Dr. Karina Pallagst is the director of the Shrinking Cities in a Global Perspective Program at UC Berkeley’s IURD and the Center for Global Metropolitan Studies. Karina Pallagst previously worked as Senior Researcher at the Institute of Ecological and Regional Development (IOER) Dresden/Germany and Program Coordinator at UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD). She is co-founder and member of the Management Board of SCiRN^TM, the Shrinking Cities international Research Network (www.shrinkingcities.org). Dr. Pallagst’s publications and research focus primarily on comparative urban and regional studies as well as land use planning theory and practice. Her book on growth management in the US between theory and practice was published in March 2007. She is presently finishing a co-edited volume on shrinking cities in a global perspective. She has consulted on a number of international urban development and land use projects and think tanks. Karina Pallagst received her PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of Kaiserslautern/ Germany, and holds a post doctoral degree (Habilitation) from Dresden Technical University/ Germany.