ANTONIO RACITI

Antonio Raciti is Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the School of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome. His work is grounded in planning theory, community development, and collaborative governance, with particular attention to power relations, institutions, and the role of community–university partnerships in urban transformation.
He developed his research trajectory through more than a decade of academic experience in the United States. His early work, carried out at the University of Memphis, focused on community design, advocacy planning, and action research in disinvested urban neighborhoods, emphasizing participatory processes and grassroots organizing. He later joined the University of Massachusetts Boston, where his scholarship shifted toward the study of climate adaptation as a planning and governance challenge, examining how institutional coalitions, civic actors, and planning systems shape responses to environmental risk and inequality. This line of work has been supported by federal and state research funding and is rooted in long-term partnerships with municipalities, community organizations, and public agencies.
He has published in leading international journals including Planning Theory & Practice, Journal of Planning History, Journal of Planning Education and Research, and Cities. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Planning Education and Research and is actively involved in international planning networks (AESOP, ACSP, SIU). His research and teaching emphasize action research and sustained engagement with communities and institutions in both the United States and Italy.

Selected Recent Publications

• Raciti, A., (Forthcoming) Disancorare le Anchor Institution? Il Ruolo delle Università nei Processi Collaborativi per l’Adattamento. Tracce Urbane. Rivista italiana transdisciplinare di studi urbani.
• Tornabene, S. and Raciti, A., (Forthcoming) Beyond the Capitalist/Alternative Economic Binary: Diverse Economies in Urban Planning, in The Routledge Companion to Urban Planning, Balakrishnan, S., Phelps, N.A., and Sotomayor, L. (eds.)
• Raciti, A., Negrón, R., & Herst, R. (2025). Collaboration in Adaptation Planning: Power Clusters and Opportunities for Governance Arrangements in Metro-Boston. Planning Theory & Practice, 26(4), 557–577. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2025.2539877
• Raciti, A., and Reardon, K., (2024) Paul Davidoff’s Life in Prospect: Building a Progressive Planning Research Agenda through Engaged Scholarship. Journal of Planning History, 24 (1), 40-57. https://doi.org/10.1177/15385132241270287
• Estrada-Martínez, L. M., Raciti, A., Reardon, K. M., Reyes, A. G., and Israel, B. A., (2021) Is the Scholarship of Engagement a Meaningful Approach to Foster Change in Community Development Education? Field Notes from Three Community/University Partnerships. International Journal of Community Well-Being, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42413-021-00114-w
• Raciti, A., (2020) Whose Traditions Count? Questioning New Urbanism’s Traditional Neighborhood in the American South. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 44 (1), 178-193. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X20954532
• Saija, L., Santo, C. A., and Raciti, A., (2020) The deep roots of austere planning in Memphis, TN: is the fox guarding the hen house? International Planning Studies, 25(1), 38-51.
  https://doi.org/10.1080/13563475.2019.1703653
• Raciti, A., (2020) ‘Community Design’ e Pratiche Sociali. Esperienze di Progetto-Azione in Italia e negli Stati Uniti. Bonanno, Rome. ISBN: 978-88-6318-262-0