Kathy Pain was the Project Coordinator and Co-director of the 2003-06 EU POLYNET: Sustainable Management of European Polycentric Mega-City Regions study funded by the N.W. Europe Interreg IIIB Programme. This major study, led by the Young Foundation, has involved a large international academic research team working in seven European countries http://www.polynet.org.uk

Kathy is a geographer-planner with a PhD from the University of Reading. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Corporate Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute. She has worked as a professional urban planner in London and South East England and taught at the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Birmingham, and the Open University. She is currently a Lecturer in Human Geography and Director of Applied Studies in the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research group at Loughborough University. She is Course Convenor for two new 2007-08 undergraduate modules: Sustainable Cities in Globalization; the Global Cities - New York Fieldcourse, and two MSc dissertation programmes.  Kathy has recently become the ALDAR Professor of Real Estate Development at the University of Reading.

Kathy's research interests are focused on inter-city relations and economic development in contemporary globalization and their implications for sustainability, public policy and planning. At Loughborough University and the Young Foundation, she has undertaken in-depth research into the changing geographies of city-located advanced business services. Her current work is investigating the impacts of business network extension associated with liberalization/integration in ‘new wave' globalization. Her work in the UK and Europe has led to policy and academic collaborations in the US, Canada and China. Extracts from her 2006 book with Peter Hall: The Polycentric Metropolis: Learning from mega-city regions in Europe, published by Earthscan, and other journal papers, has recently been translated into the Chinese language for February 2008 publication in Urban Planning International.

Selected Publications

Pain, K. (2007) "Spaces of Practice in Advanced Business Services: Re-thinking London-Frankfurt relations" Environment and Planning D - Society and Space (forthcoming 2007 online advance publication).

Pain, K. (2007) "City of London Global Village: Understanding the Square Mile in a Post-industrial World Economy" in Barber, S. (ed.), The Geo-politics of the City, London, European Research Forum.

Pain, K. (2007) "Integrating the European Space: Flows and Places in North West European City-Region Networks" in Cattan, N. (ed.), Cities and Networks in Europe: A critical approach to polycentrism, Montrouge, Fr, John Libbey Eurotext.

Pain, K. with Cook, G.A.S., Pandit, N.R., Beaverstock, J.V. and Taylor, P.J. (2007) "The role of location in knowledge creation and diffusion: evidence of centripetal and centrifugal forces in the City of London financial services agglomeration" Environment and Planning A, 39(6), 1325-1345.

Pain, K. with Hall, P. (2006) (author eds.) The Polycentric Metropolis: Learning from mega-city regions in Europe, London, Earthscan.

Pain, K. (2006) "Policy Challenges of Functional Polycentricity in a Global Mega-City Region: South East England", Built Environment, 32(2), 194-205.

Pain, K. with Halbert, L. and Thierstein, A. (2006) "European Polycentricity and Emerging Mega-City Regions - One size fits all policy?" Built Environment, 32(2), 206-218.

Pain, K. with Beaverstock, J.V., Hoyler, M. and Taylor, P.J. (2006) ''In London's long shadow: Frankfurt in the European Space of Flows'', in Relocating Global Cities: From the Center to the Margins, Amen, M., Archer, K. and Bosman, N.M. (eds.), Lanham, Md., Rowman and Littlefield, pp 23-47.

Pain, K. with Beaverstock, J.V., Hoyler, M. and Taylor, P.J. (2005) ''Demystifying the Euro in European financial centre relations: London and Frankfurt, 2000-2001'', Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 13(2), 143-157.

Pain, K. with Cochrane, A. (2004) (2nd edition) "A Globalizing Society?" in A Globalizing World? Culture, Economics, Politics, Held, D. (ed.), London, Routledge, pp 5-45.

Pain, K. with Beaverstock, J.V., Hoyler, M. and Taylor, P.J. (2003) ''London and Frankfurt: competition or synergy?'', in International Investor, Shearlock, P. (ed.), London, Sovereign Publications, pp 225-229.

Pain, K. with Hoyler, M. (2002) ''London and Frankfurt as world cities: changing local-global relations'', in Stadt und Region: Dynamik von Lebenswelten, Mayr, A., Meurer, M. and Vogt J. (eds.), Leipzig, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geographie, pp 76-87.

Pain, K. with Blowers, A. (1999) "The Unsustainable City?" in Understanding Cities: Unruly Cities? Order/Disorder, Pile, S. Brook, C. and Mooney, G. (eds.), London, Routledge, pp 247-298.

Pain, K. with Brook, C. (1999) (eds.) Understanding Cities: City Themes, Milton Keynes, the Open University.