Dr Jason Luger

Assistant Professor

Department: Geography and Environmental Sciences

I am a Human Geographer and a member of the Social and Cultural Geographies Research Group at Northumbria. My research focuses on the cultures, politics, contestations, and textures of urban space and place.

Previously, I was a lecturer in the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley, where I also directed the post-baccalaureate summer programme in City Planning, [IN]City, in 2019. Other prior academic posts include the Urban Studies programs at the University of San Francisco and San Francisco State University (from 2016-2019), and the UK-US Fulbright Summer Institute at King's College London (from 2012-2014).

My doctoral work explored cultural activism and the role of arts and creative spaces in authoritarian contexts (focusing on Southeast Asia), and the importance of digital space for civil society and grassroots resistance. I conducted fieldwork in Singapore from 2012-2014.

Before moving into academic research, I worked with public and private-sector organizations in urban planning, regeneration, and economic development in the UK, United States, and Australia, and I was an EPSRC Urban Sustainability Fellow with the University of Birmingham and CH2M Hill in 2011-2012. I received an MA in Urban Regeneration and Development from the University of Manchester and BS in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University.

I am currently a committee member of the RGS-IBG Social and Cultural Geography Research Group, Associate Editor of The Journal of Urban Affairs (2021-2026), and an Associate Editor of The Journal of Urban Cultural Studies (since 2017). I am a senior fellow with the Far Right Analysis Network (FRAN), since 2021.

Email Jason

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

My research cuts across urban, political, and cultural geography and explores questions of urban space, place, power, politics, and platforms. In my work I utilize a mix of qualitative methods, including site-based ethnographies in comparative urban settings from Southeast Asia, to the UK and Central Europe, to the United States; as well as digital ethnography and mixed media analyses.

In particular, I focus on:

The nature of urban public space offline and online
The political geographies of authoritarianism and the far right
The relationship between digital platforms and the formation of identity, community, and understandings of place
Representations and understandings of the urban through mixed media, popular culture, film, literature
Cultural activism / creative resistance in comparative urban contexts
Masculinities across changing landscapes

I have authored academic papers and chapters on the above themes, including two edited volumes (2017 and 2022) and an upcoming monograph entitled The Illiberal City: Comparative Urban (Re)actions through Space, Territory, and Culture (Bristol University Press, 2024 expected).

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Leaving post-industrial urban studies behind?, Luger, J., Schwarze, T. 8 Feb 2024, In: Dialogues in Urban Research
Beyond growth management: A review of the wider functions and effects of urban growth management policies, Kirby, M., Scott, A., Luger, J., Walsh, C. 1 Feb 2023, In: Landscape and Urban Planning
“Patriot bros”, the fascist creep, and the spatial fantasies of white nationalist masculinity, Luger, J. 31 Jan 2023, Toxic Masculinity, London, Taylor & Francis
Public Space, Luger, J. 23 Feb 2023, Concise Encyclopedia of Human Geography , Cheltenham, Edward Elgar
Screaming Public Art: Tonalities of Agonism in Planning Politics and Practice, Landau-Donnelly, F., Luger, J. 2023, In: Planning Theory and Practice
Shifting Positionings and Queer Time at the Precipice of Apocalypse, Luger, J. Sep 2023, In: Tijdschrift Voor Economische en Sociale Geografie
Spectacle and Trumpism: An Embodied Assemblage Approach. Jacob C. Miller. Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2021. pp. vi-129. £42.99 hardcover (ISBN 978-1529212501); $15.99 electronic (ISBN 978-1529212525)., Luger, J. 1 Aug 2023, In: The AAG Review of Books
The Deviant Leisure of Gym Bodies, Militarized Branding and Fascistic Creeps, Woolley, D., Luger, J. 8 Apr 2023, Deviant Leisure and Events of Deviance, Cham, Switzerland, Palgrave Macmillan
Celebrations, Exaltations and Alpha Lands: Everyday geographies of the far-right, Luger, J. 1 Jun 2022, In: Political Geography
Questioning Planetary Illiberal Geographies: Territory, Space and Power, Luger, J., Lim, S., Tynen, S., Sood, A., Sziarto, K., Kuge, J., Sparke, M. 30 Dec 2022

PGR Supervision

Gulnar Hasnain Miracles, Myths and Policy Transfer: How do city mayors adopt urban violence reduction policies and what role do the governance structures, the political and non-political stakeholder relationships and the consultation processes involved affect the form they take?’. Start Date: 16/09/2022 End Date: 19/11/2022
Max Martin Odin's Shadow: The Geographies of the Far Right Through a Comparative Urban Framework Start Date: 01/03/2022

Qualifications

Geography PhD June 30 2016

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