Scott Roulier

Thriving Cities Lab Co-Director,
David Trimble Chair of Political Philosophy, Lyon College
In hindsight, it was in probably in Freiburg, Germany, where Scott spent a year doing social work, that he became keenly aware of how urban design engenders a feeling of place. Wandering the cobblestone streets of the Altstadt — admiring its aqueous capillaries or Bächle and its Gothic Mūnster — he experienced how urban planning, attentive to human needs and desires, promotes livability, sustainability, and a vibrant communal life. He carried these lessons with him when he later served on his local planning commission. As an academic, after an early career focused on modern political theory, Scott’s work took a decidedly spatial turn, exploring the relationship between urban planning and design, on the one hand, and democratic practice and values, on the other — examining how the former can foster or inhibit the development and preservation of the latter. His interest in urbanization, a global phenomenon, has taken Scott to Southeast Asia where he studied the tension between the acute need for recreational amenities and new infrastructure in densely populated cities and the corresponding social dislocation and environmental destruction that these projects often produce. Finally, co-leading a longitudinal study on civic health in the Mexico City Basin provided a golden opportunity to assess the efficacy of various civic capacity building strategies, and this interest in community development continues to play a central role in his work with the Thriving Cities Lab. In addition to his work at the Institute, Scott holds the David Trimble Chair of Political Philosophy at Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas.

View Scott’s IASC academic bio here.