Dr Ihnji Jon

Publication

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Research

My current research programme includes green urban development, spatial consequences of circular economy (waste), and politics of knowledge-making. 

Since receiving my interdisciplinary PhD from the University of Washington-Seattle (degree conferred in 2018), I have contributed to knowledge on how to rethink our ethical relationship with more-than-human environments. Through in-depth case studies, my work presented situated accounts of how societies (re)build relationships with nature in the face of extreme weather patterns, climate irregularities, and environmental degradation.

I am the author of Cities in the Anthropocene: New Ecology and Urban Politics (Pluto Press, 2021), which a reviewer called 'a thoughtful and compelling argument for an anti-essentialist ecology that links environmental concerns with inequality and centres the necessary political action in the fertile complexity of cities.' The book uses in-depth case study method (across four cities: Tulsa, Darwin, Cleveland, and Cape Town) on how cities are reconfiguring their relationship with more-than-human environments, looking at how different policy actors (working in the fields of urban planning, environmental conservation, and economic development) mobilise the discourses of 'environmental crises' as a legitimate rationale for new collective social projects. For this work, I conducted semi-structured interviews with 60 policy actors, in addition to site visits and surveys of historical information, projecting new pathways of doing case study research.

Since then, I have worked closely on how concrete environmental problems interact with diverse socio-cultural spheres. My paper 'Bubble Clash: Identity, Environment, and Politics in a Multicultural Suburb' (Dialogues in Urban Research, 2023) presented a case study of a migrant suburb near several waste facility sites. It explored environmental justice issues as well as how tangible environmental problems (such as the sudden increase of the seagull population) invited multicultural communities to come together and collectively address the practical issues at hand. 

I have recently contributed to the emerging dialogues on Polanyian economic geographies, focusing on developing an anthropological, or a 'life-world' approach to understanding economic problems. My article 'Reassembling the politics of “Green” urban redevelopment in East Garfield Park: A Polanyian approach' presented an in-depth case study of neighbourhood change in Chicago, underlining the role of environmental landscapes and their physical materialities as an important factor in land development. 

I continue to work on formulating new visions for future climate politics, particularly focusing on the practices of meaning-making and new value generation in the aftermath of mass consumption and environmental degradation. 

Teaching

I have been contributing to teaching Living with Environmental Change (1st year, ongoing), Property, Urban Development and Regeneration (1st year, ongoing), Infrastructure Development (3rd year, ongoing; module leader), Environment and Development (Master's, ongoing), Foundations in Social Sciences Research (Master's, ongoing), Research Methods (2nd year, 2022/2023, 2023/2024), and Research Dissertation (3rd year, ongoing; module leader).

Teaching accreditation

·       Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, 2023.

Biography

I completed my interdisciplinary PhD at the University of Washington (Seattle; planning and geography), and master's degree at Sciences Po Paris (urban governance and politics). Prior to this post, I was a Lecturer in International Urban Politics at the University of Melbourne; and a Chateaubriand Fellow at École Normale Supérieure (Paris Ulm).

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
• Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy

Supervisions

I am interested in supervising students in sustainable development, environment planning, more-than-human environments, and urban studies.