves as a member of the editorial board of Planning Theory. Judith Allen is currently a consultant on projects of slum upgrading and immigrants’ use of public spaces. She was also commissioned by the British academy. Her Writings focus on qualified in planning in the United States. Allen is frequently invited to give presentations on her work to professional organisations, research institutes and academic audiences in England and abroad. She has recently presented her work to: Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, the Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Housing Quality Network in England, the Danish National Institute of Social Research, the URBACT thematic Working Group on the role of inhabitants in urban management, UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Planning Aid for London, the Young Foundation, and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid Curso de Verano.