Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann

David Kaufmann is the Assistant Professor of Spatial Development and Urban Policy at ETH Zürich. He serves as the Director of the Network City and Landscape and as the Deputy Director of the Institute for Spatial and Landscape Development (both at ETH Zürich).

He is an urban studies scholar with an interest in planning, policy, and migration studies. His research motivation is to understand and contribute to sustainable, democratic, and just urban development through policy-making and planning.

David Kaufmann studied political science at the University of Zürich and the University of Lund. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Bern in December 2016. He was a guest researcher at the University of Toronto, Leiden University, Virginia Tech, and the University of Ottawa.

He is the co-editor of the forthcoming book Global Urban Policy (2025, University of Michigan Press), the author of the book Varieties of Capital Cities (2018, Edward Elgar), and the co-author of the book The Political Economy of Capital Cities (2018, Routledge). His work has been published in leading international journals such as PNAS,  Nature Sustainability, Urban Studies, Planning Theory, Journal of the American Planning Association, British Journal of Political Science, and Governance.  

David Kaufmann received the 2018 Carl-Goerdeler-Preis for the best Ph.D. thesis about local politics or local administration in business and social sciences in German-speaking countries and the 2020 Clarence Stone Scholar Award as well as the 2017 Susan Clarke Young Scholars’ Award both awarded by the American Political Science Association section Urban and Local Politics for outstanding early career researcher. He also received the 2021 Best Paper in Urban or Regional Politics (together with Dr. Raffaele Bazurli) awarded by the Urban Affairs Review and the American Political Science Association section “Urban and Local Politics” and the 2017 Best Comparative Policy Paper Award (together with Prof. Dr. Fritz Sager) awarded by the journal JCPA and the „IPSA Research Committee on Comparative Studies on Local Governments and Politics”.

At ETH Zürich, he is a member of the Network City and Landscape, ETH for Development, the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy, and of the Center for Comparative and International Studies at ETH Zürich.

Academic positions

• 2019-ongoing: ETH Zürich, Assistant Professor
• 2017 – 2019: University of Bern, Postdoctoral Researcher
  • 06-07/2019: University of Toronto, School of Cities, Visiting Fellow
• 2013-2016: University of Bern, Ph.D. student, Research and Teaching Assistant
  • 03-05/2015: Ottawa University, Guest Researcher
  • 12/2014-02/2015: Virginia Tech, Guest Researcher
  • 09-11/2014: Leiden University, Guest Researcher

Education

• 2016: Ph.D. University of Bern
• 2012: M.A. University of Zürich
• 2010: B.A. University of Zürich
  • 2008-2009: University of Lund, Erasmus exchange year (two semesters)
• 2006: Higher education entrance qualification for adults (Passarelle)
• 2004: Commercial Apprenticeship with Professional Maturity