Susan S. Fainstein is a Senior Research Fellow in the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Her book The Just City was published in 2010 by Cornell University Press and won the Davidoff Award of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP). Among her other authored books are The City Builders: Property, Politics, and Planning in London and New York; Restructuring the City; and Urban Political Movements. She has edited books on planning theory, urban theory, urban tourism, and gender and planning. Her research interests focus on theories of justice, urban redevelopment, and comparative urban policy. She has received the Distinguished Educator Award of the ACSP, which recognizes lifetime career achievement. Dr. Fainstein has been a professor of planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, and the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University and a visiting professor at, among others, the University of Amsterdam and the National University of Singapore. She was an editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research and of Ethnic and Racial Studies and a consultant to various public organizations. She received her A.B. from Harvard University in government, her M.A. from Boston University in African Studies, and her Ph.D. in political science from MIT. Susan Fainstein’s theoretical stance was forged in the late 1960s and 1970s when urban political movements were inspiring young urbanist intellectuals. Her concern for inequality and social justice and her use of a political economic framework for analyzing them have remained consistent to this day. The evolution of her thought has been driven by her empirical work, which has led her to misgivings about the potential of community empowerment to achieve progressive change for two reasons: neighborhoods themselves can be dominated by self-serving agendas; and when neighborhood agendas are progressive, they are unlikely to prevail unless backed by influential leaders. Although she does not consider planners as able to bring about major changes by themselves, she does think they can refocus agendas, oppose harmful policies, and press for greater equity. Despite skepticism that powerful elites will yield to the force of persuasion, Fainstein’s understanding of the state and capital as fragmented inspire a view that planners can work strategically with broad-based social movements and reformist politicians to build more Just Cities. ; AESOP Young Academics Booklet Project Conversations in Planning Booklet 6