Paul Boniface Akaabre
Pronouns: He/Him
Contact
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science - Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
- akaabre@ualberta.ca
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
Urban Planning Housing Neighbourhood Revitalization Spaitial Justice Equitable Development Property Rights Land Governance Climate Change Migration
About
Dr. Akaabre received his PhD from the School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) at the University of British Columbia. His work examined how traditional leasehold tenure function and influence the flow of investment to housing improvements and (re)development as well as how leaseholders’ rights in such systems might be strengthened. Prior to joining the University of Alberta, Dr. Akaabre worked with the School of Cities at the University of Toronto as a Postdoctoral Fellow where he facilitated a series of workshops on Equitable Development Data Insight Training Initiative (EDDIT) that offers data analysis and storytelling training to non-profit, community, and government organizations working towards urban equity in small and mid-sized cities in the U.S. and Canada. He also led and contributed to some of the exciting projects at the School of Cities, primarily on evaluating potential solutions to the continent’s affordable housing crisis. Dr. Akaabre's interest in indigenous people and reconciliation-based planning as well as decolonization and redevelopment of aging, unjust and racialized communities motivated him to work with BC Housing – a public agency and one of the biggest developers of housing in Western Canada – on the Riverview/səmiq̓ʷəʔelə land redevelopment project in partnership with the Kwikwetlem First Nation (KFN). He is a member of the Planning Institute of British Columbia (PIBC) and the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP).
Research
Dr. Akaabre's research focuses on the broad spectrum of housing development, finance and justice and how the current planning system and practices shape (in)equitable development and spatial (in)justice in cities. This includes housing development and financing models, housing inclusion and exclusion (discrimination), displacement, ghettoization, and homelessness, as well as decolonization and redevelopment of aging, unjust, and racialized communities. Other areas of interest include municipal finance and governance, healthy and equitable cities, inclusive and equitable development, land governance and property rights (including UNDRIP implementation), climate change and migration's impact on urban livelihoods, poverty and food security, and the equitable integration of smart city innovations into urban planning. His work is undertaken in North America and Sub-Saharan Africa and employs various methodologies (qualitative, quantitative-- field experiments, and mixed methods). Dr. Akaabre et al.’s work on the progressiveness of Canadian property taxation, which found that Vancouver and Toronto exhibit a particularly weak relationship between income tax and property values—partly due to influx of overseas wealth into the housing market (published in the National Tax Journal)—has received wide media coverage. A coverage of this study can be found on Global News. Currently, Dr. Akaabre is auditing housing discrimination in Canada and exploring models for redevelopment of aging and underutilized buildings (houses) in cities of Ghana and Canada, as well as how smart city technologies and digital systems can be designed and/or integrated into urban planning to address, rather than reinforce, socioeconomic and spatial injustice.
Courses
PLAN 412 - Finance for Planners
An introduction to municipal finances and the development process as it relates to the Planning profession. Prerequisite: ECON 101. Not available for students with credit in HGP 412. Restricted to Planning Major and Planning Specialization students.
PLAN 512 - Advanced Finance for Planners
An introduction to municipal finances and the development process as it relates to the planning profession. Sections offered at an increased rate of fee assessment; refer to the Tuition and Fees page in the University Regulations sections of the Calendar.
Featured Publications
Paul Boniface Akaabre
Journal of Urban Affairs. 2025 March; 10.1080/07352166.2025.2471720
Paul Boniface Akaabre
Cities. 2025 January; 158 (2025):105687 10.1016/j.cities.2024.105687
Paul Boniface Akaabre
Land Use Policy. 2023 August; 10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106747
Thomas Davidoff, Paul Boniface Akaabre, Craig Jones
Canadian Tax Journal/Revue fiscale canadienne. 2022 January; 10.32721/ctj.2022.70.4.pf.davidoff
Paul Boniface Akaabre, Michael Poku-Boansi, Kwasi Kwafo Adarkwa
Cities. 2018 December; 10.1016/j.cities.2018.06.006
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