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Kathy Pain

Professor of Real Estate Development

Research Excellence Framework (REF) Lead

Kathy Pain 75iy0lki6

Specialisms

  • Associations between city-region economic and spatial development, sustainability and policy., 
  • International business services agglomeration and city integration in the networked world economy;, 
  • Intersections between the location strategies and practices of international financial and business services, and commercial real estate investment;

Location

HBS 220, Whiteknights campus

Kathy’s research investigates the changing economic and spatial relations of cities and regions under conditions of contemporary globalization and the challenges for sustainable development and policy. She is a Co-Director of the Globalization & World Cities (GaWC) Research Network leading GaWC’s Global City Planning research. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a member of the UK ESRC Peer Review College.

Kathy has engaged with private and public sector organisations in the UK, Europe, North America, the Middle East and the Pacific Asia region. Her research on the sustainable management of polycentric mega-city regions with Sir Peter Hall, published in The Polycentric Metropolis: Learning from mega-city regions in Europe (ISBN-10 1-84407-329-7), has informed policy thinking worldwide. She led the cities research in the European Spatial Observation Network study, the Territorial Impact of Globalization for Europe and its Regions. Her recent research for the Urban Land Institute and New Climate Economy into the association between sustainable urban density and risk-adjusted real estate investment returns is being drawn on in a current 6-years UK Prevent Partnership study on how human health evidence can inform real estate investment social impact performance and counter spatial health inequity.

Kathy has served on the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) 'Vision for Cities' Global Sustainability Task Group, the UK Smart Cities All Party Parliamentary Group, the Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership Industrial Productivity Commission, and the Institut Louis Bachelier Business School Scientific Council, Paris, and she is an expert advisor to government and research institutes across China.

Qualifications

  • PhD Geography (Reading)
  • Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society / Institute of British Geographers
  • Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Diploma in Town Planning
  • RTPI Corporate Member
  • Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

Current PhD students

Ijeoma Emeghe: Housing Quality and Mental Well-being Valuation. First supervisor

Jane Bennett: Neuro-atypical navigation: Can mapping Reading’s sensescape of pedestrian urban spaces improve the user experience of neurodivergent adult women? Second supervisor

Selected Publications

Burnett, A. and Pain, K. (2023) Linking environmental and human health in English urban development decision-making: the human health literacy of environmental policy. Built Environment, 49 (2). pp. 187-206. ISSN 0263-7960

Emeghe, I. J. and Pain, K. (2023) Mental wellbeing, housing provision and social valuation in a United Kingdom context: a planning issue? Built Environment: Urban Planning and Public Health Special Issue., 49 (2). pp. 286-303. ISSN 0263-7960

Kwon, H. R. and Pain, K. (2023) Searching for health and wellbeing: commercial real estate actor encounters with planning in the urban decision-making ‘Black box’. Built Environment, 49 (2). pp. 229-247. ISSN 0263-7960

Wong, C., Pain, K., Kwon, H. R. and Koksal, C. (2023) Urban planning and public health. Built Environment, 49 (2). pp. 157-165. ISSN 0263-7960

Pain, K., Shu, S., Black, D., Blower, J., Grimmond, S., Hunt, A., Milcheva, S., Crawford, B., Dale, N., Doolin, S. and Manna, S. (2023) Real estate investment and urban density: exploring the polycentric urban region using a topological lens. Territory, Politics, Governance, 11 (2). pp. 241-260. ISSN 2162-268X

Shi, S., Pain, K. and Chen, X., Looking into mobility in the Covid-19 ‘eye of the storm’: Simulating virus spread and urban resilience in the Wuhan city region travel flow network, 2022, Cities: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.citi...

Zhu, B., Pain, K., Derudder, B., Taylor, P. Exploring External Urban Relational Processes: Inter-city Financial Flows complementing Global City-Regions, Regional Studies, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2021.1921136.

Pain, K., Shi, S. Cities, Networks, Polycentrism: Examining the place of polycentrism in spaces of flows, Cities and Networks Handbook, Neal, Z., Rozenblat, C. (eds.), 2021 Cheltenham, Edward Elgar. ISBN 978 1 78811 471 4.

Pain, K., Shi, S., Black, D., Blower, B., Grimmond, S., Hunt, A., Milcheva, S. Crawford, B., Dale, N., Doolin, S., Manna, S. Real estate investment and urban density: Exploring the PUR territorial governance agenda using a topological lens, Territory, Politics, Governance, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2020.1837665

Pain, K. and Shi, S. (2021) Cities, networks, polycentrism – examining the place of polycentrism in spaces of flows. In: Neal, Z. P. and Rozenblat, C. (eds.) Handbook of Cities and Networks. Research Handbooks in Urban Studies series. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 493-510. ISBN 9781788114714

Reference: Black, D., Bates, G., Gibson, A., Pain, K. , Rosenberg, G. and White, J. (2025) What is “good” co-production in the context of planetary health research, and how is it enabled? Earth System Governance, 23. 100229. ISSN 2589-8116 doi: 10.1016/j.esg.2024.100229
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Black, D., Bates, G., Callway, R., Pain, K. and Kirton-Darling, E. (2024) Short-termism in urban development: the commercial determinants of planetary health. Earth System Governance, 22. 100220. ISSN 2589-8116 doi: 10.1016/j.esg.2024.100220
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Wong, C., Pain, K. , Kwon, H. R. and Koksal, C. (2023) Urban planning and public health. Built Environment, 49 (2). pp. 157-165. ISSN 0263-7960
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Emeghe, I. J. and Pain, K. (2023) Mental wellbeing, housing provision and social valuation in a United Kingdom context: a planning issue? Built Environment: Urban Planning and Public Health Special Issue., 49 (2). pp. 286-303. ISSN 0263-7960
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Kwon, H. R. and Pain, K. (2023) Searching for health and wellbeing: commercial real estate actor encounters with planning in the urban decision-making ‘Black box’. Built Environment, 49 (2). pp. 229-247. ISSN 0263-7960
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Burnett, A. and Pain, K. (2023) Linking environmental and human health in English urban development decision-making: the human health literacy of environmental policy. Built Environment, 49 (2). pp. 187-206. ISSN 0263-7960
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Black, D., Ayres, S., Bondy, K., Brierley, R., Campbell, R., Carhart, N., Coggon, J., Eaton, E., Fichera, E., Gibson, A., Hatleskog, E. , Hickman, M., Hicks, B., Hunt, A., Pain, K. , Pearce, N., Pilkington, P., Rosenburg, G. and Scally, G. (2022) Tackling root causes upstream of unhealthy urban development (TRUUD): protocol of a five-year prevention research consortium. Wellcome Open Research, 6. 30. ISSN 2398-502X doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16382.1
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Shi, S., Pain, K. and Chen, X. (2022) Looking into mobility in the Covid-19 ‘eye of the storm’: simulating virus spread and urban resilience in the Wuhan city region travel flow network. Cities, 126. 103675. ISSN 0264-2751 doi: 10.1016/j.cities.2022.103675
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Pain, K. and Shi, S. (2021) Cities, networks, polycentrism – examining the place of polycentrism in spaces of flows. In: Neal, Z. P. and Rozenblat, C. (eds.) Handbook of Cities and Networks. Research Handbooks in Urban Studies series. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 493-510. ISBN 9781788114714
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Shuai, S. and Pain, K. (2020) Investigating China’s Mid-Yangtze River economic growth region using a spatial network growth model. Urban Studies, 57 (14). pp. 2973-2993. ISSN 1360-063X doi: 10.1177/0042098019894232
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Derudder, B. and Pain, K. , (2018) ‘Global Chengdu’: an analysis of Chengdu's position in the global economy - a report to the city of Chengdu. GaWC Projects. 105. Report. Globalization & World Cities Research Network, Loughborough, UK. pp58.
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Barlow, J. , Best, M., Bohnenstengel, S. I., Clark, P. , Grimmond, S. , Lean, H., Christen, A., Emeis, S., Haeffelin, M., Harman, I. N., Lemonsu, A., Martilli, A., Pardyjak, E., Rotach, M. W., Ballard, S., Boutle, I., Brown, A., Cai, X., Carpentieri, M., Coceal, O. , Crawford, B. , Di Sabatino, S., Dou, J., Drew, D. R. , Edwards, J. M., Fallmann, J., Fortuniak, K., Gornall, J., Gronemeier, T., Halios, C. , Hertwig, D. , Hirano, K., Holtslag, A. A.M., Luo, Z. , Mills, G., Nakayoshi, M., Pain, K. , Schlünzen, K. H., Smith, S. , Soulhac, L., Steeneveld, G.-J., Sun, T. , Theeuwes, N. , Thomson, D., Voogt, J. A., Ward, H. C., Xie, Z.-T. and Zhong, J. (2017) Developing a research strategy to better understand, observe, and simulate urban atmospheric processes at kilometer to subkilometer scales. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 98 (10). ES261-ES264. ISSN 1520-0477 doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-17-0106.1
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Shi, S., Wall, R. and Pain, K. (2017) The conjunction of networked agglomeration and location factor in Chinese cities: taking FDI and domestic investment as an example. In: Ni, P., Kamiya, M. and Ding, R. (eds.) Cities Network along the Silk Road: The Global Competitiveness Report 2017. Springer Nature, Singapore, pp. 235-267. ISBN 9789811048333
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Pain, K. (2017) The challenges for effective governance of real estate development in a future urban world. In: Squires, G., Heurkens, E. and Peiser, R. (eds.) Routledge Companion to Real Estate Development. Routledge Companions. Routledge, Abingdon. ISBN 9781138914346
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Pain, K. (2017) Megaregions imaginaries: excursions through a dialectical maze. The Geographical Review, 107 (3). pp. 536-550. ISSN 1931-0846 doi: 10.1111/j.1931-0846.2016.12171.x
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Pain, K. (2017) World cities. In: Richardson, D., Castree, N., Goodchild, M. F., Kobayashi, A. L., Liu, W. and Marston, R. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, pp. 1-9. ISBN 9780470659632 doi: 10.1002/9781118786352
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Pain, K. , Van Hamme, G., Vinciguerra, S. and David, Q. (2016) Global networks, cities and economic performance: Observations from an analysis of cities in Europe and the USA. Urban Studies, 53 (6). pp. 1137-1161. ISSN 0042-0980 doi: 10.1177/0042098015577303
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Adams, D., Larkham, P. and Pain, K. (2015) Re-evaluating the place of urban planning history. Town Planning Review, 86 (4). pp. 373-379. ISSN 1478-341X doi: 10.3828/tpr.2015.24
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Pain, K. , (2012) Locational investment: where to target investment for maximum economic returns. RICS Research. Report. Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Pain, K. (2011) Form follows finance. Modus. pp. 16-21.
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Pain, K. (2011) 'New worlds’ for ‘old’? Twenty-first century gateways and corridors: reflections on a European spatial perspective. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 35 (6). pp. 1154-1174. ISSN 1468-2427 doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2010.01005.x
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Crampton, G. R. , Francis-Brophy, E. , Meen, G. , Nygaard, C., Pain, K. and Wadeson, N. , (2010) The Reading Diamond Local Economic Assessment. Report. University of Reading/Reading Diamond Forum, Reading. pp105.
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Halbert, L. and Pain, K. (2010) Services globaux, géographies locales : les services aux entreprises dans les métropoles de Londres et Paris. Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography (510). ISSN 1278-3366
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Vinciguerra, S. , Taylor, P.J., Hoyler, M. and Pain, K. (2010) Contemporary mappa mundi: American exceptionalism in the world city network. Environment and Planning A, 42 (6). pp. 1271-1272. ISSN 0308-518X doi: 10.1068/a4352
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Taylor, P. J., Evans, D. M., Hoyler, M., Derudder, B. and Pain, K. (2009) The UK space economy as practised by advanced producer service firms: identifying two distinctive polycentric city-regional processes in contemporary Britain. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 33 (3). pp. 700-718. ISSN 1468-2427 doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2009.00857.x
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Mahroum, S., Huggins, R., Clayton, N., Pain, K. and Taylor, P., (2008) Innovation by adoption: measuring and mapping absorptive capacity in UK nations and regions. Report. National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, London. pp108. ISBN 9781848750296
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Halbert, L., Pain, K. and Thierstein, A. (2006) European polycentricity and emerging mega-city regions - 'one size fits all' policy? Built Environment, 32 (2). pp. 206-218. ISSN 0263-7960 doi: 10.2148/benv.32.2.206
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Blowers, A. and Pain, K. (1999) The unsustainable city? In: Pile, S., Brook, C. and Mooney, G. (eds.) Understanding Cities: Unruly Cities? Order/Disorder. Routledge. ISBN 0415200733
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain
Reference: Brook, C. and Pain, K. (1999) Postscript. In: Brook, C. and Pain, K. (eds.) Understanding Cities: City Themes. The Open University. ISBN 0749277815
Henley faculty authors:
Kathy Pain

Cities, Regions and Strategic Governance

The module prepares students for planning and development leadership roles. Students will gain understanding of the conceptual and practical challenges faced in applying the principles of strategic planning in dynamic...

Module code: REMP32

Medical Research Council UKPRP, ‘Tackling the Root Causes of Unhealthy Planning, Economics and Decision-making: An Urban Systems Approach, (TRUED Urban Systems)’, 2019-2014.

China Municipal Government / National Business Daily, ‘Global Chengdu: An Analysis of Chengdu’s Position in the Global Economy’, 2018.

Urban Land Institute / New Climate Economy, ‘Supporting Smart Urban Growth: Successful Investing in Density’, 2016-17.

European Spatial Observation Network (ESPON), Continental Territorial Structures and Flows (Globalization): ‘TIGER: Territorial Impact of Globalization for Europe and its Regions’, 2010–2012.

Reading Community Interest Company / Reading Diamond Forum, ‘The Reading Diamond Local Economic Assessment’, 2010.

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), ‘Benchmarking the World City Network: City Connectivities on the Eve of the Financial Crisis’, 2009–2010.

National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, ‘Project to map and measure the absorptive capacity of UK cities and regions’, 2008.

European Commission INTERREG IIIB North-West Europe, ‘POLYNET: Sustainable Management of European Polycentric Mega-City Regions’, 2003-2006.