My Career as a Pragmatist

Abstract

In this article Varady reviews his 46 years of teaching, scholarship, and service in housing policy and community development. His New York City (NY) upbringing led to interests in cities and public policy, which led to degrees in city planning and eventually to receiving his university's highest award for academic excellence. Varady's pragmatism offers realistic solutions, questions long-held attitudes, and seeks objectivity in research. Although he takes ideology seriously, he is not an ideologue. Here he explains how his pragmatic perspective affected his research on neighborhood racial change, public housing, housing vouchers, and middle income housing programs. His career is best measured by the success of his many students who have had the benefi ts of his years of experience in the fi eld of housing research in both America and Europe .

Keywords:

• housing policy
• housing vouchers
• public housing
• neighborhoods
• pragmatism

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dennis Gale, Stanley Gedzelman, and Adrienne Varady for their helpful suggestions. I am also grateful to Onderzoekinstituut (OTB, Research for the Built Environment), Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands), for providing office space and related amenities that enabled me to finalize this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David P. Varady

David P. Varady ([email protected]) is a professor of community planning at the University of Cincinnati (OH). He is the author of six books, nine book chapters, and more than 60 journal articles and 75 book reviews on neighborhood development, segregation, and low-income housing policies. Varady has held visiting scholar positions at Onderzoekinstituut (OTB, Research for the Built Environment), Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands); the City of Helsinki (­Finland); Rutgers University; the University of Glasgow; the National Association of Realtors; and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Since 2005, Varady has been the book review editor for the Journal of Urban Affairs.