Stefan Wittwer joined the SPUR team as a scientific assistant on August 1st 2020.
Stefan Wittwer (*1990) is an interdisciplinary researcher interested in regional and urban development policies. He is currently finishing his dissertation at the University of Bern, where he focuses on the local autonomy and interdependencies of Swiss small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs) in a polycentric environment and examines whether SMSTs can actively shape their economic development.
Stefan also studies horizontal and vertical governance mechanisms in the implementation of re-gional economic development policy in Switzerland and examines how intensified political conflict can lead to consequential changes in front-line workers' behavior.
He joined the Chair of Spatial Development and Urban Policy (SPUR) of Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann at ETH Zürich in August 2020 as a scientific assistant. After completion of his dissertation, he will become a Postdoc in the SPUR team.
At SPUR, among other collaborations with members of the team, he examines the use and implications of the diverse set of spatial planning instruments in both cities and smaller munic-ipalities. More specifically, he is interested in how the spatial context and administrative fac-tors might have an impact of the successful implementation of spatial planning strategies.
Stefan also holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration from the University of Bern and the University of Konstanz, and a Bachelor in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Zurich. He previously worked as a research and teaching assistant at the Center for Public Management (KPM) at the University of Bern. The first pa-per of his dissertation has been published in Regional Studies.