About

Jennifer Clark is the Knowlton School Distinguished Professor and Head of the City and Regional Planning Section in the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University. She also holds a courtesy appointment with the Department of Geography. Dr. Clark is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Regional Studies. Her research focuses on regional economic development, urban and regional economic theory, analysis, and practice, as well as research design and methods. She has authored several influential books, including 'Uneven Innovation: The Work of Smart Cities,' which received the 2021 Urban Affairs Association Best Book Award and the 2022 Regional Studies Association Best Book Award, and 'Remaking Regional Economies,' which won the 2009 Regional Studies Association Best Book Award. Her scholarly work has been published in numerous academic venues, and she is recognized as a Fellow of both the American Association of Geographers and the Regional Studies Association. Dr. Clark earned her Ph.D. from Cornell University, a Master’s degree from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. She teaches courses on urban and regional economic development, analysis, practice, and research methods, and has provided expert testimony before the US Congress as well as consulting for the OECD and various governments.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Business
• Sociology
• Economics
• Medicine
• Gerontology
• Geography
• Economic geography
• Public relations
• Marketing
• Medical emergency
• Economic growth
• Virology
• Socioeconomics
• Environmental health
• Food science
• Nursing

Selected publications

• Strengthening democratic governance in times of crisis

  Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l alimentation · 2025-05-09

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Democracy, including processes that govern food systems, are under threat of erosion. Contextualizing and articulating governance challenges is an essential first step. However, it is valuable to look to practices that provide more meaningful ways of engaging non-state actors in government processes. In this commentary, we look at the establishment and activities of the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council (the Council) which has been “learning-by-doing” participatory governance. The Council offers insights into both the strengths and challenges that face participatory governance as well as highlights ways these processes can be strengthened. In such a critical time, it is important to strengthen mechanisms of engagement that both bolster meaningful engagement and accountability between the government and rights holders.

  PublisherDOI

• The Impact of Differential Treatment by Race and Ethnicity on Diet Quality

  Journal of Economics Race and Policy · 2025-08-08

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  There is a growing focus on addressing differential access to resources by race and ethnicity in order to combat the negative impacts of diet-related diseases in the Black and Hispanic communities. A healthy food retail environment is one resource that has been heavily studied, but its role in contributing to the disparity in health outcomes by race and ethnicity is debated. One reason may be that previous food retail environment measures often only account for interaction with the built environment. In contrast, we adapt a household-specific food retail environment measure to include exposure to both the built environment and the people in that environment. Using information from the National Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey and population data from the U.S. Census, we find that the potential for differential treatment by race and ethnicity in the food retail environment is associated with a reduction in the nutritional quality of food acquisitions for Black and Hispanic households. The negative association is larger for households with additional constraints, such as lower income. Our results suggest that additionally considering the social environment where a store is located may increase the effectiveness of healthy food access programs like those in the Healthy Food Financing Initiative.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Finding our way through the fog: embedding social infrastructure in food system resilience

  Agriculture and Human Values · 2025-09-02 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  In this commentary we focus on the significance of social infrastructure for food system resilience by drawing on the insights and experiences from our positions as emergency management practitioners and land-grant university social science food system researchers working with emergency management agencies, food system and food security organizations. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the years since, as a group we have worked in a shared learning model to research and reflect on the lessons we can take from COVID-19 to create more resilient food systems that are better prepared for future shocks, disruptions, emergencies, and disasters. As applied scholars and practitioners, our first goal in this commentary is to synthesize the emergency management and disaster (EMD) and food system literatures with our research examining the on-the-ground experiences shared by emergency management and food security practitioners in Ohio tasked with responding to the COVID-19-induced food systems crisis. Our second goal is to demonstrate the often overlooked, undervalued, and underinvested core role institutional and group social connections and relationships play in effective responses to acute and chronic emergencies and disasters, and how this social infrastructure is the bedrock on which efforts to strengthen food system resilience depend. Finally, we lay out a path forward and articulate the need to value the role of EMD and social infrastructure in food systems resilience funding and public policy priorities.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Social enterprise, food justice, and food sovereignty: Strange bedfellows or systemic supports?

  Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · 2024-02-15 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  There is a debate in the literature about whether one can address food system problems with mar­ket-based approaches while seeking food justice or food sovereignty. However, as part of a team of researchers and community leaders, we have found that this debate is less relevant in practice. The concepts are interrelated within real-world food systems. As such, we were motivated to ask, how do social enterprises (SEs) interact with food jus­tice and food sovereignty movements and their visions in order to realize more democratic and equitable local food systems in communities? To answer this question, we conducted a systematic review at the intersection of SE, food sovereignty, and food justice literature. Analyzing nine articles, which included 17 food-related SEs, we found evi­dence of potential interactions between food SEs, food justice, and food sovereignty that are compat­ible (e.g., create employment) and incompatible (e.g., limited ability to address issues like commu­nity employability and green gentrification). The lit­erature includes at least three important character­istics that inform how food-related SEs may interact with food justice and sovereignty, includ­ing employee and ownership demographics, the enterprise business model, and aspects of the food system targeted by the enterprise via market activi­ties. If we consider a systems perspective, we can envision the ways in which the aspects are embed­ded and interdependent in a neoliberal society. SEs, as market-based agents for social change, exist in the same system as justice and sovereignty.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Relational Infrastructure of Food System Policy Development

  Urban agriculture · 2024-01-01 · 4 citations

  book-chapterOpen access

  Abstract The process of developing food system policies (FSP) that comprehensively address systemic issues requires the inclusion of a diverse array of actors from all parts of the food system. Drawing on literature on collaborative governance, we argue that interpersonal relationships, and the factors that facilitate their development and maintenance, are essential to FSP development. Based on this assertion, we ask: how do interpersonal relationships shape collaborative food systems policy processes? Specifically, we explore: (1) what motivates the emergence of interpersonal relationships in FSP; (2) what are the characteristics of social environments that foster such interpersonal relationships; and (3) what traits/activities foster interpersonal relationships in food systems policy processes. This research draws on qualitative analysis of 26 semi-structured interviews in four preeminent examples of FSP development in the United States identified by Growing Food Connections (GFC), an FSP research group: Seattle, WA; Lawrence/Douglas County, KS; a five-county region in Minnesota; and Marquette County, MI. Following an inductive description of key cross-case themes responding to the previous questions, we discuss the implications of these findings for equity and ethics in FSP development. This discussion highlights that, while equity did not appear as an explicit motivation for developing interpersonal relationships, practices of humble listening by policy practitioners foster inclusive engagement as a basis for equitable collaboration.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Challenging power relations in food systems governance: A conversation about moving from inclusion to decolonization

  Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · 2024-02-29 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  This reflective essay explores power relations, with a particular focus on racialization, that flow through dominant forms of food systems govern­ance, with an aim to create more participatory gov­ernance models. Four of the authors asked a group of five scholars, activists, and practi­tioners (also authors) who identify as Black, Indige­nous or People of Color (BIPOC) to discuss dur­ing a conference session issues of Indigenous food sovereignty, decolonization, Whiteness, and inclu­sivity in food systems governance. This paper pre­sents and analyzes the content of the session, part of the 2021 Global Food Governance Conference. We reflect on common themes from the session and put forth recommendations: encouraging greater inclusion in existing forms of food systems governance, achieving decolonization through cre­ating diverse new governance models, and address­ing the deeper power structures that underpin the dominant food system itself. We also suggest a research agenda, with the “what” of the agenda unfolding from a process of agenda development that centers BIPOC scholarship. The frameworks offered by the panelists are a starting point, as more work is needed to move towards decolo­nizing food systems governance research. Finally, a collaborative agenda must attend to the inextricable links of food systems governance to other funda­mental issues, such as the emerging field of planetary health.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Perspectives of community members on community-based participatory research: A systematic literature review

  Journal of Urban Affairs · 2024-02-07 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access

  Anchor institutions are a part of a complex urban governance regime influencing policy, investment and programming in urban neighborhoods. Anchor land-grant educational institutions are questioning their role in conducting impactful research in and with the community. We find growing evidence of interest in community-based participatory research (CBPR) by universities and funders. Utilizing a systematic literature review we analyze peer-reviewed scholarship on CBPR. While the number of CBPR publications has been on the rise since 2005 and the term CBPR among others is used most frequently across the fields, the trend in the social sciences is lagging. About half of the CBPR literature provides community perspectives, and less than a third was coauthored with community partners. We find community perspectives and voices are more limited in the social sciences. We attribute this phenomenon to funding limitations and the potential for bias in the peer-review process of relevant journals.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Neighbors’ Perceptions of University Engaged “Research”

  Journal of Planning Education and Research · 2024-10-08 · 1 citations

  article

  We investigate community members’ perceptions of their engagement with university researchers’ engaged research conducted in their neighborhoods. Analyzing interviews, first, we find perceptions are not simply developed from singular experiences, personal experiences, or even research experiences. Most interviewees did not, or could not, clearly distinguish engaged research from other university activities. They also regarded the university as a monolith. Second, perceptions were related to broad narratives that endure over time and differed by neighborhood and by racialized group. This implies that university engagement in communities should seek to understand current and historical relationships while setting clear expectations with community members.

  PublisherDOI

• The potential of urban food governance to transform lives, cities, and the planet

  Global Food Security · 2024-03-01 · 16 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Social Equity of Public Participation Environments

  Journal of Social Equity and Public Administration · 2024-01-03 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  To address the lack of research on institutional barriers to public participation, we examine participation environments by studying neighborhood commissions. Using the Strategic Action Field Framework for Implementation Research, we illustrate how city-level policies interact with commissions and organizational-level driving forces to create experiences for citizens. Data were analyzed using structural and elaborative coding and suggest there is value in using the cultural frames of strict father and nurturing parent as an interpretive tool. The strict father frame shapes the environment via norms, policies, and practices, and communicates preferences for citizen identities. Time pressures reinforce this frame. To realize environments that advance social equity, findings reveal that three conditions must be present: a) nurturing parent norms, practices, and policies that are coupled with a consensus on the purpose of participation, b) mutual understanding of past racist policies, and c) trust between actors. Seven propositions are offered for further study.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Shoshanah Inwood

  12 shared

• Darcy A. Freedman

  The Ohio State University

  12 shared

• Jeff S. Sharp

  The Ohio State University

  9 shared

• Bethany A. Bell

  University of Virginia

  7 shared

• Stephanie Pike Moore

  Case Western Reserve University

  7 shared

• Douglas B. Jackson‐Smith

  7 shared

• Samina Raja

  University at Buffalo, State University of New York

  7 shared

• Kristen Lowitt

  Queen's University

  7 shared

Awards & honors

• 2021 Urban Affairs Association Best Book Award
• 2022 Regional Studies Association Best Book Award
• 2009 Regional Studies Association Best Book Award
• Fellow of the American Association of Geographers (AAG)
• Fellow of the Regional Studies Association (RSA)