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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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Revisiting urban public space through the lens of the 2020 global lockdown, Luger, J., Lees, L. 3 Jul 2022, In: Urban Geography
  • Book Review: Routledge Handbook of Street Culture, Luger, J. 1 Mar 2021, In: Human Geography
  • Book review: Potts, Deborah. 2020: Broken Cities: Inside the Global Housing Crisis, Luger, J. Jul 2021, In: Progress in Development Studies
  • Cafés, cocktail coves, and “empathy walls”: Comparing urban and exurban everyday life through a Lefebvrian lens, Luger, J., Schwarze, T. 1 Dec 2021, In: Geoforum
  • Planetary illiberalism and the cybercity-state: in and beyond territory, Luger, J. 1 Jan 2020, In: Territory, Politics, Governance
  • Planetary public space: Scale, context, and politics, Luger, J., Lees, L. 27 May 2020, Companion to Public Space, London, Taylor & Francis

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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