Karen Horwood
Senior Lecturer Leeds Beckett
Media
Social
Biography
Karen has been a member of the course team since 2012. She is currently module leader for Development of Planning Thought, Planning Policy & Practice and Women and the Built Environment (jointly with Dr Bronwen Edwards).
Karen is an associate member of the Royal Town Planning Institute. Prior to working at Leeds Beckett, she gained experience in regeneration practice at Leeds City Council. She is the gender mainstreaming lead for Women and Planning and on the committee of the Yorkshire Branch. She has been an invited speaker at Festival of Place, New Architecture London, Homes England and Women of the World Leeds Festival 2023. She has also been interviewed for the planning press. In 2020 she was one of The Planner's Women of Influence. She was featured on 50 Shades of Planning's International Women's Day podcast 2023.
Karen's research focuses on women and planning, considering how women's needs are recognised and met within the planning system. She was the convenor of the Women and Planning conference at Leeds Beckett in 2019, and founder of the Women and Planning Research Group. She guest edited a special edition of Town Planning Review in 2022 featuring papers from the conference.
Industry Expertise
Areas of Expertise
Education
Leeds Beckett University
PhD
City/Urban, Community and Regional Planning
2017
Leeds Beckett University
MA
Urban Regeneration
2007
University of Leeds
BA (Hons.)
Politics and Philosophy
1998
Languages
- English
Articles
Making Space for the Dissertation : a Rural Retreat for Undergraduate Students
Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice2020
This paper examines a residential writing retreat for final year human geography and planning students held in a youth hostel in North Yorkshire, considering how it is experienced by students. This is a curriculum innovation for the dissertation module that combines aspects of geography fieldtrip and writing workshop to support the dissertation writing process and build community, applicable to dissertation and other modules on all kinds of courses.
The Development of Green Infrastructure Policy in the North West Region of the UK 2005–2010
Planning Practice and Research2020
This article examines the development of green infrastructure policy-making in the North West region of the UK 2005–2010, through the articulation of three phases. Drawing on a conceptualisation of discourse coalitions, it is argued that this instance of the green infrastructure policy-making process became a way of bringing together various stakeholders around a shared goal. The activities that took place and how green infrastructure was conceptualized ensured that a range of policy interests was represented, and consequently, a stable discourse coalition was formed around economic priorities.
Green infrastructure: reconciling urban green space and regional economic development: lessons learnt from experience in England's north-west region
Local Environment2011
Green infrastructure (GI) is an approach to green space that is gathering momentum. It is increasingly being adopted by policy makers and practitioners as a way to frame urban green space policy. This article is based on research on how the meaning of GI is developing in the policy-making context within the north-west region of the UK. It is argued that policy making at the regional scale emphasises economic development, and this leads to a particular way of framing urban green space. This article examines the ways of talking about GI that respond to this focus, the way in which they are articulated and the impact this has on ways of seeing urban green space.
