Westphal College of Media Arts & Design

Andrew Zitcer is the director of the Urban Strategy graduate program, and an associate professor of Arts Administration. He teaches courses in civic engagement, research design and methods, creative placemaking, and cultural policy. Andrew’s research focuses on cooperative social and economic practices, as well as the role of arts in sustaining democracy. His book, Practicing Cooperation: Mutual Aid Beyond Capitalism was published by University of Minnesota Press in 2021. A co-edited volume with Tom Borrup, Democracy as Creative Practice: Weaving a Culture of Civic Life, was published by Routledge in 2024. Andrew’s work has been published in Urban Geography, Antipode, Planning Theory & Practice and the Journal of Planning Education & Research.
 
Prior to coming to Drexel, Andrew worked as cultural asset manager at the University of Pennsylvania, coordinating a series of community based arts interventions including a performing arts venue, art gallery, and artist in residency program. He co-founded the Rotunda, a community arts space that hosts hundreds of free performances and draws over 20,000 people annually. Andrew has served on the boards of Headlong Dance Theater, Kol Tzedek Synagogue, and the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance/Paul Robeson House.

CV [PDF]

BA English and Religious Studies, Penn ‘00
MCP City Planning, Penn, ‘04
PhD Urban Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers ‘13

Zitcer, A (2021). Practicing Cooperation: Mutual Aid Beyond Capitalism. Minnesota, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Diverse Economies and Liveable Worlds series.

Almanzar, S.M. & Zitcer, A. (2020). Time, place, and voice in public art. Lauria, M. & Slotterbeck, C. (Eds.). Learning from Arnstein’s Ladder. New York, NY: Routledge.

Teresa, B., & Zitcer, A. (2020). The specter of the “art-less city”: Locating artists in Philadelphia’s creative economy. Journal of Urban Affairs. Advance online publication.

Zitcer, A., & Almanzar, S.M. (2020). Public art, cultural representation, and the just city. Journal of Urban Affairs. Advance online publication.

Rivero, J., Sotomayor L., Zanotto, J., & Zitcer, A. (2020). Democratic rabble or populist rubble: Repositioning the city in the era of Trump. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Advance online publication.

Zitcer, A., & Dilworth, R. (2019). Grocery cooperatives as governing institutions in neighborhood commercial corridors. Urban Affairs Review. 55(2), 558-590.

Zitcer, A. (2018). Making up creative placemaking. Journal of Planning Education and Research. Advance online publication.

Barry, J., Horst, M., Inch, A., Legacy, C., Rishi, S., Rivero, J. J., ... Zitcer, A. (2018). Unsettling planning theory. Planning Theory, 17(3), 418-348.

Zitcer, A. (2017). Planning as persuaded storytelling: The role of genre in planners’ narratives. Planning Theory & Practice, 18(4), 583-596.

Zitcer, A. (2017). Collective purchase: Food cooperatives and their pursuit of justice. Alkon, A. & Guthman, J. (Eds.) The New Food Activism: Opposition, Cooperation, and Collective Action, 181- 205. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Good, R., Rivero, J., & Zitcer, A. (2017). Confronting the challenge of humanist planning. Planning Theory & Practice, 18(2), 291-318.

Hawkins, J., Vakharia, N., Zitcer, A., & Brody, J. (2017). Positioning for the future: Curriculum revision in a legacy arts administration program. Journal of Arts Management, Law & Society, 47(1), 64-76.

Zitcer, A. (2016). Weavers Way Co-op and Mariposa Food Co-op. Dilworth, R., Borowiak, C., & Reynolds, A. (Eds.). Exploring Cooperatives: Economic Democracy and Community Development in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Madison: University of Wisconsin-Extension Press.

Zitcer, A., Hawkins, J., & Vakharia, N. (2015). A capabilities approach to arts and culture? Theorizing community development in West Philadelphia. Planning Theory & Practice, 17(1), 35-51. Nominated for Association of European Schools of Planning Best Published Paper Prize

Zitcer A. (2015). Food cooperatives and the paradox of exclusivity. Antipode: A Journal of Radical Geography, 47(3), 812-828.

Zitcer A., & Lake, R. W. (2012). Love as a planning method. in What’s Love Got To Do With It? Illuminations on Loving Attachment in Planning. Edited by Porter, L., Sandercock, L., Umemoto, K. Planning Theory & Practice, 13(4), 606-609.

Lake, R. W. & Zitcer, A. (2012). Who says: Authority, voice and authorship in narratives of planning research. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 32(4), 389-399.

Klein, N. & Zitcer, A. (2012). Everything but the chickens: Cultural authenticity onboard the chinatown bus. Urban Geography, 33(1), 46-63. Best Student Paper Award, American Sociological Association Urban and Community Sociology Section, 2013

 

I am an interdisciplinary urban scholar whose research critically examines the dynamics of cultural and economic democracy in cities. By economic democracy, I mean the application of democratic principles to the working of the economy. Cultural democracy is the notion that culture is created by everyone, is a human right, and requires collective endeavor. All my work is grounded in a fundamental commitment to increasing equity, participation, and justice. My research is animated by my longstanding interest in narratives and storytelling, which I honor through qualitative interviewing, observation, and participatory methods, working to give voice to the stakeholders whose stories I am representing. This body of work takes shape across three focus areas: 1) the role of arts and culture in community development; 2) cooperation as social and economic practice; and 3) theoretical explorations of urban planning in pursuit of a just society.

Funded research

Creative Placemaking Financing Research Evaluation (Co-PI) January 2019 - October 2020

• Funding Source: ArtPlace America and Kresge Foundation
• Funding Amount: $65,000

Locating Artists in the Creative Economy (Co-PI) June 2017 - June 2021

• Funding Sources: Drexel Scholarly and Creative Award and Westphal Faculty Grant
• Funding Amount: $12,192 (Drexel) and $2650 (Westphal)

LISC Creative Placemaking Research Evaluation (Program Evaluator) August 2015 - January 2017

• Funding Source: Kresge Foundation, sponsored by Local Initiatives Support Corporation
• Funding Amount: $55,000

Building Demand for the Arts (Co-PI) January 2016 - June 2017

• Funding Source: Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, sponsored by FringeArts
• Funding Amount: $40,000

The Role of Arts & Culture in Underserved Communities (Co-PI) May 2013 - June 2014

• Funding Source: Drexel University Office of Research and the Office of University and Community Partnerships
• Funding Amount: $20,000