Institute of Island Studies | Research Associates
Dr. Mark Lapping
Distinguished University Professor Emeritus
Muskie School of Public Service,
University of Southern Maine
Portland, Maine, USA
Dr. Mark Lapping is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, and is most interested in land use and land tenure issues on islands as well as food island systems and sustainability issues.
A planner by profession, Lapping was Founding Dean of the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University prior to joining USM. He also has held leadership posts at the University of Guelph (Ontario), where he founded the School of Rural Planning and Development, and Kansas State University, where he served as Dean of the College of Architecture, Planning, and Design. Author of several books that are “best-sellers” in planning, he also has written well over 150 articles and monographs, and has been on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Planning Association, the Journal of Rural Studies, Agriculture and Human Value, and the Journal of Planning Research and Education.
Research interests: Community and rural planning and development; regional and local economic development; natural resources policy and economics; social capital; democratization; food systems planning and policy.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Democracy and Social Empowerment in Small Island Jurisdictions
Peter E. Buker and Mark Lapping
In Shaping the Future of Small Islands: Roadmap for Sustainable Development, edited by John Laing Roberts, Shyam Nath, Satya Paul, and Yeti Nisha Madhoo.
Palgrave Macmillan | 2021
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The evolution of rural planning in the Global North
Mark B. Lapping and Mark Scott
In The Routledge Companion to Rural Planning, edited by Mark Scott, Nick Gallent, and Menelaos Gkartzios.
Routledge | 2019
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Public Symposium: Sustainable Agriculture and the Island’s Food System
November 2016
Dr. Mark Lapping was our keynote speaker at this event. Panelists were Barry Cudmore (farmer), Mark Bernard (farmer), and Dr. Colleen Walton (Family and Nutritional Sciences, UPEI).
“To most people, food is about growing and consuming food. But a food system is a large set of processes and it is critical to take a wider, systems perspective. Only then might we have a more robust understanding of the ways by which a sustainable agriculture can become part of a larger process of change toward a more nutritious and just life for individuals, families and communities.” – Dr. Mark Lapping
RESEARCH ASSOCIATES | RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS