Lisa Redfield Peattie (1924–2018)[1][2] was an American anthropologist and professor of urban anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1962 Lisa and Roderick Peattie were hired by the Harvard–MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies, under a contract with the Venezuelan government, as project anthropologist and architect respectively, to help plan the city of Guayana, near the junction of the Orinoco and the Caroni rivers in the interior of Venezuela.

She observed directly the effects of the then-new profession of Urban Planning as it was experienced by the planned-upon population; she reported this radicalizing experience in her first popular book: The View from the Barrio.

Lisa Peattie returned to the United States, where she taught urban planning at MIT until her retirement.

[22][23] She also was involved in the Homeless Empowerment Project, and in the creation of "Spare Change News", a street newspaper whose mission is "to present, by our own example, that homeless and economically disadvantaged people, with the proper resources, empowerment, opportunity, and encouragement are capable of creating change for ourselves in society.