Call for Papers

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research invites paper (article) submissions for a symposium in a future issue of Cityscape on topics that relate to deceptive practices in the provision of traditional and alternative consumer financial services. Topics might include (but are not limited to)—

• Deceptive mortgage-related practices, including those practices related to underwriting processes, appraisal, servicing, and the foreclosure process.
• Deceptive practices involved in the operation of alternative financial services, such as check-cashing outlets, payday lending, and automobile title lending.
• Other types of financial services that strip households of their wealth.
• Promising practices in consumer financial services for assisting those consumers targeted by abusive financial services practices.

We encourage the authors to submit articles that consider these activities within classical economic, geographic, and urban planning frameworks and within interdisciplinary frameworks. Submission proposals may be theoretical or empirical but must be original work. We strongly encourage articles that address policy implications.

Submit abstracts by August 31, 2014, for review by the editors. If the editors accept the abstracts, authors will need to submit full manuscripts by May 31, 2015. Submissions will be peer reviewed, and authors will be responsible for addressing issues raised by the reviewers. Submit abstracts and direct questions or requests for additional information to Padmasini Raman, at padmasini.s.raman@hud.gov.

The goal of Cityscape is to bring high-quality, original research on housing and community development issues to scholars, government officials, and practitioners. Cityscape is open to all relevant disciplines, including architecture, consumer research, demography, economics, engineering, ethnography, finance, geography, law, planning, political science, public policy, regional science, sociology, statistics, and urban studies.