Chair, NACTS’ Faculty Advisory Council
Assitant Professor, ASU's School of Planning
Francisco Lara-Valencia is an urban planner who studies socio-environmental vulnerability, local development and urban growth along the U.S.-Mexico border. Dr. Lara-Valencia's major areas of inquiry include socio-environmental vulnerability, urban health, regional development, binational planning and the role of community networks on sustainable development. His policy research focuses on issues of equity and efficiency of policy making in the Southwest and the impact of globalization and free trade in urban communities along the US-Mexico border.
Q: Describe your current work/research related to North American/border issues.
A: My current research focuses on cross-border collaboration on urban and environmental matters affecting communities on both sides of the U.S-Mexico border. Cross-border collaboration generally materializes in networks and partnerships involving exchange of information and knowledge and in the development of a common vision of the border region. I am interested in understanding how cross-border collaboration can be used to solve shared environmental and urban problems along the border and in how planners can become effective players in the promotion of collaborative strategies to address pressing issues like the growing vulnerability of border cities to natural and technological hazard.
Q: How is NACTS supporting your work?
A: NACTS is helping to make border issues an important area for basic research and policy-oriented studies in ASU. NACTS is also supporting my research and facilitating networking with other border scholars in ASU and other universities in North America.
Q: In your opinion, what is one of the most pressing issues facing North America today?
A: In my opinion, at this moment the most pressing issue is to make decision makers in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. aware of the interconnectedness of the region. We need to work harder to transform the idea of North America from a vague notion into a social, economic, and ecological reality.
Q: As the Canada, the United States and Mexico become increasingly interdependent, how can North America become more collaborative?
A: We should facilitate the exchange of ideas, information and knowledge. At the same time we should identify experiences demonstrating the benefits of using integrated approaches to handle regional issues. One of such areas is the environment, in which the region has accomplished a lot in the last decade. Finally, we also need to develop tools to measure the progress of the three countries toward the “north-americanization” of national issues. I think all these are areas in which NACTS is putting a lot of energy.
Q: NACTS has a number of projects and partnerships. Which of these projects or partnerships are you most excited about?
A: Understanding the implications of September 11th for border management in North America is one of the projects that excites me the most. This project involves partnering with Mexican and Canadian scholars that are working hard to evaluate the environmental and economics impacts of the “thickening” of the common borders and are trying to find ways to diffuse its long-term negative impacts on trust and cooperation.
Q: What kind of impact do you (fore)see NACTS having on North American issues?
A: First and foremost, NACTS will increase the visibility and prominence of ASU in the field of North American studies through original and policy-oriented research. One of the greatest impacts of NACTS is that it is helping to create two-ways bridges between scholars and policy-makers nationally and across boundaries.
