Dr Stephanie Butcher

School of Geography and Planning

Lecturer in Global Sustainable Development

Stephanie Butcher
Profile picture of Stephanie Butcher
s.butcher@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 7958
F04, Geography and Planning Building

Full contact details

Dr Stephanie Butcher
School of Geography and Planning
F04
Geography and Planning Building
Winter Street
Sheffield
S3 7ND
Profile

Stephanie is a Lecturer in Global Sustainable Development in the Department of Geography at Sheffield University. Prior to this, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, with the UKRI Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality programme (2018-2022), focusing on knowledge translation- tracing how diverse knowledge(s) produced by grassroots activists can inform local-level policy and planning, as well global agendas such as the SDGs, and how policy and planning can better respond to everyday conditions of inequalities.

Her PhD was completed with the Development Planning Unit, at the University College London, and focused on the 'everyday politics' of water infrastructure for informal settlement residents in Kathmandu, Nepal. Informed by participatory action-research, it examined the micro-politics of how gender, tenure relations, and ethnicity shaped how diverse residents interacted with the socio-technical aspects of infrastructure, impacting a sense of citizenship.

Dr Stephanie Butcher, Lecturer in Global Sustainable Development, introduces the Department of Geography's new interdisciplinary undergraduate degree.
Research interests

Research interests focus on citizen participation in urban governance, gender and diversity, and urban inequalities (especially housing and infrastructure). As a part of this work, I have partnered with grassroots organisations, NGOs, and/or research institutes in cities in Nepal, Kenya, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone and the UK to support community-driven processes of development. I am particularly interested in the use of participatory methodologies, the ethics of action-research, and critical pedagogies.

Current research and teaching focuses on three interconnected strands:

1. Global Development & Social Justice: Examining the production of inequalities within housing, infrastructural, and environmental policies, planning, and practice, and the conceptual implications of engaging theoretical frames such as social justice and citizenship in rethinking development.

2. Knowledge and Ethics: Examining the epistemologies that underpin how we think about contested concepts such as sustainability and resilience, and the contribution of especially Feminist and Southern epistemologies in building knowledge which can address global challenges.

3. Social Mobilisation and Action: Examining the collective practices through which peripheralized groups are mobilising against conditions of inequalities, and the possibilities for how these practices might rupture or renegotiate capitalist/colonial/patriarchal structures which are driving uneven processes of development.

Publications

Journal articles

  • Butcher S, Fattah KN, Dam J & Marathe R (2025) . World Development Perspectives, 38, 100689-100689.
  • Butcher S, P矇rez-Castro B, Lipietz B, Boonyabancha S, Kerr T, Shah K, Patel S, Hosaka M, Manandhar L, Cadornigara S , Hasan A et al (2025) . Environment & Urbanization, 37(1), 76-94.
  • Butcher S, Shafique T, Recio RB & Chatterjee I (2025) . International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 49(2), 452-467.
  • Kumar A, Butcher S, Hammett D, Barragan-Contreras S, Burns V, Chesworth O, Cooper G, Kanai JM, Mottram H, Poveda S & Richardson P (2024) . International Development Planning Review, 46(2), 227-242.
  • Levy C, Apsan Frediani A, Butcher S, Coci簽a C & Acuto M (2023) . Environment and Urbanization, 35(1), 3-11.
  • Coci簽a C, Frediani AA, Butcher S, Levy C & Acuto M (2022) . Environment and Urbanization, 34(2), 269-277.
  • Butcher S, Coci簽a C, Apsan Frediani A, Acuto M, P矇rezCastro B, Pe簽aD穩az J, CazanaveMac穩as J, Koroma B & Macarthy J (2022) . Urban Planning, 7(3), 206-218.
  • Macarthy J, Koroma B, Coci簽a C, Butcher S & Apsan Frediani A (2022) . Environment and Urbanization, 34(2), 294-312.
  • Butcher S (2022) . International Development Planning Review, 44(1), 13-32.
  • Butcher S, Acuto M & Trundle A (2021) . One Earth, 4(11), 1548-1556.
  • Butcher S (2021) . International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 45(6), 948-963.
  • Acuto M, Dickey A, Butcher S & Washbourne C-L (2021) . World Development, 140, 105295-105295.
  • Butcher S (2021) . Gender, Place & Culture, 28(4), 497-518.
  • Walker J & Butcher S (2016) . International Development Planning Review, 38(3), 275-295.
  • Butcher S & Apsan Frediani A (2014) . City, 18(2), 119-133.

Book chapters

  • Butcher S (2021) Infrastructural Relations: Participation and Diversity in Community- Based Water Management in Kathmandu, Nepal In Rigon A & Castan Broto V (Ed.), Inclusive Urban Development in the Global South Intersectionality, Inequalities, and Community Routledge
  • Frediani AA, Lipietz B & Butcher S (2017) Strategic Upgrading: Lessons from International Critical Practices In Cirolia L, G繹rgens T, van Donk M, Smit W & Drimie S (Ed.), Upgrading Informal Settlements in South Africa Pursuing a partnership-based approach Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd
  • Butcher S (2015) The Everyday Water Practices of the Urban Poor in Kisumu, Kenya In Wilson Center (Ed.), In Urban Solutions: Metropolitan Approaches, Innovation in Urban Water and Sanitation, and Inclusive Smart Cities: A New Generation of Ideas