Regular Contributor
My name is Simone Pekelsma (Leiden, 1984) and I have always been interested in city life. Already as a little girl, I was intrigued by the diversity present in cities : the buildings, the places, but especially the people. When I was a 19-year old student I took part in an Erasmus exchange, studying in Istanbul for one semester. That year, I discovered megacity life. I was deeply fascinated, and have never left the urban field ever since. I guess I never will: at the moment I am a PhD student in Human Geography at Nijmegen University, studying the implications of the global spread of gated communities, and particularly focusing on Istanbul and Rotterdam. At the same time, I am working as a freelance urban researcher, writing on a wide range of urban development issues. As part of this latter activity, I am also involved in URBACT, regularly contributing to the work of the Dutch NDP based in The Hague. I am @simonepekelsma on Twitter.