James DeFilippis is a professor of urban planning at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. His research focuses on the political economy of cities and communities.  He is particularly interested in the processes of social change, and on questions of power and justice in cities. While his interests are broad, the center of his work has been on questions of community control and building forms of power in poor neighborhoods. He began working on and with efforts for community control over economic development 25 years ago and continues to work with and in support of community land trusts, community development credit unions, worker co-ops and other forms of community control. He is a founding member of the New York City Community Land Initiative and the Western Queens Community Land Trust. He is the author or editor of six books, more than 50 articles and book chapters, and many applied monographs and reports for practitioners and advocates.